The sexual question : $b A scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological studyForel, Auguste
Science
The sexual question : $b A scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study
Forel, Auguste
Sex
These pathological irradiations of the sexual sphere are associated
voluntarily with jealous obsessions and ideas of persecution, which
make the subjects furious, and which are confirmed by their
paræsthesias and hallucinations. Illusions of memory play a great part
in these cases, for the subjects have often never felt what they
complain of, and it is then a question of veritable hallucinational
memory. We may here observe by the way that, even among healthy
people, the sexual passions, like the others, always tend to falsify
memory, making things appear in the exclusive sense of the affective
state. Once fixed in the memory, such conceptions, the false tendency
of which was originally based on passion, gradually assume the
subjective character of certainty. Cool-headed people, or those whose
affective state directs them to contrary conceptions, then see in such
individuals a deliberate intention to misrepresent the facts. This is
the reason why people so often hurl mutual insults at each others
heads, calling each other liars and calumniators, owing to the
affective illusion of memory.
(4). One of the worst of the sexual anomalies in the insane is
_pathological jealousy_, especially in men. Their wives then become
martyrs, especially in cases of alcoholism and paranoia. It is not
uncommon for assassination to put an end to their torments. Among
insane women, jealousy is certainly not less, but they have less legal
power and less muscular strength. The most violent jealousy is found
in alcoholics.
Jealous delirium renders the subject furious; a word, a look, or some
trivial circumstance are enough for him to prove the infidelity of his
wife. The latter has to avoid the slightest thing which might arouse
jealousy, but all in vain; reserve and even prudery are regarded by
the jealous husband as hypocrisy. The unfortunate man watches his
wife, night and day, like a watchdog: he threatens and insults her
with no reason, and calumniates her in all ways, even in the presence
of a third party. He even lays elaborate traps for her. Cases of this
kind are legion.
(5). It is necessary to say that the _sexual paræsthesias_, of which
we have spoken, sadism, masochism, fetichism, inversion, etc., often
occur in the insane.
(6). The most atrocious sexual crimes are very often the work of
idiots or imbeciles, but especially _moral idiots_, _i.e._, persons
whose idiocy is limited to the moral sense, who are also called simply
_amoral_. This is due to hereditary taint, an innate absence of all
sentiments of sympathy, pity and duty. Rape, violation of children,
sexual assassination, etc., are usually due to the concomitant action
of moral idiocy and violent or perverted sexual passions.
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