part I
am driven to the lowest women); and if these impulses are not soon obeyed, libido soon becomes almost satyriasis. One is almost justified in looking upon this as a _circulus vitiosus_.
Libido occurs either in the course of time, or as the result of especial excitement (also of a kind that is not masochistic,—_e.g._, kissing). In spite of its manner of origin, this libido, by virtue of the masochistic ideas it engenders, is soon transformed into a masochistic and impure libido.
Moreover, there is no doubt that external, accidental impressions,
## particularly loitering in the streets of a large city, greatly
intensify the desire. The sight of beautiful and imposing female forms, _in nature_ as well as in art, is exciting. For those subject to masochism,—at least during the attacks,—the whole external world becomes masochistic. The box on the ear administered by the teacher to the pupil and the crack of the driver’s whip make deep impressions on the masochist, while they leave him indifferent or annoy him when he is not in the masochistic state.
4. An example of masochistic ideas follows: “She” is a peasant woman,—a rough, tall, large-boned woman of forty or fifty years. She is the possessor of a small, remote farm, which she works with the help of her slave alone. The work begins before sunrise. At four o’clock in the morning she opens the shed where she has kept me shut up over night, and wakens me, as I lie on the ground, with a kick; then she leads me out and harnesses me to a milk-cart bound for town. She leads me by a halter, and urges me along. On the road she gets on the heavily-loaded wagon, and sleeps until the destination is reached. There, in the open market-place of the town, still harnessed to the wagon, I lie down on the bare ground to rest. Those passing knock against me or step on me, without giving me any attention. After the stock is sold, we start homeward. After a short rest the work begins again, always under the direction of the mistress, who holds me by the halter and urges me on. At seven or eight o’clock at night I am put up to rest, and sleep until the next morning, when the same thing begins again. Work and blows, blows and work; no pleasure, no recreation, day in and day out!
Another time I fancy myself in the _rôle_ of a paid lover of an elderly female _roué_, who makes use of me, sexually, in the most reckless manner; and in this direction makes the most shameful demands on me. If I do not submit to these willingly, I am beaten and punished; and, at the same time, she despises me unspeakably; gives me the lowest housework to do; and on every occasion shows me how low an opinion she has of my manhood.
I cannot clothe the character of masochism in any better formula than the following: A real masochist, without reflection, prefers the kick of a low woman to the embrace of a Venus.
5. In reading Sacher-Masoch, it struck me that in masochists, now and then, there was also an undercurrent of sadistic feeling. Too, I have now and then discovered in myself sporadic feelings of sadism. I must remark, however, that the sadistic feelings are not so marked as the masochistic; and that, aside from the fact that they are infrequently accessory, the sadistic fancies never leave the sphere of abstract feeling, and, above all, never take the form of concrete, connected ideas (like those above mentioned). The effect on libido, however, is the same with both.
If this case is remarkable on account of the complete development of the psychical state that constitutes masochism, the following one is noteworthy because of the great extravagance of the acts resulting from the perversion. The case is also particularly suited to make clear the reason for the subjection and humiliation at the hands of the woman, and the peculiar sexual coloring of the resulting situations:—
Case 51. _Masochism._—Mr. Z., official, aged 50; tall, muscular, healthy. He is said to come of healthy parentage, but his father was thirty years older than his mother. A sister, two years older than Z., suffers with delusions of persecution. There is nothing remarkable in Z.’s external appearance. Skeleton entirely masculine; abundant beard, but no hair on trunk. He characterizes himself as a man of sanguine temperament, whom no one can depress; though irascible and quick-tempered, he is quick to regret outbursts.
Z. says he has never masturbated. From his youth there have been nightly pollutions, in which girls play a part; but the sexual act, never. For example, he dreams that a pleasing woman lies heavily on him, or that, as he lies sleeping on the grass, she playfully walks up his back. Z. had always been averse to coitus with a woman. This act seemed animal to him. Nevertheless, he was drawn to women. It was only in the society of beautiful women and girls that he felt well and in his place. He was very gallant without being forward.
A voluptuous woman of beautiful form, and particularly with a pretty foot, when seated, had the power to throw him into intense excitement. He was impelled to offer himself as a chair, in order “to offer so much devotion.” A kick, a box on the ear from her, would be heaven to him. He had a horror at the thought of coitus with her. He felt the need to serve the woman. He thought how ladies liked to ride. He reveled in the thought of how fine it would be to be wearied by the burden of a beautiful woman, in order to give her pleasure. He painted the situation in all colors; thought of the beautiful foot armed with spurs, the beautiful legs, and the soft, full thighs. Every beautiful mature woman, every pretty female foot, always excited his imagination; but he never betrayed the peculiar feelings that seemed to him abnormal, and was able to control himself. But he felt no need to fight against them; on the contrary, it would have hurt him had he been compelled to give up the feelings that had become so dear to him.
At the age of thirty-two Z. happened to make the acquaintance of an attractive woman, aged twenty-seven, who had been separated from her husband, and whom he found in need. He took her, and worked for her, without any selfish motive, for months. One evening she impatiently demanded sexual satisfaction from him, and almost used violence. Coitus was successful. Z. took the woman, lived with her, and indulged in coitus moderately; but coitus was more a burden than a pleasure; erections became weak, and he could no longer satisfy the woman. She finally declared that she would not have intercourse with him, because he only excited without satisfying her. Though he loved the woman very much, he could not give up his peculiar fancies. After this he lived with her only in friendly relations, and deeply regretted that he could not serve her in the way she desired.
Fear of how she would receive his propositions, and a feeling of shame, kept him from confessing. He found a substitute in his dreams. Thus, for example, he dreamed that he was a proud, fiery steed, ridden by a beautiful lady. He, felt her weight, the bit he had to obey, the pressure of the thighs on his flanks; he heard her beautiful, joyous voice. The exertion threw him into a perspiration; the touch of the spurs did the rest, and always induced pollution with great lustful pleasure. At other times be dreamed that he was a small, weak horse. Then a large, heavy woman came and mounted the horse, and set off on a long journey in the mountains. Recklessly, and without mercy, she allowed the poor animal to feel her weight; she made herself comfortable on his back; while he threatened to give out under her, she had the greatest enjoyment, and with calm mind enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Under the influence of such dreams, seven years ago Z. overcame his reluctance, in order to experience such things in reality. He was successful in creating suitable opportunity. He speaks of it as follows: “I knew how to arrange it so that on an occasion she would, of her own will, seat herself on my back. Then I endeavored to make this situation as pleasant as possible, and easily made it so that on the next occasion she said, spontaneously: ‘Come, give me a little ride!’ Swelling with pride, and with both hands braced on a chair, I made my back horizontal, and she mounted astride, after the manner of a man. I then did the best I could to imitate the movements of a horse, and loved to have her treat me like a horse, without any thought of _me_. She could beat, prick, scold, or caress me, just as she felt inclined. I could carry on my back persons weighing from sixty to eighty kilos, for half or three-quarters of an hour, without interruption. At the end of this time I usually asked for a rest. During this the intercourse between the mistress and me was perfectly harmless and without any relation to what had preceded. After about a quarter of an hour I was always rested, and placed myself at the disposal of the mistress again. When time and circumstances allowed it, I did this three or four times in succession. It sometimes happened that I practiced it both in the morning and afternoon. After it I never felt weary or had any uncomfortable feeling; but on such days I had very little appetite. When possible, I liked best to bare my trunk, that I might feel the rider more perfectly. The mistress had to be decent. I liked her best in pretty shoes and stockings, with short, closed drawers, reaching to the knee; with the upper portion of her person completely dressed, and with hat and gloves.”
Mr. Z. further says that he has not performed coitus in seven years; but he thinks he is potent. The riding was a perfect substitute for that “animal act,” even when ejaculation was not induced.
For eight months Z. had determined to give up his masochistic play, and had kept his determination. But he thought that if a woman only half-way pretty were to address him directly, and say, “Come, I want to ride you,” he would not be strong enough to withstand the temptation. Z. wishes to know whether his abnormality is curable; whether he is unworthy as a vicious man, or an invalid deserving pity.
The following case seems very similar:—
Case 52. A man finds satisfaction in the following manner: Occasionally he goes to a puella publica. Here he has a porcelain ring, like those used in hanging curtains, put on his penis. Two cords are attached to the ring and drawn backward between his legs and attached to the bedstead. Then he tells the woman to beat him mercilessly with a whip and cry “whoa” to him constantly, and treat and abuse him as if he were an unruly horse. The more the woman spurs him on to pull, with shouts and blows, the greater his sexual excitement becomes. Erection occurs (probably mechanically favored by compression of the dorsal vein of the penis, which, when the cords are strained, must be closed by the pressure of the hard ring). With increasing erection, the whole member is compressed by the ring, and finally ejaculation occurs, with lustful feeling.
Even in the foregoing series of cases, with other things, the act of being walked upon has played a _rôle_ as a means of expressing the masochistic situations of humiliation and pain. The exclusive and most extensive use of this means for perverse excitation and satisfaction is shown in the following classical case of masochism, which Hammond reports (_op. cit._, p. 28) from an observation by Dr. Cox,[64] of Colorado:—
Case 53. X., a model husband, very moral, the father of several children, has times—_i.e._, attacks—in which he visits brothels, chooses two or three of the largest girls, and shuts himself up with them. He bares the upper portion of his body, lies down on the floor, crosses his hands on his abdomen, closes his eyes, and then has the girls walk over his naked breast, neck, and face, urging them at every step to press hard on his flesh with the heels of their shoes. Sometimes he wants a heavier girl, or some other act still more cruel than this procedure. After two or three hours he has enough. He pays the girls with wine and money, rubs his blue bruises, dresses himself, pays his bill, and goes back to his business, only to give himself the same strange pleasure again after a few weeks.
Occasionally it happens that he has one of the girls stand on his breast; and the others then turn her around until his skin is torn and bleeding from the turning of the heels of her shoes. Frequently one of the girls has to stand on him in such a way that one shoe is over the eyes, with its heel pressing on one eye, while the other rests across his neck. In this position he endures the pressure of a person weighing about one hundred and fifty pounds for four or five minutes. _The author speaks of dozens of similar cases that are known to him._ Hammond presumes, with reason, that this man had become impotent for intercourse with women; that, in this strange procedure, he found an equivalent for coitus; and that, when the heels drew blood, he had pleasant sexual feelings, accompanied by ejaculation.
The ten cases of masochism thus far described, and the numerous analogous cases mentioned by those who report them, form a counterpart to the previously described group “_c_” of sadism. Just as in sadism men excite and satisfy themselves by maltreating women, so in masochism the same effect is sought in the passive reception of similar abuse. But group “_a_” of the sadists,—that of lust-murder,—strange as it may seem, is not without its counterpart in masochism. In its extreme consequences, masochism must lead to the desire to be killed by a person of the opposite sex, in the same way that sadism has its acme in active lust-murder. But the instinct of self-preservation opposes such a result; so that the extreme is not actually carried out. When, however, the whole structure of masochistic ideas is purely psychical, in the imagination of such individuals, even the extreme may be reached; as the following case shows:—
Case 54. A middle-aged man, married and the father of a family, who has always led a normal vita sexualis, but who says he comes of a very nervous family, makes the following communication: In his early youth he was powerfully excited sexually at the sight of a woman slaughtering an animal with a knife. From that time, for many years, he had reveled in the lustfully-colored idea of being stabbed and cut and even killed by women with knives. Later, after the beginning of normal sexual intercourse, these ideas lost completely their perverse stimulus for him.
This case should be compared with the statements made under Case 44, according to which men find sexual pleasure in being lightly pricked with knives in the hands of women, who, at the same time, threaten them with death.
Such fancies, perhaps, give the key to an understanding of the following strange case, for which I am indebted to a communication from Dr. Körber, of Rankau:—
Case 55. A lady makes me the following communication: While still a young and innocent girl, she was married to a man of about thirty years. On their wedding-night he forced a towel and soap into her hands, and, without any other expression of love, wanted her to lather his chin and neck (as if for shaving). The inexperienced young wife did it, and was not a little astonished, during the first weeks of married life, to learn its secrets in absolutely no other form. Her husband always told her that it gave him the greatest delight to have his face lathered by her. Later, after she had sought the advice of friends, she induced her husband to perform coitus, and had three children in the course of time (by him, she states with every assurance). The husband is industrious and reliable, but a moody man, with little perseverance; by occupation a merchant.
It may be inferred that this man conceived the act of being shaved (_i.e._, the lathering as a preparatory measure) as a rudimentary, symbolic realization of ideas of injury or death, or of fancies about knives; like those the man previously mentioned had had in his youth, and by means of which he had been sexually excited and satisfied. The perfect sadistic counterpart to this case, looked upon in this light, is offered by Case 35, which is a case of symbolic sadism.
At any rate, there is a whole group of masochists who satisfy themselves with the symbolic representations of situations corresponding with their perversion; a group that corresponds with group “_e_” of “symbolic” sadists, just as the previously mentioned cases of masochism correspond with the groups “_c_” and “_a_” of sadism. Thus, just as the perverse longings of the masochist may, on the one hand, advance to “passive lust-murder” (to be sure, only in imagination); so, on the other hand, they may be satisfied with simple symbolic representations of the desired situations, which otherwise are expressed in acts of cruelty (this, of course, taken objectively, goes much further than the idea of being murdered, but in fact not so far, owing to the determining subjective conditions).
With Case 55, other similar cases should be here described, in which the acts desired and planned by the masochist have a purely symbolic character, and, to a certain extent, serve to indicate the desired situation.
Case 56. (Pascal, “Igiene dell’ amore.”) Every three months a man of about forty-five years would visit a certain prostitute, and pay her ten francs for the following act. The puella had to undress him, tie his hands and feet, bandage his eyes, and draw the curtains of the windows. Then she would have her guest sit down on a sofa, and had to leave him there alone. After half an hour she had to come back and unbind him. Then the man would pay her and leave perfectly satisfied, to repeat his visit in about three months.
In the dark this man seems to have extended this situation, of being helpless in the hands of a woman, further in imagination. The following case, in which again a complicated comedy, in the sense of masochistic desires, is played, is still more peculiar:—
Case 57. (Dr. Pascal, _ibid._) A gentleman in Paris was accustomed to call on certain evenings at a house where a woman, the owner, acceded to his peculiar desire. He entered the _salon_ in full-dress, and she, likewise in evening _toilette_, had to receive him with a very haughty manner. He addressed her as “Marquise,” and she had to call him “dear Count.” Then he spoke of his good fortune in finding her alone, of his love for her, and of a lover’s rendezvous. At this the lady had to feel insulted. The pseudo-count grew bolder and bolder, and asked the pseudo-marquise for a kiss on her shoulder. There is an angry scene; the bell is rung; a servant, prepared for the occasion, appears, and throws the count out of the house. He departs well satisfied, and pays the actors in the farce handsomely.
In connection with this case of symbolic masochism, two more are here given, in which the psychical perversion was entirely confined to the sphere of thought and imagination, and no realization was attempted. The first is that of an individual, mentally and physically predisposed, bearing degenerative signs, in whom mental and physical impotence occurred early:—
Case 58. Mr. Z., aged 22, single, was brought to me by his father for medical advice, because he was very nervous and apparently abnormal sexually. Mother and maternal grandmother were insane. His father begat him at a time when he was suffering severely nervously.
Patient is said to have been a very lively and talented child. At the age of seven he was noticed to practice masturbation. After his ninth year he became inattentive, forgetful, and did not progress in his studies, constantly requiring help and protection. With difficulty he got through the Gymnasium, and during his time of freedom had attracted attention by his indolence, absent-mindedness, and various foolish acts.
Consultation was occasioned by an occurrence on the street, in which Z. had forced himself on a young girl in a very impetuous manner, and in great excitement had tried to have a conversation with her.
The patient gave as a reason, that, by conversing with a respectable girl, he wished to excite himself so that he could be potent in coitus with a prostitute!
His father characterizes him as a man of perfectly good disposition, moral, but lazy, and dissatisfied with himself; as one often in despair about his want of success in life; as indolent, and interested in nothing but music, for which he possesses great talent.
The patient’s exterior—his plagiocephalic head; his large, prominent ears; the deficient innervation of the right facialis about the mouth; the neuropathic expression of the eyes—indicates a degenerate, neuropathic individual.
Z. is tall, of powerful frame, and, in all respects, of masculine appearance. Pelvis masculine; testicles well developed; penis remarkably large; mons veneris with abundant hair. The right testicle hangs much lower than the left; the cremasteric reflex is weak on both sides. The patient is below the average intellectually. He feels his deficiency, complains of his indolence, and asks to have his will strengthened. His awkward, embarrassed manner, timid glances, and relaxed attitude, point to masturbation. The patient confesses that from his seventh year, until a year and a half ago, he practiced it, years at a time, from eight to ten times daily. Until a few years ago, when he became neurasthenic (cephalic pressure, loss of mental power, spinal irritation, etc.), he says he always found great sensual pleasure in it. Since then this had been lost, and the desire to masturbate had disappeared. He had constantly grown more bashful and indolent, less energetic, and more cowardly and apprehensive. He had lost interest in everything, and did his business only from a sense of duty, feeling very low-spirited. He had never thought of coitus, and, from his stand-point as an onanist, he could not understand how others could find pleasure in it.
Investigations in the direction of contrary sexual instinct gave a negative result. He says he never was drawn toward persons of his own sex; he rather thinks that he has now and then had a weak inclination for females. He asserts that he came to masturbate independently. In his thirteenth year he first noticed ejaculations as a result of masturbatic manipulations.
It was only after long persuasion that Z. consented to entirely unveil his vita sexualis. As his statements, which follow, show, he may be classified as a case of ideal masochism, with rudimentary sadism. The patient distinctly remembers that, at the age of six, without any cause, he had “ideas of violence.” He was compelled to imagine that a servant-girl spread his legs apart and showed his genitals to another; that she tried to throw him into cold or hot water, in order to cause him pain. These “ideas of violence” were attended with lustful feeling, and became the cause of masturbatic manipulations. Later the patient called them up voluntarily, in order to incite himself to masturbation. They also played a part in his dreams; but they never induced pollution, apparently because the patient masturbated excessively during the day.
In time, to these masochistic “ideas of violence,” others of a sadistic nature were added. At first they were scenes in which boys forcibly practiced onanism on one another, or cut off the genitals. He often imagined himself such a boy, now in an active, now in a passive, _rôle_. Later he busied himself with mental pictures of girls and women that exhibited themselves to one another. He reveled in the thought, for example, of a servant-girl spreading another girl’s legs apart and pulling the genital hair; or in the thought of boys treating girls cruelly, and pricking and pinching their genitals.
Such ideas also always induced sexual excitement, but he never experienced any impulse to carry them out actively or to have them performed on himself passive. It satisfied him to use them for masturbation. Since a year and a half ago, with diminishing sexual imagination and libido, these ideas and impulses had become infrequent, but their content remained unchanged. The masochistic “ideas of violence” predominated over the sadistic. Now, when he sees a lady, he has the thought that she has sexual ideas like his own. In this way, in part, he explains his embarrassment in social intercourse. Owing to the fact that he had heard that he would get rid of his burdensome sexual ideas, if he were to accustom himself to natural sexual indulgence, during the last year and a half he has twice attempted coitus though he only experienced repugnance, and was not confident of success. On both occasions the attempt was a fiasco. The second time he made the attempt, he felt such aversion that he pushed the girl away and fled.
The second case is the following one, placed at my disposal by a colleague. Even though it be aphoristic, it seems particularly suited to throw a clear light on the distinctive element of masochism,—the consciousness of subjection, in its peculiar psycho-sexual effect:—
Case 59. _Masochism._—Z., aged 27, artist. He is powerfully built, of pleasing appearance, and is said to be free from hereditary taint. Healthy in youth, since his twenty-third year he has been nervous and inclined to be hypochondriacal. Though inclined to indulgence sexually, he is not very virile. In spite of associations with females, his relations with them are limited to innocent attentions. At the same time, his desire to devote himself to women that are cold toward him is remarkable. Since his twenty-fifth year he has noticed that females, no matter how ugly, always excite him sexually, whenever he discovers anything domineering in their character. An angry word from the lips of such a woman is sufficient to give him the most violent erections. Thus, one day, he sat in a _café_ and heard the (ugly) female cashier scold the waiters in a loud voice. This threw him into the most intense sexual excitement, which soon induced ejaculation. Z. requires the women, with whom he is to have sexual intercourse, to repulse and annoy him in various ways. He thinks that only a woman like the heroines of Sacher-Masoch’s romances could charm him.
Cases like this, in which the whole perversion of the vita sexualis is confined to the sphere of imagination,—to the inner world of thought and instinct,—and only accidentally comes to the knowledge of others, do not seem to be infrequent. Their _practical_ significance, like that of masochism in general (which has not the great forensic importance of sadism), is confined to the psychical impotence to which such individuals, as a rule, become subject; and to the intense impulse to solitary indulgence, with adequate imaginary ideas, and its results.
That masochism is a perversion of uncommonly frequent occurrence is sufficiently shown by the relatively large number of cases that have thus far been studied scientifically, as well as by the agreement of the various statements reported.
The works concerning prostitution in large cities also contain numerous statements concerning this matter.
Léo Taxil (_op. cit._, p. 228) describes masochistic scenes in Parisian brothels. The man affected with this perversion is there also called “slave.”
Coffignon (“La corruption à Paris”) has a chapter in his book entitled “Les Passionels,” which contains contributions to this subject.
It is interesting and worthy of mention, that one of the most celebrated of men was subject to this perversion, and describes it in his autobiography (though somewhat erroneously). From “Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions” it is evident that he was affected with masochism.
Rousseau, with reference to whose life and malady Möbius (“J. J. Rousseau’s Krankengeschichte,” Leipzig, 1889) and Chatelain (“La folie de J. J. Rousseau,” Neuchatel, 1890) may be consulted, tells, in his “Confessions” ( part i ,