etc.) depend upon a perverse sexual impulse; at least, here it is a kind of injury, and those injured are always females, and the perpetrators males. At least in the future, in crimes of this kind, pains should be taken to examine the vita sexualis of the culprits.
The case of Bachmann, given below, throws a clear light on the sexual nature of such crimes; for, in this case, the sexual motive in the deed is proven.
(e) Other Attacks on Females—Symbolic Sadism.—The foregoing groups do not exhaust the forms in which the sadistic impulse toward women is expressed. If the impulse is not overmastering, or there is yet sufficient moral resistance, it may happen that the perverse inclination is satisfied by an act that is apparently quite senseless and silly, but which has a symbolic meaning for the perpetrator. This seems to be the meaning of the two following cases:—
Case 34. (Dr. Pascal, “Igiene dell’ amore.”) A man was accustomed to go, on a certain day once a month, to an inamorata and cut her “bang.” This gave him the greatest pleasure. He made no other demands on the girl.
Case 35. A man in Vienna regularly visits several prostitutes only to lather their faces and then to remove the lather with a razor, as if he were shaving them. He never hurts the girls, but becomes sexually excited and ejaculates during the procedure.
The significance of the following cases, in which a sadistic comedy is played, is clearer:—
Case 36. A man always announces to a puella publica his intended visits. She must stand at the window, awaiting him, with her face done up, and, on his entrance into the room, complain of severe toothache. He is sorry for her, asks particularly about the pain, takes the cloth off and puts it on again; but he never has coitus, and finds his satisfaction simply in this act.[1]
The following case, which, unfortunately, was not carefully examined scientifically, is peculiar to itself:—
- ↑ Leo Taxil (op. cit., p. 224) relates that in Parisian brothels instruments are kept ready which look like knouts, but which are merely tubes filled with air, such as clowns use in circuses. Sadistic men use them to create for themselves the illusion that they are whipping women.
