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)
Sometimes the odor of the armpit may even become a kind of fetich
which is craved for its own sake and in itself suffices to give
pleasure. Féré has recorded such a case, in a friend of his own,
a man of 60, with whom at one time he used to hunt, of robust
health and belonging to a healthy family. On these hunting
expeditions he used to tease the girls and women he met
(sometimes even rather old women) in a surprising manner, when he
came upon them walking in the fields with their short-sleeved
chemises exposed. When he had succeeded in introducing his hand
into the woman's armpit he went away satisfied, and frequently
held the hand to his nose with evident pleasure. After long
hesitation Féré asked for an explanation, which was frankly
given. As a child he had liked the odor, without knowing why. As
a young man women with strong odors had stimulated him to
extraordinary sexual exploits, and now they were the only women
who had any influence on him. He professed to be able to
recognize continence by the odor, as well as the most favorable
moment for approaching a woman. Throughout life a cold in the
head had always been accompanied by persistent general
excitement. (Féré, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, 1902, p. 134.)
We not only have to recognize that in the course of evolution the specific
odors of the sexual region have sunk into the background as a source of
sexual allurements, we have further to recognize the significant fact that
even those personal odors which are chiefly liable under normal
circumstances to come occasionally within the conscious sexual sphere, and
indeed purely personal odors of all kinds, fail to exert any attraction,
but rather tend to cause antipathy, unless some degree of tumescence has
already been attained. That is to say, our olfactory experiences of the
human body approximate rather to our tactile experiences of it than to our
visual experiences. Sight is our most intellectual sense, and we trust
ourselves to it with comparative boldness without any undue dread that its
messages will hurt us by their personal intimacy; we even court its
experiences, for it is the chief organ of our curiosity, as smell is of a
dog's. But smell with us has ceased to be a leading channel of
intellectual curiosity. Personal odors do not, as vision does, give us
information that is very largely intellectual; they make an appeal that is
mainly of an intimate, emotional, imaginative character. They thus tend,
when we are in our normal condition, to arouse what James calls the
antisexual instinct.
"I cannot understand how people do not see how the senses are
connected," said Jenny Lind to J.A. Symonds (Horatio Brown, _J.A.
Symonds_, vol. i, p. 207). "What I have suffered from my sense of
smell! My youth was misery from my acuteness of sensibility."
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