Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/269

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CONGENITAL HOMO-SEXUALITY.
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always be able to excite me by their kisses. Still, no woman is, or ever will be, so attractive as to induce me to overcome obstacles in winning her; but even the danger of discovery and disgrace could only with difficulty restrain me from seeking a man’s embraces.

“Thus I lately allowed myself to be induced to buy a soldier at a prostitute’s house. The lustful pleasure was very great, but the subsequent feeling of satisfaction was especially very exhilarating. The next day I felt similarly strengthened (capable of erection at any moment); and though I have not yet been able to meet the soldier again, the thought that I shall venture to purchase another gives me peace. But I could be perfectly satisfied only in finding one feeling like myself, of my own position and education.

“I have not yet mentioned that the female form (with the exception of the face) and genitals have no attraction for me (to touch the latter with my hand would be disgusting to me); but membrum virile me tangere dum os meum os ejus osculatur, mihi exoptatum esse; indeed, to kiss that of a very pleasing man would not be disgusting to me. Onanism, as has been said, would be quite impossible for me.”

Case 111. Psychical Hermaphroditism.—Hetero-sexual feeling early interfered with by masturbation, but episodically very intense. Homosexual feeling ab origine perverse (sexual excitation by men’s boots).

Mr. X., of high social position, Russian, aged 28, came to me in September, 1887, in a despairing mood, to consult me on account of a perversion of his vita sexualis, which made life seem almost unbearable to him, and which had repeatedly brought him near to suicide. The patient comes of a family in which neuroses and psychoses have been of frequent occurrence. In the father’s family there had been consanguineous marriages for three generations. The father is said to have been a healthy man, and to have lived morally in marriage. However, his father’s preference for fine-looking servants seems remarkable to the son. The mother’s family is described as eccentric. The mother’s grandfather and great-grandfather died melancholic; her sister was insane; a daughter of the grandfather’s brother was hysterical, and had nymphomania. Only three of the mother’s twelve brothers and sisters married. Of these, one brother was homo-sexual, and always nervous as a result of excessive masturbation.

The patient’s mother is said to be a bigot, and of small mental endowment, nervous, irritable, and inclined to melancholia. Patient has a sister and a brother. The brother is frequently melancholy, and, though mature, has never shown the slightest trace of sexual inclinations. The sister is an acknowledged beauty, and much sought by gentlemen. This lady is married, but childless, as reported, owing to the impotence of her husband. She has always been indifferent to the attentions shown her by men, but is charmed by female beauty, and actually in love with some of her female friends.