Analogous phenomena may be witnessed in the
animal world also, in connexion with the masturbatory acts of monkeys,
bulls, and stallions. When a stallion kicks its genital organs again and
again with its hind-foot, and repeats the action until ejaculation
ensues, we are hardly justified in assuming that the animal has the
idea of a mare before its mind. We must rather suppose that we have to
do with a local physical stimulus, to which the stallion reacts in the
manner above described. The other component, also, of the sexual
impulse, the contrectation-impulse, manifests itself, occasionally, at
any rate, in isolation. Certain boys, long before the appearance of any
signs of the puberal development, are impelled towards physical contact
with members of the other sex, to kiss them, to think of them, although
these boys may exhibit no tendency whatever to masturbate, or to
manipulate their genital organs. It often happens, indeed, that such a
boy is himself greatly astonished to find, some day, that these ideas
are reflected to the genital organs, giving rise to erection; or, when
he is embracing a girl, to experience erection and ejaculation. In the
sexually mature normal man, the detumescence-impulse and the
contrectation-impulse act in unison, and hence he is impelled towards
intimate contact with the woman, and is ultimately driven to effect
detumescence by the practice of coitus. Nevertheless, we must hold fast
to the idea that in the normal adult man the sexual processes may also
be theoretically analysed into these two components.
This is true also of woman, in whom the processes in the genital organs
are equally separable from those which impel to contact with a member of
the other sex. But in woman, the processes in the genital organs do not
culminate in the ejection of the reproductive cells, that is, of the
ovum, but, as we have seen, in the ejaculation of indifferent
secretions. In the woman, also, the detumescence impulse is occasionally
met with in isolation--for example, in many female idiots. In the animal
world, too, we encounter it as an isolated phenomenon. Certain mares,
when rutting, rub their hind quarters against some object in their
stalls. The contrectation-impulse may also manifest itself in isolation
in woman. It is then directed towards the male, but is not in any way
associated with the wish for a definite sexual act. Most commonly,
however, in woman also the two components of the sexual impulse are
united, and from this union results the impulsion towards coitus. But to
this extent the conditions in woman are apt to differ from those in
man, inasmuch as, in the former, voluptuous sensations are more often in
abeyance; or in woman voluptuous pleasure may not arise during coitus,
but may be produced in some other way, as, for instance, by a
masturbatory act.
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