Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct: A medico-legal studyKrafft-Ebing, R. von (Richard)
Science
Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct: A medico-legal study
Krafft-Ebing, R. von (Richard)
Paraphilias
It is only in connection with the numerous cases of masochism, the
existence of which has now been established, and among which there are
so many that are in nowise connected with flagellation, showing the
primary and pure psychical character of this instinct of subjection,—it
is only in connection with these cases that a complete insight into
Rousseau’s case is obtained, and the error detected into which he
necessarily fell in the analysis of his own condition.
Binet (_Revue Anthropologique_, xxiv, p. 256), who analyzes Rousseau’s
case in detail, also justly calls attention to its masochistic
significance, when he says: “Ce qu’aime Rousseau dans les femmes, ce
n’est pas seulement le sourcil froncé, la main levée, le regard sévère,
l’attitude impérieuse, c’est aussi l’état émotionnel, dont ces faits
sont la traduction extérieure; il aime la femme fière, dédaigneuse,
l’écrasant à ses pieds du poids de sa royale colère.”[67]
The solution of this enigmatical psychological fact Binet finds in his
assumption that it is an instance of fetichism, only with the difference
that the object of the fetichism—i.e., the object of individual
attraction (fetich)—is not a portion of the body, like a hand or foot,
but a mental peculiarity. This enthusiasm he calls “_amour
spiritualiste_,” in contrast with “_amour plastique_,” as manifested in
ordinary fetichism.
This deduction is acute, but it gives only a word with which to
designate a fact, not a solution of it. Whether an explanation is
possible will later occupy our attention.
There were also elements of masochism (and sadism) in the celebrated, or
notorious, French writer, C. P. Baudelaire, who died insane.
Baudelaire came of an insane and eccentric family. From his youth he
was mentally abnormal. His vita sexualis was decidedly abnormal. He
had love-affairs with ugly, repulsive women,—negresses, dwarfs,
giantesses. About a very beautiful woman, he expressed the wish to see
her hung up by her hands, and to kiss her feet. This enthusiasm for
the naked foot also appears in one of his glowing poems as the
equivalent of sexual indulgence. He said women were animals who had to
be shut up, beaten, and fed well. The man displaying these masochistic
and sadistic inclinations died of paretic dementia. (Lombroso, “The
Man of Genius.”)
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