Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In a case of Freyer's (_Zeitschrift für Medizinalbeamte_, third
year, No. 8) the occasional connection of exhibitionism with
epilepsy is well illustrated by a barber's assistant, aged 35,
whose father suffered from chronic alcoholism and was also said
to have committed the same kind of offense as his son. The mother
and a sister suffered nervously. From ages of 7 to 18 the subject
had epileptic convulsions. From 16 to 21 he indulged in normal
sexual intercourse. At about that time he had often to pass a
playground and at times would urinate there; it happened that the
children watched him with curiosity. He noticed that when thus
watched sexual excitement was caused, inducing erection and even
ejaculation. He gradually found pleasure in this kind of sexual
gratification; finally he became indifferent to coitus. His
erotic dreams, though still usually about normal coitus, were now
sometimes concerned with exhibition before little girls. When
overcome by the impulse he could see and hear nothing around him,
though he did not lose consciousness. After the act was over he
was troubled by his deed. In all other respects he was entirely
reasonable. He was imprisoned many times for exhibiting himself
to young schoolgirls, sometimes vaunting the beauty of his organs
and inviting inspection. On one occasion he underwent mental
examination, but was considered to be mentally sound. He was
finally held to be a hereditarily tainted individual with
neuropathic constitution. The head was abnormally broad, penis
small, patellar reflex absent, and there were many signs of
neurasthenia. (Krafft-Ebing, _Op. cit._, pp. 490-492.)
The prevalence of epilepsy among exhibitionists is shown by the
observations of Pelanda in Verona. He has recorded six cases of
this perversion, all of which eventually reached the asylum and
were either epileptics or with epileptic relations. One had a
brother who was also an exhibitionist. In some cases the penis
was abnormally large, in others abnormally small. Several had
very weak sexual impulse; one, at the age of 62, had never
effected coitus, and was proud of the fact that he was still a
virgin, considering, he would say, the epoch of demoralization in
which we live. (Pelanda, "Pornopatici," _Archivio di
Psichiatria_, fasc. ii-iv, 1889.)
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