Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex | Page 8

Still it throws some light on the nature of the sexual impulse, that it should
suffer such great variation and depreciation of its object, a thing which hunger, adhering
more energetically to its object, would allow only in the most extreme cases. The same
may be said of sexual relations with animals--a thing not at all rare among
farmers--where the sexual attraction goes beyond the limits of the species.
For esthetic reasons one would fain attribute this and other excessive aberrations of the
sexual impulse to the insane, but this cannot be done. Experience teaches that among the
latter no disturbances of the sexual impulse can be found other than those observed
among the sane, or among whole races and classes. Thus we find with gruesome
frequency sexual abuse of children by teachers and servants merely because they have the
best opportunities for it. The insane present the aforesaid aberration only in a somewhat
intensified form; or what is of special significance is the fact that the aberration becomes
exclusive and takes the place of the normal sexual gratification.
This very remarkable relation of sexual variations ranging from the normal to the insane
gives material for reflection. It seems to me that the fact to be explained would show that
the impulses of the sexual life belong to those which even normally are most poorly
controlled by the higher psychic activities. He who is in any way psychically abnormal,

be it in social or ethical conditions, is, according to my experience, regularly so in his
sexual life. But many are abnormal in their sexual life who in every other respect
correspond to the average; they have followed the human cultural development, but
sexuality remained as their weak point.
As a general result of these discussions we come to see that, under numerous conditions
and among a surprising number of individuals, the nature and value of the sexual object
steps into the background. There is something else in the sexual impulse which is the
essential and constant.[13]
2. DEVIATION IN REFERENCE TO THE SEXUAL AIM
The union of the genitals in the characteristic act of copulation is taken as the normal
sexual aim. It serves to loosen the sexual tension and temporarily to quench the sexual
desire (gratification analogous to satisfaction of hunger). Yet even in the most normal
sexual process those additions are distinguishable, the development of which leads to the
aberrations described as perversions. Thus certain intermediary relations to the sexual
object connected with copulation, such as touching and looking, are recognized as
preliminary to the sexual aim. These activities are on the one hand themselves connected
with pleasure and on the other hand they enhance the excitement which persists until the
definite sexual aim is reached. One definite kind of contiguity, consisting of mutual
approximation of the mucous membranes of the lips in the form of a kiss, has received
among the most civilized nations a sexual value, though the parts of the body concerned
do not belong to the sexual apparatus but form the entrance to the digestive tract. This
therefore supplies the factors which allow us to bring the perversions into relation with
the normal sexual life, and which are available also for their classification. The
perversions are either (_a_) anatomical transgressions of the bodily regions destined for
sexual union, or (_b_) a lingering at the intermediary relations to the sexual object which
should normally be rapidly passed on the way to the definite sexual aim.
(_a_) Anatomical Transgression *Overestimation of the Sexual Object.*--The psychic
estimation in which the sexual object as a goal of the sexual impulse shares is only in the
rarest cases limited to the genitals; generally it embraces the whole body and tends to
include all sensations emanating from the sexual object. The same overestimation spreads
over the psychic sphere and manifests itself as a logical blinding (diminished judgment)
in the face of the psychic attainments and perfections of the sexual object, as well as a
blind obedience to the judgments issuing from the latter. The full faith of love thus
becomes an important, if not the primordial source of authority.[14]
It is this sexual overvaluation, which so ill agrees with the restriction of the sexual aim to
the union of the genitals only, that assists other parts of the body to participate as sexual
aims.[15] In the development of this most manifold anatomical overestimation there is an
unmistakable desire towards variation, a thing denominated by Hoche as
"excitement-hunger" (Reiz-hunger).[16]
*Sexual Utilization of the Mucous Membrane of the Lips and Mouth.*--The significance
of the factor of sexual overestimation can be best studied in the man, in whom alone the
sexual life is accessible to investigation, whereas in the woman it is veiled in
impenetrable darkness, partly in consequence of cultural stunting and partly