an ideal,—the joyous struggle for the social elevation of the proletariat. This caused a powerful revolution in me. As in my best years (from the age of sixteen to seventeen), I took interest in art, particularly in dramatic art. I am, at the present time, writing a play and a story, and I am occupied with the grandest thoughts. I read a remark of Schlegel’s concerning Sophocles, who was indebted to his physical exercise for his energy and creative power, and to music for his artistic proportions. In another place I read: ‘The dramatist must, above all things, be mentally intact.’ This depressed me; for my contrary sexual feelings could not arise in a perfectly normal mind.
“I thought of having myself treated hypnotically; but shame held me back. Then I said to myself that I was a weakling, indeed, to have so little confidence in myself, and began in earnest to combat my abnormal desires. At the same time, I struggled against my nervousness by leading the proper kind of a life. I rowed, fenced, and was much in the open air; and I was delighted when, at last, I awoke and seemed to be an entirely different man. When I thought of the time from my twentieth to my twenty-sixth year, it seemed to me that, during those years, a strange and depressive being had been dwelling within me.
“I was astonished that the handsomest rider or the trimmest waiter excited in me almost no interest; even the muscular masons had no effect on me. I was disgusted when I thought that, at one time, such men had seemed handsome to me. My self-respect increased; I am good-natured, but my character is entirely active. Since my twentieth year my appearance has steadily improved. My appearance now corresponds perfectly with my years. There were recurrences of my abnormal inclinations, to be sure; but I struggled against them energetically. I satisfy my libido only by means of natural intercourse, and I hope that, by continuing to lead a proper life, my pleasure in natural coitus will increase.”As a rule, only suggestion coming from a second person, and that by means of hypnosis, promises any success. In such cases, the object of post-hypnotic suggestion is to remove the impulse to masturbation and homo-sexual feelings and impulses, and to encourage hetero-sexual feelings with a sense of virility. A prerequisite is, of course, the possibility to induce hypnosis of sufficient intensity. It is, unfortunately, in these very cases of neurasthenia that this is impossible, since they are often excited, embarrassed, and in no condition to concentrate their thoughts.
Thus, in a case reported by me in the International. Centralblatt für die Physiologie und Pathologie der Harn- und
