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)
Fourteen other women (chiefly cases of chronic delusional
insanity) had sexual delusions. Altogether, 31 men and women had
sexual delusions. This is a large proportion. Bullen is not,
however, inclined to admit any direct connection between the
reproductive system and the sense of smell. He finds that other
hallucinations are very frequently associated with the olfactory
hallucinations, and considers that the co-existence of olfactory
and sexual troubles simply indicates a very deep and widespread
nervous disturbance. (F. St. John Bullen, "Olfactory
Hallucinations in the Insane," _Journal of Mental Science_, July,
1899.) In order to elucidate the matter fully we require further
precise inquiries on the lines Bullen has laid down.
It may be of interest to note, in this connection, that smell and
taste hallucinations appear to be specially frequent in forms of
religious insanity. Thus, Dr. Zurcher, in her inaugural
dissertation on Joan of Arc (_Jeanne d'Arc_, Leipzig, 1895, p.
72), estimates that on the average in such insanity nearly 50 per
cent, of the hallucinations affect smell and taste; she refers
also to the olfactory hallucinations of great religious leaders,
Francis of Assisi, Katherina Emmerich, Lazzaretti, and the
Anabaptists.
It may well be, as Zwaardemaker has suggested in his _Physiologie des
Geruchs_, that the nasal congestion at menstruation and similar phenomena
are connected with that association of smell and sexuality which is
observable throughout the whole animal world, and that the congestion
brings about a temporary increase of olfactory sensitiveness during the
stage of sexual excitation.[43] Careful investigation of olfactory
acuteness would reveal the existence of such menstrual heightening of its
acuity.
In a few exceptional, but still quite healthy people, smell would appear
to possess an emotional predominance which it cannot be said to possess in
the average person. These exceptional people are of what Binet in his
study of sexual fetichism calls olfactive type; such persons form a group
which, though of smaller size and less importance, is fairly comparable to
the well-known groups of visual type, of auditory type, and of psychomotor
type. Such people would be more attentive to odors, more moved by
olfactory sympathies and antipathies, than are ordinary people. For these,
it may well be, the supremacy accorded to olfactory influences in Jäger's
_Entdeckung der Seele_, though extravagantly incorrect for ordinary
persons, may appear quite reasonable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account