Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct
8. INCEST.
586 words | Chapter 80
(Austrian Statutes, § 132; Abridgment, § 189; German Statutes, § 174.)
The preservation of the moral purity of family life is a product of
civilization;[148] and feelings of intense displeasure arise in an
ethically intact man at thought of lustful feeling toward a member of
the same family. Only great sensuality and defective ideas of laws and
morals can lead to incest.
Both conditions may, in tainted families, be operative. Drinking and a
state of intoxication in men; weak-mindedness which does not allow the
development of the feeling of shame, and which, under certain
circumstances, is associated with eroticism in females,—these facilitate
the occurrence of incestuous acts. External conditions which facilitate
their occurrence are due to defective separation of the sexes among the
lower classes.
As a decidedly pathological phenomenon, the author has found incest in
states of congenital and acquired mental weakness, and infrequently in
cases of epilepsy and paranoia.
In many of the cases, probably a majority, it is not possible, however,
to find a pathological basis for the act which so deeply wounds not only
the tie of blood, but also the feeling of a civilized people. But in
many of the cases reported in literature, to the honor of humanity, the
presumption of a psychopathic basis is possible.
In the Feldtmann case (Marc-Ideler, vol. i, p. 18), where a father
constantly made immoral attacks on his adult daughter, and finally
killed her, the unnatural father was weak-minded and, besides,
probably subject to periodical mental disease. In another case of
incest between father and daughter (_loc. cit._, p. 247), the latter,
at least, was weak-minded. Lombroso (_Archiv. di Psichiatria_, viii,
p. 519) reports the case of a peasant, aged 42, who practiced incest
with his daughters, aged, respectively, 22, 19, and 11; he even forced
the youngest to prostitute herself, and then visited her in a brothel.
The medico-legal examination showed predisposition, intellectual and
moral imbecility, and alcoholism.
There was no mental examination in the case reported by Schürmeyer
(_Deutsche Zeitschr. für Staatsarzneikunde_, xxii, H. 1), in which a
mother laid her son of five and a half years on herself, and practiced
abuse with him; and in that given by Lafarque (_Journ. Méd. de
Bordeaux_, 1874), where a girl, aged 17, laid her brother, aged 13,
upon herself, brought about membrorum conjunctionem, and performed
masturbation on him.
The following cases are those of tainted individuals: Magnan (_Ann.
méd.-psych._, 1885) mentions an unmarried woman, aged 29, who, though
indifferent toward other children or even men, suffered frightfully in
the presence of her nephew, and could scarcely control her impulse to
cohabit with him. This sexual peculiarity continued only as long as
the nephew was quite young.
Legrand (_Ann. méd.-psych._, May, 1876) mentions a girl, aged 15, who
seduced her brother into all manner of sexual excesses on her person;
and when, after two years of this incestuous practice, her brother
died, she attempted to murder a relative. In the same article there is
the case of a married woman, aged 36, who hung her open breast out of
a window, and indulged in abuse with her brother, aged 18; and also
the case of a mother, aged 39, who practiced incest with her son, with
whom she was madly in love, became pregnant by him, and induced
abortion.
Through Casper we know that depraved mothers in large cities sometimes
treat their little daughters in a most horrible fashion, in order to
prepare them for the sexual use of debauchees. This crime belongs
elsewhere.
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter