SADISM.
71
ate men. The notorious Marquis de Sade,[1] after whom the combination of lust and cruelty has been named, was such a monster. Coitus only excited him when he could prick the object of his desire until the blood came. His greatest pleasure was to injure prostitutes and then bind their wounds.
Here also belongs the case of a captain mentioned by Brierre de Boismont, who always compelled the object of his affection to place leeches ad pudenda before coitus, which was very frequent. Finally this woman became very anæmic and, as a result of this, insane.
The following case, borrowed from my own clientele, very clearly shows the connection between lust and cruelty, with desire to shed and see blood:—
Case 24. Mr. X., aged 25; father syphilitic, died of paretic dementia; mother hysterical and neurasthenic. He is a weak individual, constitutionally neuropathic, and presents several anatomical signs of degeneration. When a child, hypochondria and imperative conceptions; later, constant alternation of exaltation and depression. While yet a child of ten, the patient felt a peculiar lustful desire to see blood flow from his fingers. Thereafter he often cut or pricked himself in the fingers, and took great delight in it. Very early, erections were added to this, and also if he saw the blood of others; for example, when he saw a servant-girl cut her finger it gave him an intense lustful feeling. From this time his vita sexualis became more and more powerful. Without any teaching he began to masturbate, and always during the act there were memory-pictures of bleeding girls. It now no longer sufficed him to see his own blood flow; he longed to see the blood of young females, especially those that were attractive to him. Often he could scarcely overcome the impulse to injure two cousins and a certain servant. But also young women that were in themselves not attractive induced this impulse when they excited him by some peculiarity of dress or adornment, especially coral jewelry. It was necessary for him to
- ↑ Taxil (op. cit.) gives more detailed accounts of this sexual monster, which must have been a case of habitual satyriasis, accompanied by perverse sexual instinct. Sade was so cynical that he actually sought to idealize his cruel lasciviousness, and become the apostle of a theory based upon it. He became so bad (among other things he made an invited company of ladies and gentlemen erotic by causing to be served to them chocolate bonbons which contained cantharides) that he was committed to the insane asylum at Charenton. During the revolution of 1790, he escaped. Then he wrote obscene novels filled with lust, cruelty, and the most obscene scenes. When Bonaparte became Consul, Sade made him a present of his novels magnificently bound. The Consul had the works destroyed, and the author committed to Charenton again, where he died, at the age of sixty-four.
