Frequently this weak love expresses itself in equivalents—in poetry, which, however, under such circumstances, is effeminate; in æsthetics which are overdrawn; in religion, in which it gives itself up to mysteries and religious enthusiasm; or, where there is a more powerful sensual foundation, founds sects or expresses itself in religious insanity. The immature love of the age of puberty has something of all this in it. Of all the poems and rhymes written at this time of life, they only are readable that are the product of poets divinely endowed.
Notwithstanding all the ethics which love requires in order to develop into its true and pure form, its strongest root is still sensuality. Platonic love is an impossibility, a self-deception, a false designation for related feelings.
In as far as love rests upon sensual desire, it is only conceivable in a normal way as existing between individuals of opposite sex and capable of sexual intercourse. If these conditions are wanting or destroyed, then, in the place of love, comes friendship.
The rôle which the retention of sexual functions plays in the case of a man, both in originating and retaining the feeling of self-respect, is remarkable. In the deterioration of manliness and self-confidence which the onanist, in his weakened nervous state, and the man that has become impotent, present, may be estimated the significance of this factor.
Gyurkovechky (männl. Impotenz. Vienna, 1889) says, very justly, that old and young men essentially differ mentally, on account of the condition of their virility, and that impotence has a detrimental effect upon the feeling of well-being, mental freshness, activity, self-confidence, and the play of fancy. This loss becomes the more important the younger a man is when he loses his virility and the more sensually he was constituted.
Under such circumstances a sudden loss of virility may induce severe melancholia, and even lead to suicide. For such natures life without love is unbearable.
But, also, in cases where the reaction is not so deep, the man bereft of his virility is morose and spiteful, egotistic, jealous, contrary, listless, has but little self-respect or sense of honor, and is cowardly. Analogies are seen in the Skopzens,[1] who, after their castration, change for the worse.
- ↑ A Russian religious sect.
