Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/181

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FETICHISM.

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the individuals to commit crimes.^[1]^[2] These form the group of hair-despoilers.

Case 78. A hair-despoiler. P., aged 40, artistic locksmith, single. His father was temporarily insane, and his mother was very nervous. He developed well, and was intelligent; but he was early affected with tics and imperative ideas. He had never masturbated. He loved platonically, and often busied himself with matrimonial plans. He had coitus infrequently with prostitutes, but never felt satisfied with such intercourse—rather, disgusted. Three years ago he was overtaken by misfortune (financial ruin), and, besides, he had a febrile disease, with delirium. These things had a very bad effect on his hereditarily-predisposed nervous system. On August 28, 1889, P. was arrested at the Trocadero, in Paris, in flagranti, as he forcibly cut off a young girl’s hair. He was arrested with the hair in his hand and a pair of shears in his pocket. He excused himself on the ground of momentary mental confusion and an unfortunate, irresistible passion; he confessed that he had ten times cut off hair, which he took great delight in keeping at home. On searching his home, sixty-five switches and tresses of hair were found, assorted in packets. P. had already been once arrested, on December 15, 1886, under similar circumstances, but was released for lack of evidence. P. states that, for the last three years, when he is alone in his room at night, he feels ill, anxious, excited, and dizzy, and then is troubled by the impulse to touch female hair. When it happened that he could actually take a young girl’s hair in his hand, he felt intensely excited sexually, and had erection and ejaculation without touching the girl in any

↑ Moll (op. cit., p. 131) reports: “A man, X., becomes intensely excited sexually whenever he sees a woman with the hair in a braid; loose hair, no matter how beautiful, cannot produce this effect.”
Of course, it is not justifiable to consider all hair-despoilers fetichists, for in a few cases such acts are done for the purpose of gain,—i.e., the stolen hair is not a fetich.
↑ Magnan (Arch. de Neurologie, vol. xxxiii, No. 69, 1892) gives the details of a case of sexual perversion in a degenerate individual, where the elements of fetichism and sadism were combined, and faute de mieux the sadistic impulse found satisfaction in self-mutilation. The perverse impulse began at the age of six; the sight of a boy or girl with a delicate, white skin awakened in him sexual appetite, with a desire to bite and eat a piece of the skin. While caressing a horse, the impulse to bite the soft skin of its nostrils arose, and afterward the memory of this became associated with the act of onanism. Later, he began to prick himself with pins, knives, etc., while masturbating. The desire to bite and eat skin was also provoked by the sight of shining blades, like those of scissors. He was always able to resist the impulse to attack young girls; but the struggle was hard, and for eight months he hesitated before venting his passion on his own person. He was finally arrested in the act of cutting a large piece of skin from his arm with scissors. Asked the motive of his self-mutilation, he stated that for several hours he had been following a young girl who had a fine, white skin, and was burning with desire to cut out a piece of it and eat it. On his person there were many scars of previous mutilations. The impulse was devoid of natural sexual desire. Chewing the piece of skin provoked ejaculation.—Trans.

[1] Moll (op. cit., p. 131) reports: “A man, X., becomes intensely excited sexually whenever he sees a woman with the hair in a braid; loose hair, no matter how beautiful, cannot produce this effect.”
Of course, it is not justifiable to consider all hair-despoilers fetichists, for in a few cases such acts are done for the purpose of gain,—i.e., the stolen hair is not a fetich.

[2] Magnan (Arch. de Neurologie, vol. xxxiii, No. 69, 1892) gives the details of a case of sexual perversion in a degenerate individual, where the elements of fetichism and sadism were combined, and faute de mieux the sadistic impulse found satisfaction in self-mutilation. The perverse impulse began at the age of six; the sight of a boy or girl with a delicate, white skin awakened in him sexual appetite, with a desire to bite and eat a piece of the skin. While caressing a horse, the impulse to bite the soft skin of its nostrils arose, and afterward the memory of this became associated with the act of onanism. Later, he began to prick himself with pins, knives, etc., while masturbating. The desire to bite and eat skin was also provoked by the sight of shining blades, like those of scissors. He was always able to resist the impulse to attack young girls; but the struggle was hard, and for eight months he hesitated before venting his passion on his own person. He was finally arrested in the act of cutting a large piece of skin from his arm with scissors. Asked the motive of his self-mutilation, he stated that for several hours he had been following a young girl who had a fine, white skin, and was burning with desire to cut out a piece of it and eat it. On his person there were many scars of previous mutilations. The impulse was devoid of natural sexual desire. Chewing the piece of skin provoked ejaculation.—Trans.

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