“I always sought to find out whether the peculiar ideas that ruled me sexually were entertained by other men. Since the first stories about it accidentally came to my ears, I have sought everywhere to learn of it. Since it is really a process of inner consciousness, it is, of course, not easy to identify it, and it cannot always be done with certainty; but I assume the existence of masochism where I find perverse sexual acts that cannot be explained except by this dominating idea. I look upon this anomaly as wide-spread. “I have heard numerous stories about it from prostitutes here in Berlin, and in Vienna; and I thus learned how numerous my fellow-sufferers are. I am always careful not to describe my own experiences, or ask whether they know of such; but I allow these persons to relate their experiences just as they will. “Simple flagellation is so common that almost every prostitute is familiar with it; but cases of real masochism are very frequent. The men subject to this perversion submit themselves to the most refined cruelties. In this they always act the same farce with the instructed prostitutes,—humiliating subjection of the man, treading upon him, commands, threats, and scoldings that have been committed to memory; then flagellation, blows on various portions of the body, and all kinds of punishment, pricking with needles, etc. The scenes often end with coitus, but more frequently with ejaculation without it. Twice prostitutes have shown me heavy iron chains with handcuffs, which their patrons had made for them to put on them; and the dried peas, on which they kneeled; the seat set with needles, on which they sat at command; and many other similar things. Often the perverted man wishes the woman to tie his penis so tightly as to cause pain; to prick it with needles, make cuts in it with a knife, or beat it with a stick. Even the act of hanging is indulged in, it being cut short at just the right moment. Others have themselves scratched with a knife or dagger, but in the act the woman must threaten them with death. In all these things the symbolism of subjection is the most important factor. The woman is usually called ‘mistress’; the man, ‘slave.’ “A man of high social standing, dressed as a servant, sat on the box of a carriage and drove his mistress about. Here there may have been a conscious imitation of the ‘Venus in Furs.’ It seems to me that the writings of Sacher-Masoch have done much to develop this perversion in those predisposed. It is peculiar that the inexplicable enthusiasm for furs is so frequently combined with this perversion. It, as well as that for velvet, has been peculiar to me from my earliest youth.