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PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS.
store, and regards the shoes on exhibition, is a “foot-lover” or not. This anomaly is uncommonly frequent. When in the circle of my acquaintance I turn the conversation to the question of what woman’s charm is, I very frequently hear it said that it is much more in attire than in nudity; but every one is careful not to reveal his especial fetich. I think an uncle of mine is also a shoe-fetichist.”
Case. 62. Reported by Mantegazza in his “Anthropological Studies,” 1886, p 110. X., American, of good family, mentally and morally well constituted; from the beginning of puberty capable of being excited sexually only by a woman’s shoe. Her body and naked or stockinged foot made no impression on him; but the foot, when covered with the shoe, or a shoe alone, induced erection and even ejaculation. Sight alone was sufficient for him in the case of elegant shoes,—i.e., shoes of black leather, buttoning up the side, and having very high heels. His sexual desire was powerfully excited by touching, kissing, or drawing on such shoes. His enjoyment was increased by driving nails through the soles so that their points would penetrate his feet while walking. This caused him terrible pain, but he had real lustful feeling at the same time. His greatest enjoyment was to kneel down before the elegantly-clad feet of ladies and have them step on him. If the wearer were an ugly woman, the shoes would not affect him, and his fancy would cool. If the patient had shoes alone at his disposal, his fancy would create a beautiful woman wearing them, and ejaculation would result. His nightly dreams were of the shoes of beautiful women. He considered the exposure of ladies’ shoes in show-windows immoral; while talk about the nature of woman seemed to him harmless, but in bad taste. X. attempted coitus several times without success; ejaculation never occurred.In the following case the masochistic element is also plain enough, as is also the sadistic (comp. “Torture of Animals,” under “Sadism”):—
Case 63. A young, powerful man, aged 26. Nothing in the opposite sex excites his sensual feeling except elegant shoes on the feet of a handsome woman, especially when they are made of black leather and have high heels. The shoes without the wearer are sufficient. It gives him the greatest pleasure to see, touch, and kiss them. The feminine foot, when bare or covered with a stocking, has no effect on him. Since childhood he has had a weakness for ladies’ fine shoes.
X. is potent; during the sexual act the female must be elegantly dressed and, above all, have on pretty shoes. At the height of sensual excitement cruel thoughts about the shoes arise. He is forced to think with delight of the death-agonies of the animal from which the leather was taken. Sometimes he is impelled to take chickens and other animals with him to Phryne, in order to have her tread on them with her pretty
