1. Masochism, according to my experience, is, under all circumstances, congenital, and never acquired by the individual. I know positively that I was never spanked; that my masochistic ideas were manifested from my earliest youth; and that, as long as I have been capable of thinking, I have had such thoughts. If the origin of them had been the result of a particular event, especially of a beating, I should certainly not have forgotten it. It is characteristic that the ideas were present before there was any libido. At that time the ideas were absolutely sexless. I remember that, when a boy, it affected (not to say excited) me intensely when an older boy addressed me in the second person (_Du_), while I spoke to him in the third (_Sie_). I would keep up a conversation with him, and have the exchange of address take place as often as possible. Later, when I had become more mature sexually, such things affected me only when they occurred with a married woman, and one relatively old. 2. Physically and mentally I am in all respects masculine. I have a superabundant growth of beard, and my whole body is very hairy. In my relations to the female sex that are not masochistic, the dominating position of the man is an indispensable condition, and any attempt to change it would meet with my energetic opposition. I am energetic, if not over-courageous; but the want of courage is not manifest when my pride is injured. I am not sensitive to events in nature (thunder-storms, storms at sea, etc.).[63] Too, my masochistic tendencies have nothing feminine or effeminate about them (?). To be sure, in these the inclination to be sought and desired by the woman is dominant; but the general relation desired with her is not that in which a woman stands to a man, but that of the slave to the master, the domestic animal to its owner. If one regards the ultimate aim of masochism without prejudice, it must be acknowledged that its ideal is the position of a dog or horse. Both are owned by masters, and punished by them; and the masters are responsible to no one. Just this unlimited power of life and death, as exercised over slaves and domestic animals, is the end and aim of all masochistic ideas. 3. The foundation of all masochistic ideas is libido; and as this ebbs and flows, so do the masochistic fancies. On the other hand, as soon as the ideas are present, they greatly intensify the libido. I am by no means excessively sensual naturally. However, when the masochistic ideas occur, I am impelled to coitus at any cost (for the most 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_.