The Sexual Instinct and its Morbid Manifestations from the Double Standpoint of Jurisprudence and Psychiatry/General

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

THE genesic instinct presents itself in the human being previous to the development of sexual maturity, and in a healthy organism finds expression in an impulse towards persons of the opposite sex, an impulse which soon changes into a voluntary desire for the accomplishment of the sexual act which, as it becomes more developed, may attain to the degree of a continual sexual want.

Among anomalies of the genesic functions perversity of the genesic instinct shows itself most distinctly in. a morbid inclination towards persons of the same sex. Among men, who form more exclusively the subject of the present research, this form of sexual perversity is designated by the comprehensive expression of "Pederasty Bestiality and Sodomy are, as we shall see further on, no more than variations of the above-mentioned abnormal genesic impulse.

The pederastic manifestations constitute the more definite and better studied group of sexual aberrations, as they are more often the subject of judicial investigation; and for this reason the most prominent place is given in the present work to Pederasty in the widest sense of the expression.

But this vice must not be isolated in this study, without considering also its connection with the other forms and kinds of perversion of sexual activity, which we shall therefore also touch upon, as much as may be necessary for the elucidation of the subject.

As Pederasty is developed under the influence of very different causes, it must, as all other aberrations of the genesic sense, be distributed from the clinical and etiological points of view into several groups and kinds, differing considerably one from another.

The morbid manifestations of sexual activity separate first of all into two great groups, according as they develop in such subjects as are from their birth disposed to such aberrations and to nervous disorders of all sorts, or on the other hand, show themselves in persons, relatively healthy, and who are not under the influence of hereditary infirmity.

In the first group the disorder of the genesic functions is to be referred to a psychopathic or neuropathic constitution ; whereas in the second group we have to do with individuals, who from their birth have always enjoyed a properly constituted and normally acting nervous system.

The morbid symptoms again resulting from hereditary infirmity also show themselves under different forms.

In some cases they present themselves with the very first awakening of the genesic instinct, and in their development remain refractory to the influence of education or example, attain their greatest intensity in the period of sexual maturity and manhood, and subsist during the rest of the lifetime, with periodical diminution or increase.

These aberrations are in their nature constant and invariable, special to the particular organism, in precisely the same way as other innate peculiarities of character feeling or morality are special to the same individual.

The said disturbances constitute the first kind of hereditary infirmity, which we will denominate in general innate Perversion of the sexual instinct; and in this group we shall class innate Pederasty.

To the second division of the same group belong such modifications of the genesic activity as now and then show themselves nolens volens in the form of morbid attacks, which are separated by intervals, during which the sexual functions are performed in a normal manner.

The denomination periodical Perversion of the genesic sense in general, and periodical Pederasty in particular, appears to me best to represent the morbid disturbances in question, because they are in perfect analogy with the so-called periodical psychoses (mental disturbances), those higher manifestations of psychical degeneracy, a degeneracy manifesting itself in occasional outbursts of mental disturbance, while there are long intervals between the attacks during which the mental powers exhibit a relatively normal activity.

In a third class of genesic disturbances I reckon those disorders which show themselves in the well-known morbid manifestations known under the general name of Epilepsy. During the mental disturbance incidental to this malady, there may be exhibited a sort of psychical epilepsy, in the form of an epileptic pederasty.

I regard as paroxysmal phenomena analogous to hysteria and mania those morbid manifestations of the genesic sense that are observed in the so-called erotomania and satyriasis. The description of the last named forms the termination of the group of sexual perturbations founded on hereditary infirmity.

The second group includes all those aberrations of the genesic activity, that may be the result of education or example, or come spontaneously from personal impulse, as the expression of vicious propensity, or of wilful depravity.

The expression : u Acquired Perversion" of the sexual functions and acquired Pederasty answers best in our opinion to the class included in the above group.

This group also contains sundry subdivisions consisting of such perturbations of the sexual functions as are the symptom of a developing disease of the nervous centres, or of the entire organism a disease that attacks subjects who from their birth have had a healthy, well constituted brain.

Among these are to be reckoned the sexual perversions peculiar to the decrepitude of old age Senile Pederasty; and again the sexual aberrations observed during the initial period of paralytic idiocy Paralytic Pederasty.

Every student of nature knows, that the division into groups and species based on any particular symptom is purely conventional and artificial, and serves only to facilitate research without being grounded on any immovable, unchangeable organic foundation. The same holds good with the grouping proposed by me. It must needs undergo modifications as life goes on; the various kinds and types little by little dissolve into each other, becoming mutually complicated one with the other, acquire new, fresh shades of colouring and form, according to the composite forms of genesic aberration, which will be described as a separate group.

I have further analysed the objective symptoms, which enable one to form an opinion on the pederastic perversion of the sexual activity, and which must needs constitute the basis of any special medico-judicial investigation.

Finally, I have endeavoured to determine the data which may serve to establish a differential diagnosis of the different groups and classes of sexual aberrations. We shall begin by describing the forms of sexual aberrations most frequently encountered.