Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In ManEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
A number of experiments of the kind desired by Goblot had already
been made by A. de Rochas in a book, copiously illustrated by
very numerous instantaneous photographs, entitled _Les
Sentiments, la Musique et la Geste_, 1900. Chapter III. De Rochas
experimented on a single subject, Lina, formerly a model, who was
placed in a condition of slight hypnosis, when various simple
fragments of music were performed: recitatives, popular airs, and
more especially national dances, often from remote parts of the
world. The subject's gestures were exceedingly marked and varied
in accordance with the character of the music. It was found that
she often imitated with considerable precision the actual
gestures of dances she could never have seen. The same music
always evoked the same gestures, as was shown by instantaneous
photographs. This subject, stated to be a chaste and well-behaved
girl, exhibited no indications of definite sexual emotion under
the influence of any kind of music. Some account is given in the
same volume of other hypnotic experiments with music which were
also negative as regards specific sexual phenomena.
It must be noted that, as a physiological stimulus, a single musical note
is effective, even apart from rhythm, as is well shown by Féré's
experiments with the dynamometer and the ergograph.[94] It is, however,
the influence of music on muscular work which has been most frequently
investigated, and both on brief efforts with the dynamometer and prolonged
work with the ergograph it has been found to exert a stimulating
influence. Thus, Scripture found that, while his own maximum thumb and
finger grip with the dynamometer is 8 pounds, when the giant's motive from
Wagner's _Rheingold_ is played it rises to 8¾ pounds.[95] With the
ergograph Tarchanoff found that lively music, in nervously sensitive
persons, will temporarily cause the disappearance of fatigue, though slow
music in a minor key had an opposite effect.[96] The varying influence on
work with the ergograph of different musical intervals and different keys
has been carefully studied by Féré with many interesting results. There
was a very considerable degree of constancy in the results. Discords were
depressing; most, but not all, major keys were stimulating; and most, but
not all, minor keys depressing. In states of fatigue, however, the minor
keys were more stimulating than the major, an interesting result in
harmony with that stimulating influence of various painful emotions in
states of organic fatigue which we have elsewhere encountered when
investigating sadism.[97] "Our musical culture," Féré remarks, "only
renders more perceptible to us the unconscious relationships which exist
between musical art and our organisms. Those whom we consider more endowed
in this respect have a deeper penetration of the phenomena accomplished
within them; they feel more profoundly the marvelous reactions between the
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