Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 | Page 2

first importance. No doubt the sex
impulse in men is of great moment from the social point of view. It is, however, fairly
obvious and well understood. The impulse in women is not only of at least equal moment,
but it is far more obscure. The natural difficulties of the subject have been increased by
the assumption of most writers who have touched it--casually and hurriedly, for the most
part--that the only differences to be sought in the sexual impulse in man and in woman
are quantitative differences. I have pointed out that we may more profitably seek for
qualitative differences, and have endeavored to indicate such of these differences as seem
to be of significance.
In an Appendix will be found a selection of histories of more or less normal sexual
development. Histories of gross sexual perversion have often been presented in books
devoted to the sexual instinct; it has not hitherto been usual to inquire into the facts of
normal sexual development. Yet it is concerning normal sexual development that our
ignorance is greatest, and the innovation can scarcely need justification. I have inserted
these histories not only because many of them are highly instructive in themselves, but
also because they exhibit the nature of the material on which my work is mainly founded.
I am indebted to many correspondents, medical and other, in various parts of the world,
for much valuable assistance. When they have permitted me to do so I have usually
mentioned their names in the text. This has not been possible in the case of many women
friends and correspondents, to whom, however, my debt is very great. Nature has put
upon women the greater part of the burden of sexual reproduction; they have
consequently become the supreme authorities on all matters in which the sexual emotions
come into question. Many circumstances, however, that are fairly obvious, conspire to
make it difficult for women to assert publicly the wisdom and knowledge which, in
matters of love, the experiences of life have brought to them. The ladies who, in all
earnestness and sincerity, write books on these questions are often the last people to
whom we should go as the representatives of their sex; those who know most have
written least. I can therefore but express again, as in previous volumes I have expressed
before, my deep gratitude to these anonymous collaborators who have aided me in
throwing light on a field of human life which is of such primary social importance and is
yet so dimly visible.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
Carbis Water,
Lelant, Cornwall, England.

CONTENTS.
ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE.
Definition of Instinct--The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual Instinct--Theory of the
Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation--The Evidence in Support of this Theory
Inadequate--The Sexual Impulse to Some Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands--The
Sexual Impulse in Castrated Animals and Men--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women,

After the Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands--The Internal
Secretions--Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of the Suckling Mother
and her Child--The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a Reproductive Impulse--This
Theory Untenable--Moll's Definition--The Impulse of Detumescence--The Impulse of
Contrectation--Modification of this Theory Proposed--Its Relation to Darwin's Sexual
Selection--The Essential Element in Darwin's Conception--Summary of the History of
the Doctrine of Sexual Selection. Its Psychological Aspect--Sexual Selection a Part of
Natural Selection--The Fundamental Importance of Tumescence--Illustrated by the
Phenomena of Courtship in Animals and in Man--The Object of Courtship is to Produce
Sexual Tumescence--The Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and
Man--Dancing is a Potent Agent for Producing Tumescence--The Element of Truth in the
Comparison of the Sexual Impulse with an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder--Both
Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions--Their Intimate and Sometimes Vicarious
Relationships--Analogy between Coitus and Epilepsy--Analogy of the Sexual Impulse to
Hunger--Final Object of the Impulses of Tumescence and Detumescence.
LOVE AND PAIN.
I.
The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in Animal
Courtship--Courtship a Source of Combativity and of Cruelty--Human Play in the Light
of Animal Courtship--The Frequency of Crimes Against the Person in
Adolescence--Marriage by Capture and its Psychological Basis--Man's Pleasure in
Exerting Force and Woman's Pleasure in Experiencing it--Resemblance of Love to Pain
even in Outward Expression--The Love-bite--In What Sense Pain May be
Pleasurable--The Natural Contradiction in the Emotional Attitude of Women Toward
Men--Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere in Women--The
Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances in Coitus--The Sexual
Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explainable as the Necessary Condition for Sexual
Pleasure.
II.
The Definition of Sadism--De Sade--Masochism to some Extent
Normal--Sacher-Masoch--No Real Line of Demarcation between Sadism and
Masochism--Algolagnia Includes Both Groups of Manifestations--The Love-bite as a
Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia--The Fascination of Blood--The Most