Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/391

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SATYRIASIS AND NYMPHOMANIA.
373

priest; and in this case there is much talk about innocence and virginity.

At the height of mania there may be seen invitations to coitus, exhibition, obscenity, great excitation at sight of women, tendency to smear the person with saliva, urine, and even fæces; religio-sexual delusions,—to be under the protection of the Holy Ghost, to have given birth to Christ, etc.; open onanism, and pelvic movements of coitus.

In maniacal men care must be taken to prevent shameless masturbation and sexual attacks on women.

Satyriasis and Nymphomania.

States of mental excitement, in which an abnormal intense sexual impulse is prominent, are called satyriasis (in males) and nymphomania (in women), or uteromania.

Moreau considers these cases peculiar to themselves, but he is certainly in error. The sexual complexus of symptoms is always but the partial manifestation of a general psychosis (mania, hallucinatory insanity?).

The essential element of the state of sexual excitement is a condition of psychical hyperæsthesia with involvement of the sexual sphere. The imagination calls up only sexual images, which may lead to hallucinations, illusions, and true hallucinatory delirium.

The most indifferent ideas excite sensual association, and the lustful coloring of the ideas and apperceptions is very much intensified.

The abnormal state of consciousness implicates the whole course of feeling and desire, and is accompanied by general physical excitement like that that accompanies coitus (v. "Physiolog"). Often the genitals are in a constant state of turgor (priapism in males).

The man affected with this sexual passion seeks to satisfy his desire at any price, and, therefore, becomes very dangerous to women. Faute de mieux, he practices onanism or sodomy. The nymphomaniacal woman seeks men by exhibition, or to attract them by her sensual conduct; at the sight of men she is