Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 | Page 5

here to understand it, develops.
But from first to last it is a distinct phenomenon, having a more or less
reasoned and intellectual basis, and it scarcely serves in any degree to
feed the sexual impulse. Erotic symbolism is not intellectual but
emotional in its origin; it starts into being, obscurely, with but a dim
consciousness or for the most part none at all, either suddenly from the
shock of some usually youthful experience, or more gradually through
an instinctive brooding on those things which are most intimately
associated with a sexually desirable person.
The kind of soil on which the germs of erotic symbolism may develop
is well seen in cases of sexual hyperæsthesia. In such cases all the
emotionally sexual analogies and resemblances, which in erotic
symbolism are fixed and organized, may be traced in vague and passing
forms, a single hyperæsthetic individual perhaps presenting a great
variety of germinal symbolisms.
Thus it has been recorded of an Italian nun (whose sister became a
prostitute) that from the age of 8 she had desire for coitus, from the age
of 10 masturbated, and later had homosexual feelings, that the same
feelings and practices continued after she had taken the veil, though
from time to time they assumed religious equivalents. The mere contact,
indeed, of a priest's hand, the news of the presentation of an ecclesiastic
she had known to a bishopric, the sight of an ape, the contemplation of
the crucified Christ, the figure of a toy, the picture of a demon, the act
of defecation in the children entrusted to her care (whom, on this
account, and against the regulations, she would accompany to the
closets), especially the sight and the mere recollection of flies in sexual
connection--all these things sufficed to produce in her a powerful
orgasm. (Archivio di Psichiatria, 1902, fasc. II-III, p. 338.)
A boy of 15 (given to masturbation), studied by Macdonald in America,
was similarly hyperæsthetic to the symbols of sexual emotion. "I like
amusing myself with my comrades," he told Macdonald, "rolling
ourselves into a ball, which gives one a funny kind of warmth. I have a
special pleasure in talking about some things. It is the same when the

governess kisses me on saying good night or when I lean against her
breast. I have that sensation, too, when I see some of the pictures in the
comic papers, but only in those representing a woman, as when a young
man skating trips up a girl so that her clothes are raised a little. When I
read how a man saved a young girl from drowning, so that they swam
together, I had the same sensation. Looking at the statues of women in
the museum produces the same effect, or when I see naked babies, or
when a mother suckles a child. I have often had that sensation when
reading novels I ought not to read, or when looking at a new-born calf,
or seeing dogs and cows and horses mounting on each other. When I
see a girl flirting with a boy, or leaning on his shoulder or with his arm
round her waist, I have an erection. It is the same when I see women
and little girls in bathing costume, or when boys talk of what their
fathers and mothers do together. In the Natural History Museum I often
see things which give me that sensation. One day when I read how a
man killed a young girl and carried her into a wood and undressed her I
had a feeling of enjoyment. When I read of men who were bastards the
idea of a woman having a child in that way gives me this sensation.
Some dances, and seeing young girls astride a horse, excited me, too,
and so in a circus when a woman was shot out of a cannon and her
skirts flew in the air. It has no effect on me when I see men naked.
Sometimes I enjoy seeing women's underclothes in a shop, or when I
see a lady or a girl buying them, especially if they are drawers. When I
saw a lady in a dress which buttoned from top to bottom it had more
effect on me than seeing underclothes. Seeing dogs coupling gives me
more pleasure than looking at pretty women, but less than looking at
pretty little girls." In order of increasing intensity he placed the
phenomena that affected him thus: The coupling of flies, then of horses,
then the sight of women's undergarments, then a boy and a girl flirting,
then cows mounting on each other, the statues of women with naked
breasts, then contact with the governess's body and breasts, finally
coitus. (Arthur Macdonald, Le Criminel-Type, pp. 126 et seq.)
It is worthy of remark that