Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct: A medico-legal study — John Shaqi
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
In sexual desire, love, the expectation of unbounded happiness is the
primary element. The feeling of dependence is of secondary
development. The nucleus of this feeling exists in both parties, but
it may remain undeveloped in one. As a rule, owing to her passive part
in procreation and social conditions, it is more pronounced in woman;
but exceptionally this is true of men having minds that approach the
feminine type.
In both the religious and sexual spheres love is mystical,
transcendental. In sexual love the real purpose of the instinct, the
propagation of the species, does not enter into consciousness; and the
strength of the desire is greater than any that consciousness of
purpose could create. In religion, however, the good sought and the
object of devotion are of such nature that they cannot become a part
of empirical knowledge. Therefore, both mental processes give
unlimited range to the imagination.
But both have an immortal object, in as far as the bliss which the
sexual sentiment creates in fancy seems incomparable and infinite in
contrast with all other pleasurable feelings; and the same is true of
the promised blessings of faith, which are conceived to be eternal and
supreme.
From the correspondence between the two states of consciousness, with
reference to the commanding importance of their objects, it follows
that they both often attain an intensity that is irresistible, and
which overcomes all opposing motives. Owing to their similarity in
that their objects cannot be attained, it follows that both easily
degenerate into silly enthusiasm, in which the intensity of feeling
far surpasses the clearness and constancy of the ideas. In both cases,
in this enthusiasm, with the expectation of a happiness that cannot be
attained, the necessity of unconditional submission plays a part.
Owing to the correspondence in many points between these two emotional
states, it is clear that when they are very intense the one may take
the place of the other; or one may appear by the side of the other,
since every intensification of one element of mental life also
intensifies its associations. The constant emotion thus calls into
consciousness now one and now the other of the two series of ideas
with which it is connected. Either of these mental states may become
transformed into the impulse to cruelty (actively exercised or
passively suffered).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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