Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in WomenEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
convict-ship, where all the means of restraint are shown; I have
been attracted to it night after night, wanting, but not daring
to ask, to be allowed to have a practical experience."
Stcherbak, of Warsaw, has recorded a case which resembles that of
A.N., but there was no inversion and the attraction of fetters
was active rather than passive; the subject desired to fetter and
not to be fettered. It is possible that this difference is not
fundamental, though Stcherbak regards the case as one of
fetichism of sadistic origin ("Contribution à l'Etude des
Perversions Sexuelles," _Archives de Neurologie_, Oct., 1907).
The subject was a highly intelligent though neurasthenic youth,
who from the age of 5 had been deeply interested in criminals who
were fettered and sent to prison. The fate of Siberian prisoners
was a frequent source of prolonged meditations. It was the
fettering which alone interested him, and he spent much time in
trying to imagine the feelings of the fettered prisoners, and he
often imagined that he was himself a prisoner in fetters. (This
seems to indicate that the impulse was in its origin masochistic
as much as sadistic, and better described as algolagnia than as
sadism.) He delighted in stories and pictures of fettered
persons. At the age of 15 the sex of the fettered person became
important and he was interested chiefly in fettered women. A new
element also appeared; he was attracted to well-dressed women and
especially to those wearing elegant shoes, delighting to imagine
them fettered. He fastened his own feet together with chains,
attempting to walk about his room in this condition, but
experienced comparatively little pleasure in this way. At the age
of 15 he met a lady 10 years older than himself and of great
intelligence. As he began to know her more intimately she allowed
him to take liberties with her; he fastened her hands behind her
back, and this caused him a violent but delicious emotion which
he had never experienced before. Next time he fastened her feet
together as well as her hands; as he did so her shoes slightly
touched his sexual organs; this caused erection and ejaculation,
accompanied by the most acute sexual pleasure he had ever felt.
He had no wish to see her naked or to uncover himself, and as
long as this relationship lasted he had no abnormal thoughts at
other times, or in connection with other people. He never
masturbated, and his sexual dreams were of fettered men or women.
Stcherbak discusses the case at length and considers that it is
essentially an example of sadism, on the ground that the impulse
of fettering was prompted by the desire to humiliate. There is,
however, no evidence of any such desire, and, as a matter of
fact, no humiliation was effected. The primary and fundamental
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