(states of acquired mental weakness); or that he has acted while in a clouded state of consciousness (transitory insanity, states of partial consciousness).
A very distinctive act which belongs here is that of exhibition (exposure). The cases thus far recorded are exclusively those of men who ostentatiously expose their genitals to persons of the opposite sex, in some instances following them, without, however, becoming aggressive.
The silly manner of this sexual activity, or really sexual demonstration, points to intellectual and moral weakness; or, at least, to temporary inhibition of the intellectual and moral functions, with excitation of libido dependent upon a decided disturbance of consciousness (abnormal unconsciousness, mental confusion); and, at the same time, the virility of these individuals is called in question. Thus there are various categories of exhibitionists.
The first category includes states of mental weakness in which, owing to the causative cerebral (or spinal) disease, consciousness is clouded, and the ethical and intellectual functions are interfered with; and in which there can be no opposition made to a sexual desire that has either always been intense, or that has been intensified by the disease-process. At the same time, impotence exists, and no longer permits expression of the sexual instinct in violent acts (rape), but only in acts that are silly.
The majority of reported cases[1] fall in this category. They are those of individuals afflicted with senile dementia, paretic dementia, or mental defects due to alcoholism, epilepsy, etc.
Case 167. Z., high official, aged 60; widower; father of a family. He had excited offense in that, during fourteen days, he had repeatedly exposed his genitals at his window, to a girl of eight years who lived opposite him. After a few months, under like circumstances, this man repeated his indecent act. At his examination he acknowledged the depravity of his action, and could give no excuse for it. Death, a year later, due to cerebral disease. (Lasègue, op. cit.)
- ↑ Lasègue, Union Médicale, 1877, May.—Laugier, Annal d'hygiène publ., 1878, No. 106.—Pelanda, "Pornopaths," Archivio di Psichiatria, viii—Schuchardt, Zeitschr. f. Medicinalbeamte, 1890, Heft 6.
