nected with death and suffering has a mysterious attraction; who, with inward opposition, and yet following a dark impulse, occupy themselves with such things, or at least with pictures and notices of them. Still, this is not sadism, as long as no sexual element enters into consciousness; and yet it is possible that, in unconscious life, slender threads connect such manifestations with the hidden depths of sadism.
(h) Sadism in Woman.—That sadism—a perversion, as we have seen, frequent in men—is much less frequent in women, is easily explained. In the first place, sadism, in which the need of subjugation of the opposite sex forms a constituent element, in accordance with its nature, represents a pathological intensification of the masculine sexual character; in the second place, the obstacles which oppose the expression of this monstrous impulse are, of course, much greater for a woman than for a man. Yet sadism occurs in women; and it can only be explained by the primary constituent element,—the general hyper-excitation of the motor sphere. Only two cases have thus far been scientifically studied.
Case 42. A married man presented himself with numerous scars of cuts on his arms. He told their origin as follows: When he wished to approach his wife, who was young and somewhat “nervous,” he first had to make a cut in his arm. Then she would suck the wound, and during the act become violently excited sexually.
This case recalls the wide-spread legend of the vampires, the origin of which may perhaps be referred to such sadistic facts.[1]
In a second case of feminine sadism, for which I am indebted to Dr. Moll, of Berlin, by the side of the perverse impulse, as so frequently occurs, there is anæsthesia for the normal activities of the sexual life; and here there are also traces of masochism (v. infra).
- ↑ The legend is especially spread throughout the Balkan peninsula. Among the Greeks it has its origin in the myth of the lamiæ and marmolykes,—blood-sucking women. Goethe made use of this in his “Bride of Corinth.” The verses referring to vampirism, “suck thy heart’s blood,” etc., can be thoroughly understood only when compared with their ancient sources.
