sketched drawings representing correct Greek profiles of female heads, but the nostrils were so large that immissio penis would have been possible.
One day, in an omnibus, he saw a girl in whom he thought he recognized his ideal. He followed her to her home and immediately proposed to her. Shown the door, he returned again and again, until arrested. X. never had sexual intercourse.Hand-fetichists are very numerous. The following case is not really pathological. It is given here as a transitional case:—
Case 75. B., of neuropathic family, very sensual, mentally intact. At the sight of the hand of a beautiful young lady he is always charmed and feels sexual excitement to the extent of ejaculation. It is his delight to kiss and press such hands. As long as they are covered with gloves he feels unhappy. By pretexts he tries to get hold of such hands. He is indifferent to the foot. If the beautiful hands are ornamented with rings, his lust is increased. Only the living hand, not its image, causes him this lustful excitement. It is only when he is exhausted sexually by frequent coitus that the hand loses its sexual charm. At first the memory-picture of female hands disturbed him even while at work. (Binet, op. cit.)
Binet states that such cases of enthusiasm for the female hand are numerous. Here it may be recalled that, according to Case 24, a man may be partial to the female hand as a result of sadistic impulses; and that, according to Case 46, the same thing may be due to masochistic desires. Thus such cases have more than one meaning. But this is by no means to say that all, or even a majority, of the cases of hand-fetichism allow or require a sadistic or masochistic explanation.
The following interesting case, that has been studied in detail, shows that, in spite of the fact that at first a sadistic or masochistic element seems to have exercised an influence, at the time of the individual’s maturity and the complete development of the perversion, the latter contained nothing of these elements. Of course, it is possible that, in the course of time, these disappeared; but here the assumption of the origin of the fetichism in an accidental association meets every requirement:—
