Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct
4. A man, aged 64; married; father of fourteen children. Great
5561 words | Chapter 61
predisposition. Rachitic, microcephalic head. For years he had been an
exhibitionist, in spite of repeated punishment.
Case 169. X., merchant, born in 1833; single. He had repeatedly
exhibited himself to children, or even urinated at the same time;
once, under these circumstances, he had kissed a little girl, driving
her away. Twenty years previously X. had had a severe attack of mental
disease, lasting two years, in which he is said to have had an
apoplectic attack. Later, after loss of his fortune, he gave himself
to drink, and of late years had often appeared absent-minded. His
condition was that of alcoholism, senium præcox, and mental weakness.
Penis small; phimosis; testicles atrophic. Proof of mental disease;
pardoned. (Dr. Schuchardt, _op. cit._)
Such cases recall the lasciviousness of youthful, sexuallyexcited
persons that are still more or less boyish; but also that of many mature
cynics of low morality, who find pleasure in defiling the walls of
public closets, etc., with drawings of male and female genitals,—a kind
of ideal exhibition which, however, is still widely separated from
actual exhibition.
Another category of exhibitionists is made up of epileptics. This
category is essentially to be distinguished from the foregoing, in that
a conscious motive for the exhibition is wanting; and it appears much
more like an impulsive act which, without any consideration of external
circumstances, is performed as if it were an abnormal organic necessity.
At the time of the act there is always a state of imperfect
consciousness; and thus is explained the fact that the unfortunate
individual, without consciousness of the meaning of his act, or, at
least, without cynicism, does it in obedience to a blind impulse. On
regaining consciousness, he regrets and abhors it if there is not
permanent mental weakness.
The prime motive in this state of imperfect consciousness, as with other
impulsive acts, is a feeling of apprehensive oppression. If a sexual
feeling become associated with it, then the ideas are given a certain
direction in the sense of a corresponding (sexual) act.
How sexual ideas very easily arise temporarily in epileptics may be
understood from the discussion under “Epilepsy.”
If, however, such an association has once been formed; if a particular
act has taken place in an attack,—it is the more easily repeated in
every subsequent attack; for, so to speak, a known tract has been
established in the path of motivity.
The feeling of anxiety, with the state of imperfect consciousness,
causes the associated sexual impulse to appear as a command,—an inner
force, which is acted upon in a purely impulsive manner and in a state
of absolute irresponsibility.
Case 170. K., a subordinate official, aged 29; of neuropathic family;
living in happy marriage, and the father of one child. He has
repeatedly, especially at dusk, exhibited himself to servant-girls. K.
is tall, slim, pale, nervous, and hasty in manner. _There is imperfect
memory of the crimes._ Since childhood there have been frequent severe
congestive attacks, with intense flushing of the face, a rapid, tense
pulse, and a fixed, absent stare. At the same time there were, now and
then, confusion and vertigo. In this (epileptic) exceptional state K.
would answer only after repeated questioning, and then _it was as if
he were waking from a dream_. K. states that he has always felt
excited and restless for some hours before his criminal acts, and
experienced a feeling of fear, with oppression, and congestion of the
head. In this condition he had often been giddy, and experienced an
indistinct feeling of sexual excitement. At the height of such states
he had left the house, without any purpose in view, and exposed his
genitals anywhere. When he had reached home again, he had had but a
dreamy remembrance of what had occurred, and felt very weak and
depressed. It is also remarkable that, while exhibiting his genitals,
he had used lighted matches to make them visible. The opinion was to
the effect that the criminal acts depended upon epilepsy, and were
imperative impulses; but he was, nevertheless, sentenced, with the
assumption of extenuating circumstances. (Dr. Schuchardt, _op. cit._).
Case 171. L., aged 39; single; tailor. His father was probably a
drinker; he had two epileptic brothers, one of whom was insane. The
patient himself has slight epileptic attacks, and from time to time
states of imperfect consciousness, in which he runs about aimlessly,
and thereafter does not know where he has been. He was considered a
moral man, but he is now accused of having exhibited and played with
his genitals in a strange house five or six times. His memory of these
acts was very imperfect.
On account of repeated desertion from the army (probably likewise in
epileptic states of imperfect consciousness), L. had been severely
punished. In imprisonment he became insane with “epileptic insanity,”
was sent to the Charité, and from there discharged “cured.” As far as
the criminal acts were concerned, cynicism and wantonness could be
excluded. That they were committed in a state of imperfect
consciousness is probable from the fact, among other things, that to
the policeman who arrested him, the “imbecile,” who was then in a
cloudy state of consciousness, was in a remarkable mental state.
(Liman, _Vierteljahrsschrift f. ger. Med._, N. F. xxxviii, H. 2.)
Case 172. L., aged 37. From October 15th to November 2d, he had many
times given offense, by exhibiting himself to girls in daylight on the
open street, and even in schools, into which he forced himself. It
happened occasionally that he wanted the girls to perform
manustupration or allow coitus, and, when refused, he performed
masturbation before them. In G., in a public-house, he rapped on the
window, with his penis exposed, so that the children and servant-girl
in the kitchen were forced to see it.
After his arrest it was ascertained that since 1876 L. had very
frequently caused trouble by exhibitions, but had always escaped
punishment, owing to the demonstration of mental disease by
physicians. On the other hand, he had been punished for desertion and
theft in the army, and, later, once, as a civilian, for stealing
cigars. L. had repeatedly been in asylums on account of insanity
(attacks of insanity). Besides, he was often remarkable on account of
his changeable, quarrelsome character, occasional excitement, and
inconstancy.
L.’s brother died of paralysis. He himself presents no degenerative
signs; no epileptic antecedents. During the time of observation he is
neither insane nor mentally weakened. He behaves himself very well,
and expresses great regret for his sexual crimes. About himself he
states that, though no drinker, he occasionally has an impulse to
drink. Soon after beginning, congestion of the head, vertigo,
restlessness, anxiety, and oppression come on. He then passes into a
dreamy state. An irresistible impulse now forces him to expose
himself; and he then experiences a feeling of relief and breathes more
easily. When he has once exposed himself, he knows nothing more of
what he does. As precursors of such attacks, he had often, a short
time before, had flames before the eyes, and vertigo. For the time of
his clouded state of consciousness, he had but a clouded, dreamy
memory.
It was only after a time that sexual ideas and impulses had become
associated with these apprehensive, cloudy states of consciousness.
Years ago, in such states, without motive and with great danger, he
had deserted; once he had jumped from a third-story window; on another
occasion he had left a good position to wander about aimlessly in a
neighboring country, where he was at once arrested for exhibition.
When, outside of his abnormal periods, L. once became intoxicated,
there was no exhibition. In the lucid state his sexual feeling and
intercourse are perfectly normal. (Dr. Hotzen, _Friedreich’s Blätter_,
1890, H. 6). For other instances, _vide_ Cases 153, 155.
A clinical group that very nearly approaches the epileptic
exhibitionists is made up of certain neurasthenic individuals, in whom,
likewise, there may occur attacks (epileptoid?) of imperfect
consciousness[129] in connection with a feeling of apprehensive
oppression; and with this sexual impulses may be associated, resulting
in acts of exhibition having an impulsive character.
Case 173. Dr. S., academic teacher, had aroused public indignation by
being seen repeatedly running about in the Zoological Garden at
Berlin, before ladies and children, with his genitals hanging out. S.
admitted this, but denied all thought or consciousness of causing
public offense, and excused himself by saying that his running about
with exposed genitals afforded him relief from nervous excitement.
Mother’s father was insane, and died by suicide; his mother was
constitutionally neuropathic, a somnambulist, and had been temporarily
insane. The culprit was neuropathic, had been a somnambulist, and had
had continuous aversion to sexual intercourse with females. In his
youth he practiced onanism. He was a neurasthenic man, shy, torpid,
and easily became embarrassed and confused. He was sexually always
much excited. Frequently he dreamed that he was running about with
exposed genitals, or that, dressed only in a shirt, he hung from a
fence with his head downward, so that the shirt fell down, exposing
his erected penis. His dreams would induce pollution, and he would
then have rest for a few days or an entire week.
Also, in his waking state, the impulse would often come upon him, just
as in his dreams, to run about with exposed genitals. As he was about
to expose himself, he would become very hot, and then he would run
aimlessly about. The member would become moist with secretion, but
pollution was never induced. Finally, when it had become flaccid, he
would put it up, and then come to himself, glad if no one had seen
him. In such conditions of excitement he seemed to be in a dream; as
if intoxicated. He had never had the intention to offend women. S. was
not epileptic. His declarations had the impress of truth. He had
actually never followed or spoken to women while in this condition.
Frivolity and coarseness were excluded. In agreement with Westphal,
the author regards S. as belonging “to a class of individuals of
peculiar hypochondriacal tendencies, in whom the attention is
constantly directed, in an abnormal way, to certain bodily sensations
and processes; who brood over these, connecting all kinds of peculiar
conceptions with them, at last making use of quite as strange means to
combat the bodily sensations and ideas.” At least, S.’s act was due to
pathological sensation and idea, and S. was in a condition of
pathological disturbance of mental action at the time of the
commission of his acts. In the case of this exhibitionist, the manner
of satisfaction of the sexual instinct may be considered as peculiar
to the individual. (Liman, _Vierteljahrsschrift für gerichtel. Med._,
N. F. xxxviii, Heft 2.)
Case 174. X., aged 38; married; father of one child. Always sullen and
silent. Suffers frequently with headache. Very neurasthenic, though
not insane. He is troubled much at night by pollutions. He has
repeatedly followed shop-girls, for whom he had lain in wait, exposing
and handling his genitals. In one case he even followed a girl into a
shop. (Trochon, _Arch. de l’anthropologie criminelle_, iii, p. 256.)
In the following case the exhibition seems subsidiary to the impulsive
desire to satisfy sudden, intense libido, by means of masturbation:—
Case 175. R., coachman, aged 49, Vienna; married since 1866;
childless. Father neuropathic and given to sexual excesses; died of
cerebral disease. He presents no degenerative signs.
At the age of twenty-nine he suffered a severe concussion by falling
from a height. Up to that time the vita sexualis had been normal.
Since that time, every three or four months, he has been seized with
very painful sexual excitement, accompanied by an intense desire to
masturbate. A feeling of weariness and discomfort, with a desire for
alcoholic indulgence, precedes this. In the intervals he is sexually
cold, and has but very infrequent desire for his wife, who, moreover,
for five years has been sick, and incapable of cohabitation. He gives
the assurance that, as a young man, he never masturbated, and that, in
the intervals between his attacks, he has never thought of satisfying
himself sexually in this way.
The impulse to masturbation during the attack is always excited by
certain feminine charms,—short cloak, pretty foot and ankle, elegant
appearance. Age makes no difference; even little girls excite him. The
impulse is sudden and unconquerable. R. describes the situation and
act as characteristically impulsive. He had often tried to resist it;
but then he would grow hot, terribly frightened, his head would burn,
and he would seem to be in a fog; but he never lost consciousness. At
the same time he would have violent, darting pain in the testicles and
spermatic cords. He regretted it, but had to confess that the impulse
was stronger than his will. In such a situation it forced him to
masturbate, no matter where he might be. After ejaculation he would
become calm, and regain his self-control. He regarded it as a terrible
affliction. Defense shows that R. has been punished six times for
similar offenses—exhibition and masturbation in the open street.
On November 4, 1889, R., while in his worst condition, happened to be
in the street as a crowd of school-girls went by. This awakened his
unconquerable impulse. There was not time to run to a closet, he was
so excited. There was immediate exhibition, masturbation in front of a
house,—great scandal and immediate arrest. R. is not weak-minded, and
has no ethical defect. He bemoans his fate, deeply regrets his act,
and fears new attacks. He regards his condition as abnormal,—as a fate
against which he is powerless.
He thinks himself still virile. Penis abnormally large. Cremasteric
reflex present; patellar reflex increased. Weakness of the sphincter
of the bladder, that has existed for some years. Various neurasthenic
difficulties.
The opinion showed that R. was subject to the influence of abnormal
conditions, and had acted impulsively. Patient was sent to an asylum,
from which he was discharged after a few months.
In the foregoing case the important point, clinically, lies not in the
neurosis that is present, but rather in the impulsive character of the
act (exhibition dependent on masturbation).
With the enumeration of the categories of imbeciles, of mentally
weakened individuals, and of the exhibitionists that are in a neurotic
(epileptic or neurasthenic) state of imperfect consciousness, apparently
the clinical and forensic side of this phenomenon is still unexhausted;
in addition to these, there is another class, the representatives of
which, owing to deep hereditary taint (hereditary degenerative
neurosis?), are impelled to periodical and very impulsive exhibition.
With reference to these conditions of psychopathia sexualis periodica
(comp. “Periodical Insanity”), in which the accidentally-awakened
impulse to exhibition is but a partial manifestation of a clinical
whole, like dipsomania periodica, Magnan, from whom I borrow the
following instructive cases, justly lays the greatest stress upon the
impulsive, periodical feature of these abnormal impulses; and no less
upon the fact that they are often accompanied by terrible anxiety,
which, after the realization of the impulse, gives place to a feeling of
relief.
These facts, and no less, the clinical picture of degeneracy that, for
the most part, is referable to injurious conditions that are hereditary,
or that exercise an injurious effect on the development of brain in
early years (rachitis, etc.), are, medicolegally, of decisive importance
[with reference to the question of responsibility].
Case 176. G., aged 29, waiter in a _café_. In 1888, while standing
under a church-door, he exhibited himself to several girls working
opposite. He confessed the act, and also that, many times, in the same
place and at the same time of day, he had been guilty of the same
crime, having been punished for it, the year before, with imprisonment
for one month.
G. has very nervous parents. His father is mentally unstable and very
irascible. His mother is at times insane, and suffers with severe
nervous disease.
G. has always had nervous twitching of the face, and constant
alternation of causeless depression, with tædium vitæ, and periods of
elation. At the ages of ten and fifteen, for slight cause, he wished
to commit suicide. When excited, he has similar twitching of the
extremities. He presents constant general analgesia. In prison he was
at first beside himself with shame about the disgrace he had brought
on his family, and said he was the worst of men, deserving the
severest punishment.
Until his nineteenth year G. had satisfied himself with solitary and
mutual masturbation, and, on one occasion, he had practiced onanism
with a girl. From that time, working in a _café_, the female customers
had excited him so intensely that ejaculation was often induced. He
suffered with almost constant priapism, and, as his wife stated, in
spite of coitus, it often disturbed his rest at night. For seven years
he had repeatedly exhibited himself at his window, and also exposed
himself naked to female neighbors living opposite.
In 1883 he married out of desire. Marital intercourse did not satisfy
his needs. At times his sexual excitement was so intense that he had
headache, and seemed confused, like one drunk, strange, and incapable
of work.
Case 177. B., aged 27; of neuropathic mother and alcoholic father. He
has one brother who is a drinker; and an hysterical sister.
After his eleventh year, onanism, solitary or mutual. After his
fifteenth year, impulses to exhibition. He attempted it at a
street-urinal; he felt pleasure in it, but also immediately twinges of
conscience. If he attempted to oppose his impulse thereafter, he
became apprehensive, and had a feeling of oppression in his chest.
When a soldier, he was often impelled to expose himself, under various
pretexts, to his comrades.
After his seventeenth year he had sexual congress with women. It gave
him great pleasure to show himself naked before them. He continued his
exhibition on the street. Since he could but infrequently count on
female spectators at urinals, he changed his place to churches. In
order to exhibit himself at such places, he always had to strengthen
his courage by drinking. Under the influence of spirits, the impulse,
at other times controllable with difficulty, became irresistible. He
was not sentenced. He lost his position, and then drank more. Not long
after, he was again arrested for exhibition and masturbation in a
church.
Case 178. X., aged 35; barber’s assistant. Repeatedly punished for
offense against decency, he is again arrested; for, during three
weeks, he had been hanging around girls’ schools, trying to attract
the attention of the pupils, and, when he had succeeded in this, had
exhibited himself. Occasionally he had promised them money, with the
words, “Habeo mentulam pulcherrimam, venite ad me ut eam lambatis.” At
his examination X. confessed everything, but did not know how it had
come about. He was the most reasonable of men in other respects, but
had the impulse to commit this crime, and could not overcome it.
In 1879, when in the army, he was once out on leave, and had run
around exhibiting himself to children: imprisonment for a year. The
same crime in 1881. He chased the crying children, and “stared” at
them: imprisonment of one year and three months. Two days after his
discharge, he said to two little girls: “If you want to see my tail,
come with me to this (market) booth.” He denied these words, and
claimed drunkenness: imprisonment for three months.
In 1883, renewed exhibition; during the act he said nothing. At his
examination he stated that, since a severe illness, eight years
previously, he had suffered with such excitations: imprisonment for
one month.
In 1884, exhibition before girls in a church-yard; again in 1885. He
declared: “I understand my crime, but it is like a disease. When it
comes over me, I cannot keep from such acts. It sometimes happens
that, for quite a long time, I am free from these inclinations.”
Imprisonment for six months.
Discharged on August 12, 1885, he had a relapse on August 15. The same
excuse was given. This time he underwent medical examination. The
examination revealed no mental disturbance. Sentenced to three years.
After discharge, a series of new exhibitions. On this occasion,
examination revealed the following:—
His father suffered with chronic alcoholism, and is said to have been
guilty of the same crime. Mother and sister nervously ill, and the
whole family of excitable temperament.
_From his seventh to his eighteenth year X. suffered with epileptic
convulsions._ First cohabitation at sixteen; later, gonorrhœa and, it
is stated, syphilis. After that, normal sexual intercourse until his
twenty-first year. At that time he often had to pass a play-ground,
and he occasionally had to urinate there; and it happened that the
children looked at him, out of curiosity.
He noticed, occasionally, that this looking at him caused him sexual
excitement, and induced erection, and even ejaculation. He now found
more pleasure in this kind of sexual gratification, and became
indifferent about coitus, satisfying himself only in this manner. He
felt that all his thought was ruled by this, and he dreamed only of
exhibitions, with pollutions. His attempts to control his impulse
became more and more ineffectual. It came over him with such force
that he noticed nothing around him, and saw and heard nothing, and was
like one “devoid of reason,”—like “a bull trying to butt his head
through a wall.”
X. has an abnormally broad head. Small penis; the left testicle
deformed. Patellar reflex absent. Symptoms of neurasthenia, especially
cerebral. Frequent pollutions. For the most part, his dreams are about
normal coitus, only infrequently about exhibition before little girls.
With reference to his sexual acts, he states that the impulse to seek
and approach little girls is primary; only when he has succeeded in
attracting their attention to his exposed genitals do erection and
ejaculation occur. He does not lose consciousness in the act. After it
he is troubled about his deed, and, if undiscovered, says to himself,
“Once more I have escaped the authorities.”
In prison he did not have the impulse; there, he was troubled only
with dreams and pollutions. In freedom he had daily sought opportunity
to satisfy himself with exhibition. He would give ten years of his
life to be free from the thing; “this life of constant anxiety, this
alternation between freedom and imprisonment, is unendurable.”
The opinion assumed a congenital (?) perversity of the sexual
instinct, with unmistakable hereditary taint, neuropathic
constitution, asymmetry of cranium, and defective development of the
genitals.
It is also worthy of remark _that the exhibition began when the
epilepsy ceased; so that one might think of a vicarious phenomenon_.
The sexual perversity developed, with predisposition, through
accidental association of ideas of sexual content (children looking at
him while urinating) with an act that, in itself, was purposeless.
The patient was not sentenced, but sent to an asylum. (Dr. Freyer,
_Zeitschr. f. Medicinalbeamte_, 3 Jahrg., No. 8.)
Case 179. At 9 o’clock at night, in the spring of 1891, a lady, in
great trepidation, came to the policeman in the city park of X., with
the statement that a man, absolutely naked in front, had approached
her from the bushes, and she had run away, frightened. The officer
went at once to the place indicated, and found a man, who exposed
ventrem et genitalia nuda. He attempted to escape, but was overtaken
and arrested. He stated that he had been sexually excited by alcohol,
and had been on the point of going to a prostitute. On his way through
the park, however, he recalled the fact that exhibition gave him much
greater pleasure than was afforded him by coitus, in which he seldom,
and only _faute de mieux_, indulged. After drawing up his shirt, he
posted himself in the bushes, and, when two women came up the path, he
approached them with exposed genitals. In such exhibition he had a
pleasurable feeling of warmth, and the blood mounted to his head.
The accused works in a manufactory, and his employer states that he is
faithful, saving, sober, and intelligent.
In 1886 B. had been punished because he had twice exhibited himself
publicly,—once in broad daylight, and once at night, under a lamp.
B., aged 37, single, makes a peculiar impression, owing to his
dandified dress and affected manner. His eyes have a neuropathic,
languishing expression; around his mouth plays a smile of
self-satisfaction. He is said to come of healthy parents. A sister of
his father, and one of his mother, were insane. Others of their
relatives were thought religiously eccentric.
B. has never had any severe illness. From childhood he was eccentric
and imaginative. He loved romances about knights and others, was
entirely absorbed by them, and even went so far as to identify himself
in fancy with the heroes. He always thought himself a little better
than others, and thought much of elegant dress and ornament; and when
he strutted about on Sundays, he imagined himself a high official.
B. has never had epileptic symptoms. In youth, moderate indulgence in
masturbation; later, moderate indulgence in coitus. Previously, never
any perverse sexual feelings or impulses. Retired manner of life; in
leisure hours, reading (popular novels, heroic tales, Dumas, and
others). B. was no drinker. Exceptionally he made himself a kind of
punch, by which he was always excited sexually.
For some years, with marked decrease of libido, after such alcoholic
indulgence, he had had “accursedly silly thoughts,” and developed the
desire genitalia adspectui feminarum publice exhibere.
If he got into this state, he felt warm, his heart beat violently,
blood rushed to his head, and he could then no longer resist his
impulse. He heard and saw nothing more, and was absolutely absorbed in
his lust. Afterward he had often pounded his crazy head with his
fists, and firmly resolved never to do such a thing again; but the
crazy ideas had always returned.
In his exhibition his penis became only half-erected, and ejaculation
never occurred; even in coitus it was always tardy. In exhibition he
was satisfied with genitalia sua adspicere, and he had the lustful
thought that this sight must be very pleasant to women, since he liked
so much to see genitalia feminarum. He was capable of coitus only when
the puella showed herself very partial to him; without this, he
preferred rather to pay and go without doing anything. In his dreams
he exhibited himself to young, voluptuous women.
The medico-legal opinion recognized the hereditary psychopathic
character of the culprit, and the perverse, impulsive desire to
perform the incriminating acts; and pointed out, further, the
remarkable fact that in B., who was otherwise sober and saving, the
impulses to indulge in alcohol depended on abnormal conditions that
recurred periodically, and forced him to indulge. That, during his
attacks, B. was in an exceptional psychical state, in a kind of mental
confusion, and absolutely absorbed in his perverse sexual fancy, is
clearly shown by the _species facti_. Thus is explained the fact that
he became aware of the approach of the police only when it was too
late to try to escape. In this hereditary and degenerate impulsive
exhibitionism, it is interesting to note how the perverse sexual
impulse is awakened from its latency by the influence of alcohol.
A forensically important variety of exhibition, which, clinically,
certainly rests upon a similar neurotic and degenerate foundation, and
which expresses itself in a peculiar act, conditioned by violent libido
(hyperæsthesia sexualis), associated with diminished virility, is made
up of the so-called _frotteurs_.
The three following cases, borrowed from Magnan (_op. cit._), are
typical:—
Case 180. D., aged 44, hereditarily predisposed, drinker, and
suffering with lead poisoning. Until the last year he had masturbated
much, and often drawn pornographic pictures, and shown them to his
acquaintances. He had repeatedly dressed himself as a woman in secret.
For two years, since becoming impotent, he had felt desire, while in
crowds at dusk, mentulam denudare eamque ad nates mulieris crassissimæ
terere. Once, when discovered in the act, he had been sentenced to
imprisonment for four months.
His wife kept a milk-shop. Iterum iterumque sibi temperare non potuit
quin genitalia in ollam lacte completam mergeret. In the act he felt
lustful pleasure, “as if touched with velvet.” He was cynical enough
to use this milk for himself and the customers. During imprisonment
alcoholic persecutory insanity developed in him.
Case 181. M., aged 31; married six years; father of four children;
badly predisposed; subject to melancholia at times. Three years
before, he was discovered by his wife with a silk dress on,
masturbating. One day he was discovered, in a store, in the act of
_frottage_ on a lady. He was very repentant, and asked to be severely
punished for his irresistible impulse.
Case 182. G., aged 33; badly predisposed hereditarily. At an
omnibus-station he was discovered in the act of _frottage_ with his
penis on a lady. Deep repentance; but he stated that at the sight of a
noticeable posteriora of a lady, he was irresistibly impelled to
practice _frottage_, and that he became confused and knew not what he
did. Sent to an asylum.
Case 183. A _frotteur_. Z., born in 1850; of blameless life
previously; of good family; private official. He is well-to-do
financially; untainted. After a short married life he became a
widower, in 1873. For some time he had attracted attention in
churches, because he crowded up behind women, both old and young
indifferently, and toyed with their tournures. He was watched, and one
day he was arrested in the act. Z. was terribly frightened, and in
despair about his situation; and, in making a full confession, he
begged for pardon, for nothing but suicide remained for him.
For two years he had been subject to the unhappy impulse to go in
crowds of people,—in churches, at box-offices of theatres, etc,—and
press up behind females and manipulate the prominent portion of their
dresses, having orgasm and ejaculation during the act.
Z. states that he was never given to masturbation, and had never been
in any way perverse sexually. Since the early death of his wife, he
had gratified his great sexual desire in temporary love-affairs,
having always had an aversion for prostitutes and brothels. The
impulse to _frottage_ had suddenly seized him, two years before, while
he happened to be in church. Though he was conscious that it was
wrong, he could not help yielding to it immediately. Since then he had
been excitable to the posteriora of females, and had been actually
impelled to seek opportunity for _frottage_. The only thing on women
that excited him was the tournure; every other part of the body and
attire was a matter of indifference to him; and it made no difference
to him whether the woman was old or young, beautiful or ugly. Since
this began, he had had no more inclination for natural gratification.
Of late _frottage_ scenes had appeared in his dreams. During his acts
he was fully conscious of his situation and the act, and tried to
perform it in such a way as to attract as little attention as
possible. After his act he was always ashamed of what he had done.
The medical examination revealed no sign of mental disease or mental
weakness, but symptoms of neurasthenia sexualis,—ex abstinentia
libidinosi (?),—which was also proved by the circumstance that even
simple touching of the fetich with the unexposed genitals sufficed to
induce ejaculation. Apparently Z., weakened sexually and distrusting
his virility, and yet libidinous, had come to practice _frottage_ by
having the sight of posteriora feminæ fall together accidentally with
sexual excitement; and this associative combination of a perception
with a feeling permitted the former to attain the significance of a
fetich.
As an act which offends public morals, and which is, therefore,
punishable, the violation of statues—a whole series of cases of which
Moreau (_op. cit._) has collected from ancient and modern times—may be
enumerated here. They are, unfortunately, given too much like anecdotes
to allow satisfactory judgment of them. They always give the impression
of being pathological,—like the story of a young man (related by
Lucianus and St. Clemens, of Alexandria) who made use of a Venus of
Praxiteles for the gratification of his lust; and the case of Clisyphus,
who violated the statue of a goddess in the Temple of Samos, after
having placed a piece of meat on a certain part. In modern times, the
_Journal L’événement_ of March 4, 1877, relates the story of a gardener
who fell in love with a statue of the Venus of Milo, and was discovered
attempting coitus with it. At any rate, these cases stand in etiological
relation with abnormally intense libido and defective virility or
courage, or lack of opportunity for normal sexual gratification.
The same thing, must be assumed in the case of the so-called
_voyeurs_,[130]—_i.e._, men who are so cynical that they seek to get
sight of coitus, in order to assist their virility; or who seek to have
orgasm and ejaculation at the sight of an excited woman. Concerning this
moral aberration, which, for various reasons, cannot be further
described here, it will suffice to refer to Coffignon’s book, “La
Corruption à Paris.” The revelations, in the domain of sexual
perversity, and also perversion, which this book makes, are horrible.
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter