Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
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Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
A highly intelligent young Italian woman with strong and somewhat
perverted sexual impulses is described as of attractive
appearance, with olive complexion, small black almond-shaped
eyes, dilated pupils, oblique thin eyebrows, very thick black
hair, rather prominent cheek-bones, largely developed jaw, and
with abundant down on lower part of cheeks and on upper lip.
(_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1899, fasc. v-vi.)
As the type of the sensual woman in word and act, led by her
passions to commit various sexual offenses, Ottolenghi describes
(_Archivio di Psichiatria_, vol. xii, fasc. v-vi, p. 496) a woman
of 32 who attempted to kill her lover. The daughter of parents
who were neurotic and themselves very erotic, she was a highly
intelligent and vivacious woman, with a pleasing and open face,
very thick dark chestnut hair, large cheek-bones, adipose
buttocks almost resembling those of a Hottentot, and very thick
pubic hair. She was very fond of salt things. Sexual inclination
began at the age of 7.
Adler and Moll remark, very truly, that, so far at least as women are
concerned, sexual anæsthesia or sexual proclivity cannot be unfailingly
read on the features. Every woman desires to please, and coquetry is the
sign of a cold, rather than of an erotic temperament.[145] It may be added
that a considerable degree of congenital sexual anæsthesia by no means
prevents a woman from being beautiful and attractive, though it must
probably still always be said that, as Roubaud points out,[146] the woman
of cold and intellectual temperament, the "femme de tête," however
beautiful and skillful she may be, cannot compete in the struggle for love
with the woman whose qualities are of the heart and of the emotions. But
it seems sufficiently clear that the practical observations of skilled and
experienced observers agree in attributing to persons of erotic type
certain general characteristics which accord with those negative and
positive standards we may frame on the basis of castration, of puberty,
and of detumescence. It may be worth while to note a few of these
characteristics briefly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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