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)
In a series of 116 German women in whom the operation of removing
the ovaries was performed, Pfister usually noted briefly in what
way the sexual impulse was affected by the operation ("Die
Wirkung der Castration auf den Weiblichen Organismus," _Archiv
für Gynäkologie_, 1898, p. 583). In 13 cases (all but 3
unmarried) the presence of sexual desire at any time was denied,
and 2 of these expressed disgust of sexual matters. In 12 cases
the point is left doubtful. In all the other cases sexual desire
had once been present, and in 2 or 3 cases it was acknowledged to
be so strong as to approach nymphomania. In about 30 of these
(not including any in which it was previously very strong) it was
extinguished by castration, in a few others it was diminished,
and in the rest unaffected. Thus, when we exclude the 12 cases in
which the point was not apparently investigated, and the 10
unmarried women, in whom it may have been latent or unavowed, we
find that, of 94 married women, 91 women acknowledged the
existence of sexual desire and only 3 denied it.
Schröter, again in Germany, has investigated the manifestations
of the sexual impulse among 402 insane women in the asylum at
Eichberg in Rheingau. ("Wird bei jungen Unverheiratheten zur Zeit
der Menstruation stärkere sexuelle Erregheit beobaehtet?"
_Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie_, vol. lvi, 1899, pp.
321-333.) There is no reason to suppose that the insane represent
a class of the community specially liable to sexual emotion,
although its manifestations may become unrestrained and
conspicuous under the influence of insanity; and at the same
time, while the appearance of such manifestations is evidence of
the aptitude for sexual emotions, their absence may be only due
to disease, seclusion, or to an intact power of self-control.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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