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

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 Extreme Perversions are Linked on to Normal Phenomena.
III.
Flagellation as a Typical Illustration of Algolagnia--Causes of Connection between Sexual Emotion and Whipping--Physical Causes--Psychic Causes Probably More Important--The Varied Emotional Associations of Whipping--Its Wide Prevalence.
IV.
The Impulse to Strangle the Object of Sexual