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431-433) presents the case of a neurotic man who from the age of 15 had
been sexually excited by the sight of animals or by contact with them. He
had repeatedly had connection with cows and mares; he was also sexually
excited by sheep, donkeys, and dogs, whether female or male; the normal
sexual instinct was weak and he experienced very slight attraction to
women.
[42] Moll also remarks ("Perverse Sexualempfindung," in Senator's and
Kaminer's _Krankheiten und Ehe_) that in this matter it is often hardly
possible to draw a sharp line between vice and disease.
[43] Instances of this widespread belief--found among the Tamils of Ceylon
as well as in Europe--are quoted from various authors by Bloch, _Beiträge
zur Ætiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, p.
278, and Moll,
_Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, bd. i, p.
700. On the frequency
of bestiality, from one cause or another, in the East, see, e.g., Stern,
_Medizin und Geschlechtsleben in der Türkei_, bd. ii, p.
219.
[44] Sometimes (as among the Aleuts) the animal pantomime dances of
savages may represent the transformation of a captive bird into a lovely
woman who falls exhausted into the arms of the hunter.
(H.H. Bancroft,
_Native Races of the Pacific_, vol. i, p. 93.) A system of beliefs which
accepts the possibility that a human being may be latent in an animal
obviously favors the practice of bestiality.
[45] For an example of the primitive confusion between the intercourse of
women with animals and with men see, e.g., Boas, "Sagen aus
British-Columbia," _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, heft V, p. 558.
[46] Herodotus, Book II, Chapter 46.
[47] Dulare (_Des Divinités Génératrices_, Chapter II) brings together the
evidence showing that in Egypt women had connection with the sacred goat,
apparently in order to secure fertility.
[48] Various facts and references bearing on this subject are brought
together by Blumenbach, _Anthropological Memoirs_, translated by Bendyshe,
p. 80; Block, _Beiträge zur Ætiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II,
pp. 276-283; also Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, seventh edition, p. 520.
[49] Mantegazza mentions (_Gli Amori degli Uomini_, cap V) that at Rimini
a young goatherd of the Apennines, troubled with dyspepsia and nervous
symptoms, told him this was due to excesses with the goats in his care. A
finely executed marble group of a satyr having connection with a goat,
found at Herculaneum and now in the Naples Museum (reproduced in Fuchs's
_Erotische Element in der Karikatur_), perhaps symbolizes a traditional
and primitive practice of the goatherd.
[50] Bayle (_Dictionary_, Art, Bathyllus) quotes various authorities
concerning the Italian auxiliaries in the south of France in the sixteenth
century and their custom of bringing and using goats for this purpose.
Warton in the eighteenth century was informed that in Sicily priests in
confession habitually inquired of herdsmen if they had anything to do with
their sows. In Normandy priests are advised to ask similar questions.
[51] It is worth noting that in Greek the work choiros means both a sow
and a woman's pudenda; in the _Acharnians_ Aristophanes plays on this
association at some length. The Romans also (as may be gathered from
Varro's _De Re Rustica_) called the feminine pudenda _porcus_.
[52] Schurig, _Gynæcologia_, pp. 280-387; Bloch, op.
cit., 270-277. The
Arabs, according to Kocher, chiefly practice bestiality with goats, sheep
and mares. The Annamites, according to Mondière, commonly employ sows and
(more especially the young women) dogs. Among the Tamils of Ceylon
bestiality with goats and cows is said to be very prevalent.
[53] Mantegazza (_Gli Amori degli Uomini_, cap. V) brings together some
facts bearing on this matter.
V.
Exhibitionism--Illustrative Cases--A Symbolic Perversion of Courtship--The
Impulse to Defile--The Exhibitionist's Psychic Attitude-
-The Sexual Organs
as Fetichs--Phallus Worship--Adolescent Pride in Sexual Development--Exhibitionism of the Nates--The Classification of the Forms
of Exhibitionism--Nature of the Relationship of Exhibitionism to Epilepsy.
There is a remarkable form of erotic symbolism--very definite and standing
clearly apart from all other forms--in which sexual gratification is
experienced in the simple act of exhibiting the sexual organ to persons of
the opposite sex, usually by preference to young and presumably innocent
persons, very often children. This is termed exhibitionism.[54] It would
appear to be a not very infrequent phenomenon, and most women, once or
more in their lives, especially when young, have encountered a man who has
thus deliberately exposed himself before them.
The exhibitionist, though often a young and apparently vigorous man, is
always satisfied with the mere act of self-exhibition and the emotional
reaction which that act produces; he makes no demands on the woman to whom
he exposes himself; he seldom speaks, he makes no effort to approach her;
as a rule, he fails even to display the signs of sexual excitation. His
desires are completely gratified by the act of exhibition and by the
emotional reaction it arouses in the woman. He departs satisfied and
relieved.
A case recorded by Schrenck-Notzing very well represents both the
nature of the impulse felt by the exhibitionist and the way in
which it may originate. It is the case of a business man of 49,
of neurotic heredity, an affectionate husband and father of a
family, who, to his own grief and shame, is compelled from time
to time to exhibit his sexual organs to women in the street. As a
boy of 10 a girl of 12 tried to induce him to coitus; both had
their sexual parts exposed. From that time sexual contacts, as of
his own naked nates against those of a girl, became attractive,
as well as games in which the boys and girls in turn marched
before each other with their sexual parts exposed, and also
imitation of the copulation of animals. Coitus was first
practiced about the age of 20, but sight and touch of the woman's
sexual parts were always necessary to produce sexual excitement.
It was also necessary--and this consideration is highly important
as regards the development of the tendency to exhibition--that
the woman should be excited by the sight of his organs. Even when
he saw or touched a woman's parts orgasm often occurred. It was
the naked sexual organs in an otherwise clothed body which
chiefly excited him. He was not possessed of a high degree of
potency. Girls between the ages of 10 and 17 chiefly excited him,
and especially if he felt that they were quite ignorant of sexual
matters. His self-exhibition was a sort of psychic defloration,
and it was accompanied by the idea that other people felt as he
did about the sexual effects of the naked organs, that he was
shocking but at the same time sexually exciting a young girl. He
was thus gratifying himself through the belief that he was
causing sexual gratification to an innocent girl.
This man was
convicted several times, and was finally declared to be suffering
from impulsive insanity. (Schrenck-Notzing, _Kriminal-psychologische und Psycho-pathologische Studien_, 1902,
pp. 50-57.) In another case of Schrenck-Notzing's, an actor and
portrait painter, aged 31, in youth masturbated and was fond of
contemplating the images of the sexual organs of both sexes,
finding little pleasure in coitus. At the age of 24, at a bathing
establishment, he happened to occupy a compartment next to that
occupied by a lady, and when naked he became aware that his
neighbor was watching him through a chink in the partition. This
caused him powerful excitement and he was obliged to masturbate.
Ever since he has had an impulse to exhibit his organs and to
masturbate in the presence of women. He believes that the sight
of his organs excites the woman (Ib., pp. 57-68).
The presence of
masturbation in this case renders it untypical as a case of
exhibitionism. Moll at one time went so far as to assert that
when masturbation takes place we are not entitled to admit
exhibitionism, (_Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, bd. i,
p. 661), but now accepts exhibitionism with masturbation
("Perverse Sexualempfindung," _Krankheiten und Ehe_). The act of
exhibition itself gratifies the sexual impulse, and usually it
suffices to replace both tumescence and detumescence.
A fairly typical case, recorded by Krafft-Ebing, is that of a
German factory worker of 37, a good, sober and intelligent
workman. His parents were healthy, but one of his mother's and
also one of his father's sisters were insane; some of his
relatives are eccentric in religion. He has a languishing
expression and a smile of self-complacency. He never had any
severe illness, but has always been eccentric and imaginative,
much absorbed in romances (such as Dumas's novels) and fond of
identifying himself with their heroes. No signs of epilepsy. In
youth moderate masturbation, later moderate coitus.
He lives a
retired life, but is fond of elegant dress and of ornament.
Though not a drinker, he sometimes makes himself a kind of punch
which has a sexually exciting effect on him. The impulse to
exhibitionism has only developed in recent years.
When the
impulse is upon him he becomes hot, his heart beats violently,
the blood rushes to his head, and he is oblivious of everything
around him that is not connected with his own act.
Afterwards he
regards himself as a fool and makes vain resolutions never to
repeat the act. In exhibition the penis is only half erect and
ejaculation never occurs. (He is only capable of coitus with a
woman who shows great attraction to him.) He is satisfied with
self-exhibition, and believes that he thus gives pleasure to the
woman, since he himself receives pleasure in contemplating a
woman's sexual parts. His erotic dreams are of self-exhibition to
young and voluptuous women. He had been previously punished for
an offense of this kind; medico-legal opinion now recognized the
incriminated man's psychopathic condition. (Krafft-Ebing, _Op.
cit._, pp. 492-494.)
Trochon has reported the case of a married man of 33, a worker in
a factory, who for several years had exhibited himself at
intervals to shop-girls, etc., in a state of erection, but
without speaking or making other advances. He was a hard-working,
honest, sober man of quiet habits, a good father to his family
and happy at home. He showed not the slightest sign of insanity.
But he was taciturn, melancholic and nervous; a sister was an
idiot. He was arrested, but on the report of the experts that he
committed these acts from a morbid impulse he could not control
he was released. (Trochon, _Archives de l'Anthropologie
Criminelle_, 1888, p. 256.)
In a case of Freyer's (_Zeitschrift für Medizinalbeamte_, third
year, No. 8) the occasional connection of exhibitionism with
epilepsy is well illustrated by a barber's assistant, aged 35,
whose father suffered from chronic alcoholism and was also said
to have committed the same kind of offense as his son. The mother
and a sister suffered nervously. From ages of 7 to 18 the subject
had epileptic convulsions. From 16 to 21 he indulged in normal
sexual intercourse. At about that time he had often to pass a
playground and at times would urinate there; it happened that the
children watched him with curiosity. He noticed that when thus
watched sexual excitement was caused, inducing erection and even
ejaculation. He gradually found pleasure in this kind of sexual
gratification; finally he became indifferent to coitus. His
erotic dreams, though still usually about normal coitus, were now
sometimes concerned with exhibition before little girls. When
overcome by the impulse he could see and hear nothing around him,
though he did not lose consciousness. After the act was over he
was troubled by his deed. In all other respects he was entirely
reasonable. He was imprisoned many times for exhibiting himself
to young schoolgirls, sometimes vaunting the beauty of his organs
and inviting inspection. On one occasion he underwent mental
examination, but was considered to be mentally sound. He was
finally held to be a hereditarily tainted individual with
neuropathic constitution. The head was abnormally broad, penis
small, patellar reflex absent, and there were many signs of
neurasthenia. (Krafft-Ebing, _Op. cit._, pp. 490-492.)
The prevalence of epilepsy among exhibitionists is shown by the
observations of Pelanda in Verona. He has recorded six cases of
this perversion, all of which eventually reached the asylum and
were either epileptics or with epileptic relations.
One had a
brother who was also an exhibitionist. In some cases the penis
was abnormally large, in others abnormally small.
Several had
very weak sexual impulse; one, at the age of 62, had never
effected coitus, and was proud of the fact that he was still a
virgin, considering, he would say, the epoch of demoralization in
which we live. (Pelanda, "Pornopatici," _Archivio di Psichiatria_, fasc. ii-iv, 1889.)
In a very typical case of exhibitionism which Garnier has
recorded, a certain X., a gentleman engaged in business in Paris,
had a predilection for exhibiting himself in churches, more
especially in Saint-Roch. He was arrested several times for
exposing his sexual organs here before ladies in prayer. In this
way he finally ruined his commercial position in Paris and was
obliged to establish himself in a small provincial town. Here
again he soon exposed himself in a church and was again sent to
prison, but on his liberation immediately performed the same act
in the same church in what was described as a most imperturbable
manner. Compelled to leave the town, he returned to Paris, and in
a few weeks' time was again arrested for repeating his old
offense in Saint Roch. When examined by Garnier, the information
he supplied was vague and incomplete, and he was very embarrassed
in the attempt to explain himself. He was unable to say why he
chose a church, but he felt that it was to a church that he must
go. He had, however, no thought of profanation and no wish to
give offense. "Quite the contrary!" he declared. He had the sad
and tired air of a man who is dominated by a force stronger than
his will. "I know," he added, "what repulsion my conduct must
inspire. Why am I made thus? Who will cure me?" (P.
Garnier,
"Perversions Sexuelles," _Comptes Rendus_, International Congress
of Medicine at Paris in 1900, _Section de Psychiatrie_, pp.
433-435.)
In some cases, it would appear, the impulse to exhibitionism may
be overcome or may pass away. This result is the more likely to
come about in those cases in which exhibitionism has been largely
conditioned by chronic alcoholism or other influences tending to
destroy the inhibiting and restraining action of the higher
centers, which may be overcome by hygiene and treatment. In this
connection I may bring forward a case which has been communicated
to me by a medical correspondent in London. It is that of an
actor, of high standing in his profession and extremely
intelligent, 49 years of age, married and father of a large
family. He is sexually vigorous and of erotic temperament. His
general health has always been good, but he is a high-strung,
neurotic man, with quick mental reactions. His habits had for a
long time been decidedly alcoholic, but two years ago, a small
quantity of albumen being found in the urine, he was persuaded to
leave off alcohol, and has since been a teetotaller.
Though
ordinarily very reticent about sexual matters, he began four or
five years ago to commit acts of exhibitionism, exposing himself
to servants in the house and occasionally to women in the
country. This continued after the alcohol had been abandoned and
lasted for several years, though the attention of the police was
never attracted to the matter, and so far as possible he was
quietly supervised by his friends. Nine months after, the acts of
exhibitionism ceased, apparently in a spontaneous manner, and
there has so far been no relapse.
Exhibitionism is an act which, on the face of it, seems nonsensical and
meaningless, and as such, as an inexplicable act of madness, it has
frequently been treated both by writers on insanity and on sexual
perversion. "These acts are so lacking in common sense and intelligent
reflection that no other reason than insanity can be offered for the
patient," Ball concluded.[55] Moll, also, who defines exhibitionism
somewhat too narrowly as a condition in which "the charm of the exhibition
lies for the subject in the display itself," not sufficiently taking into
consideration the imagined effect on the spectator, concludes that "the
psychological basis of exhibitionism is at present by no means cleared
up."[56]
We may probably best approach exhibitionism by regarding it as
fundamentally a symbolic act based on a perversion of courtship. The
exhibitionist displays the organ of sex to a feminine witness, and in the
shock of modest sexual shame by which she reacts to that spectacle, he
finds a gratifying similitude of the normal emotions of coitus.[57] He
feels that he has effected a psychic defloration.
Exhibitionism is thus analogous, and, indeed, related, to the
impulse felt by many persons to perform indecorous acts or tell
indecent stories before young and innocent persons of the
opposite sex. This is a kind of psychic exhibitionism, the
gratification it causes lying exactly, as in physical
exhibitionism, in the emotional confusion which it is felt to
arouse. The two kinds of exhibitionism may be combined in the
same person: Thus, in a case reported by Hoche (p.
97), the
exhibitionist an intellectual and highly educated man, with a
doctor's degree, also found pleasure in sending indecent poems
and pictures to women, whom, however, he made no attempt to
seduce; he was content with the thought of the emotions he
aroused or believed that he aroused.
It is possible that within this group should come the agent in
the following incident which was lately observed by a lady, a
friend of my own. An elderly man in an overcoat was seen standing
outside a large and well-known draper's shop in the outskirts of
London; when able to attract the attention of any of the
shop-girls or of any girl in the street he would fling back his
coat and reveal that he was wearing over his own clothes a
woman's chemise (or possibly bodice) and a woman's drawers; there
was no exposure. The only intelligible explanation of this action
would seem to be that pleasure was experienced in the mild shock
of interested surprise and injured modesty which this vision was
imagined to cause to a young girl. It would thus be a
comparatively innocent form of psychic defloration.
It is of interest to point out that the sexual symbolism of active
flagellation is very closely analogous to this symbolism of exhibitionism.
The flagellant approaches a woman with the rod (itself a symbol of the
penis and in some countries bearing names which are also applied to that
organ) and inflicts on an intimate part of her body the signs of blushing
and the spasmodic movements which are associated with sexual excitement,
while at the same time she feels, or the flagellant imagines that she
feels, the corresponding emotions of delicious shame.[58] This is an even
closer mimicry of the sexual act than the exhibitionist attains, for the
latter fails to secure the consent of the woman nor does he enjoy any
intimate contact with her naked body. The difference is connected with the
fact that the active flagellant is usually a more virile and normal person
than the exhibitionist. In the majority of cases the exhibitionist's
sexual impulse is very feeble, and as a rule he is either to some degree a
degenerate, or else a person who is suffering from an early stage of
general paralysis, dementia, or some other highly enfeebling cause of
mental disorganization, such as chronic alcoholism.
Sexual feebleness is
further indicated by the fact that the individuals selected as witnesses
are frequently mere children.
It seems probable that a form of erotic symbolism somewhat
similar to exhibitionism is to be found in the rare cases in
which sexual gratification is derived from throwing ink, acid or
other defiling liquids on women's dresses. Thoinot has recorded a
case of this kind (_Attentats aux Moeurs_, 1898, pp.
484, _et
seq._). An instructive case has been presented by Moll. In this
case a young man of somewhat neuropathic heredity had as a youth
of 16 or 17, when romping with his young sister's playfellows,
experienced sexual sensations on chancing to see their white
underlinen. From that time white underlinen and white dresses
became to him a fetich and he was only attracted to women so
attired. One day, at the age of 25, when crossing the street in
wet weather with a young lady in a white dress, a passing vehicle
splashed the dress with mud. This incident caused him strong
sexual excitement, and from that time he had the impulse to throw
ink, perchloride of iron, etc., on to ladies' white dresses, and
sometimes to cut and tear them, sexual excitement and ejaculation
taking place every time he effected this. (Moll,
"Gutachten über
einem Sexual Perversen [Besudelungstrieb],"
_Zeitschrift für
Medizinalbeamte_, Heft XIII, 1900). Such a case is of
considerable psychological interest. Thoinot considers that in
these cases the fleck is a fetich. That is an incorrect account
of the matter. In this case the white garments constituted the
primary fetich, but that fetich becomes more acutely realized,
and at the same time both parties are thrown into an emotional
state which to the fetichist becomes a mimicry of coitus, by the
act of defilement. We may perhaps connect with this phenomenon
the attraction which muddy shoes often exert over the
shoe-fetichist, and the curious way in which, as we have seen (p.
18), Restif de la Bretonne associates his love of neatness in
women with his attraction to the feet, the part, he remarks,
least easy to keep clean.
Garnier applied the term _sadi-fetichism_ to active flagellation
and many similar manifestations such as we are here concerned
with, on the grounds that they are hybrids which combine the
morbid adoration for a definite object with the impulse to
exercise a more or less degree of violence. From the standpoint
of the conception of erotic symbolism I have adopted there is no
need for this term. There is here no hybrid combination of two