Hypersexuality, Contrary Sexuality, and Sexual Perversion

I. Psychopathies are physical abnormalities which are manifested especially by abnormal acts of the sensitive appetites, especially of the concupiscible appetite. In those who are physically constituted in such a way, the vehemence of the acts of the sensitive appetites is by no means proportionate to the causes which are truly present; therefore the sensitive life dominates in an abnormal way. Very many specimens of psychopaths are distinguished, the principal ones of which are: 1. hysteria; 2. the asocial-criminal specimen. There are added, 3. sexual abnormalities, which, although in themselves they do not belong to psychopathy, are nevertheless akin to it.

1. Hysteria. Its distinctive mark is that those who are affected by hysteria desire to seem, both to themselves and to others, greater than they really are, and they desire that greater and more wonderful things should happen to them than really and ordinarily are accustomed to happen. But hysterical persons, since their wishes are by no means fulfilled in the truth of things, with the help of a lively imagination do this: they seek to become possessors of their wishes in another way. They desire that others be concerned with them, that they themselves be, as it were, the center of all thoughts, that marvelous and wonderful things which increase the liveliness of their imagination happen to them. On account of these things, which are, as it were, certain notes and distinctive marks of hysterical persons, such persons, who occur especially among women, must be treated with every prudence. Thus it can happen that, desiring in an insane way that something marvelous happen to them, they tend toward a sexual relation with ecclesiastics or confessors. Likewise it happens that they invent violence brought against themselves or solicitations proposed to them.

Crises can occur in hysterical persons; then they are shaken by convulsions, or they are as if in a state of sleep and torpor, or they are affected by vehement depression. These things, however, occur only by way of exception, for the essence of hysteria consists in the hysterical complexion itself.

2. The asocial-criminal specimen. These persons plainly lack all higher affections, feel nothing humanely, and are led only by concern for themselves, or egoism. To this specimen of psychopathy the name "moral insanity" is also given.

Corollary. In those whose complexion is affected psychopathically, moral responsibility will often be present only in a diminished way; indeed, in certain psychotic states, occurring extraordinarily, responsibility will be plainly removed.

3. Sexual abnormalities, which consist in this, that the venereal appetite departs from the normal manner, whether with respect to the time of manifesting itself, or with respect to intensity, or with respect to object. It is said:

a) With respect to the time of manifesting itself. Namely, it happens that in children, with respect to the venereal appetite, a precocious maturity, and one of a higher degree, is found; this disposition can indeed render the said children very dangerous for others.

b) With respect to intensity. Namely, some labor under a wholly unbridled and insatiable propensity toward venereal things; if this reaches the extreme degree, in men it is called satyriasis, as if making satyrs, and in women uterine fury or nymphomania.

c) With respect to object. Namely, the venereal passion in some persons is borne toward objects which of themselves are in no way, or not in that way, ordered to venereal sensations. To this are referred: homosexuality, sadism, masochism, fetishism, and exhibitionism.

a) Homosexuality is had when the sexual inclination is borne toward persons of the same sex. In a woman it is called Lesbian or Sapphic love; if it is borne toward boys, it is called pederasty.

b) Sadism, from the Marquis de Sade, who was affected in this way and described his own foul deeds, exists if libido is excited by perpetrating acts of cruelty, for example by piercing a girl with a knife.

c) Masochism, from Sacher-Masoch, who describes these things in works of fiction, is so called if libido is excited by suffering acts of cruelty.

d) Fetishism exists if libido is excited by imagination or handling of things or parts of the body which do not pertain to venereal matters, such as the hand, foot, hair, clothing, etc.

To the aforesaid there is added exhibitionism, which consists in the propensity of a man to exhibit his body or naked genitals to women.

Corollary I. Sexual abnormalities, as we have already suggested, are not yet in themselves signs of a true psychopathy, since they can also be consequences of psychogenic reactions, of which we shall speak in Point III. Therefore it must be seen whether or not symptoms of true psychopathy concur.

Corollary II. Concerning moral responsibility: if symptoms of true psychopathy are present, the things that have been said about those who are affected psychopathically hold good (cf. corollary, n. 54). If the said symptoms are absent, much discretion is still needed for rendering a judgment concerning the imputability of those who are borne with the greatest force into venereal matters. For it seems that credence often cannot be given to the testimony of those themselves who suffer these things; for sometimes they falsely think that they acted voluntarily, although from other indications it appears that this is not true. A more secure judgment indeed is formed concerning those who live piously; the difficulty is much greater in those who care little for piety.

II. Psychasthenia is a state of soul whose distinctive marks are consciousness of culpability and anxieties, increased in an abnormal and vehement way. Many scrupulous persons are to be counted among these.

Corollary. With respect to acts which are placed under the influence of these affections, for example imprecations or pollutions, moral responsibility will be diminished or plainly removed.

III. Neurasthenia is a morbid state of soul whose distinctive mark is fatigue and weariness of the entire nervous system together with the greatest irritability of the sensitive life; therefore neurasthenic persons can remain masters of themselves with greater difficulty.

I. Hypersexuality consists in an abnormal propensity toward venereal things. As regards this matter, with Eschbach,¹ three classes of men can be distinguished, according as some suffer common and intermittent temptations, or more vehement and almost continual temptations, or wholly unrestrained temptations. But concerning the latter, whom we are chiefly considering here, the praised author writes these things: "Celibates are sometimes found laboring under such an unrestrained and cruel libido that it now seems to be not simple libido, but a physical and almost unconquerable propensity toward venereal things. Certainly, among so many and so great miseries and hardships to which we know the human body to be subject, one of this kind is also numbered by physicians; if there is question of males, it is called satyriasis, as though making satyrs; among women it is called uterine fury, or nymphomania. They say that the nature of both is situated in a lesion or irritation of the brain and nervous plexus, commonly called neurosis; but they assign causes either moral, for example evil habits, erotic readings, etc., or merely physical; finally experience teaches that the effects are too much to be lamented. For these unhappy celibates, whether they wish it or not, almost the whole day and night are occupied with the most foul thoughts, phantasms, and desires of immodesty and pleasure; they continually and violently seek carnal intercourse, without ever being able, if they yield, to be satisfied; if they are deprived of venery, they are driven into rage and erotic delirium; they cast off all shame, which is especially true of women, indeed these women often conduct themselves like brute animals."

¹ Disputationes physiologico-theologicae, pp. 532-533.

II. Contrary sexuality is had when the sexual inclination is borne toward persons of the same sex; in a woman it is called lesbian or sapphic love; if it is borne toward boys, it is called pederasty.

III. Sexual perversion consists in this, that someone's libido is excited by thoughts, things, or acts foreign to sexual life. Sadism, masochism, and fetishism are distinguished.

1. Sadism, from the Marquis de Sade, who was affected in this way, is present if libido is excited by perpetrating acts of cruelty, for example by pricking a girl with a knife.

2. Masochism, from Sacher-Masoch, who describes these things in romantic works, is so called if libido is excited by suffering acts of cruelty.

3. Fetishism is present if libido is excited by the imagination or handling of things or of parts of the body which do not pertain to venereal things, such as the hand, foot, hair, garments, etc.

General note. Much discretion is needed for passing judgment concerning the imputability of those who are borne into venereal things by a very great and truly abnormal force. For it often seems that faith cannot be given to the testimony of those who suffer these things; for sometimes they falsely judge that they acted voluntarily, although from other indications it appears that this is not true. A safer judgment is indeed formed concerning those who live piously; there is much greater difficulty in those who care little for piety.

¹ Cf. Capellmann-Bergmann, Pastoral-Medizin, p. 196 sq.; Noldin, op. cit., p. 47.

29. Since the full use of the sexual function requires that the sexual organs, the nerve centers, and the sexual propensities themselves all be intact, sexual pathology pertains to the very structure of the organs, to the state of the nerves, and to psychic affection. Hence we have distinguished structural defects, sexual neuropathy, and sexual psychopathology.

30. These things in particular seem to us to require mention.

1. In the man:

The penis is either wholly absent; or, whereas it is usually 8-10 centimeters in length, it is so small that it can scarcely be perceived by touch; or, conversely, it is too long, up to 30 centimeters, or too large.

The meatus of the penis opens not at the end of the glans but in the upper or lower part of the canal (epispadias or hypospadias).

The testes are either absent (anorchidia); or both or one of them are hidden, for example, in the abdomen or the inguinal canal (cryptorchidia); or, as though not nourished, they are present only in a diminutive state (atrophy of the testes).

In phimosis, the glans cannot be uncovered because of an excessively narrow prepuce. Paraphimosis is present when, after the glans has been uncovered, the prepuce so constricts the corona that it can no longer be drawn forward.

2. In the woman:

The vagina is absent, or has no opening, at least no exterior one, or has one which is too narrow.

The hymen is too firm, so that it cannot be penetrated.

The uterus is absent or closed.

The ovaries are absent.

31. It can be asked here whether hermaphrodites exist or not.

During its uterine life, the fetus for some time possesses female organs together with male ones, so that it must truly be called bisexual. Afterwards, however, one or the other set of organs no longer develops, and one sex prevails.

But an adult human being who is fully and truly a hermaphrodite, that is, who so combines the marks of each sex that he can exercise the parts of each and thus have a choice of either sex, is today relegated to empty fictions. There are nevertheless human beings who, in the sexual parts themselves or in the rest of the body, or even in the propensities of the soul, bear, together with their proper sex, signs or traces of the other. Hence androgynes are men with certain marks of women; gynandrous persons are women with marks of men. There are also persons who are rather of neither sex, so that there is doubt concerning their true sex, and errors have sometimes been committed. Compare A.S.S., vol. 21, pp. 480-501, the Ferentina case, 1888, in which a supposed wife was assigned to the male sex by the best physicians.

32. I. Pollutions that are too frequent or too laborious. In a man, pollutions regularly occur during sleep without any cooperation of the will; when they are not too frequent, they do no harm to health. Their frequency varies according to age, bodily temperament, and manner of life: that they occur twice or three times in a month is entirely normal; that they are repeated for a few successive days, with a longer interval then intervening, is to be considered nothing strange; nor is a weekly pollution to be feared.

In sleep, however, they are generally, not to say always, produced with the imagination excited and with bodily pleasure.

There are nevertheless men who experience them too frequently at night, or during the day because of a slight cause or together with heaviness of the head.

Others also are truly tormented by an excessive difficulty of pollutions.

Finally, others suffer from what is called spermatorrhea; that is, without orgasm and ejaculation, they emit semen, often with urine or even while relieving the bowels.

These things, unless they take their origin from a defect, can be signs of various illnesses, especially especially to be attributed to the nervous system. (Compare Gemelli, Non moechaberis, p. 68.)

33. - II. Priapism designates a permanent erection of the male member without libidinous arousal.

34. - III. Sexual neurasthenia, in general, is accustomed to combine an excessively easy excitation with a sense of fatigue and debility. Its notion is variously handed down. It can be called sexual insofar as it variously disturbs the sexual state or sexual excitation.

Leaving aside involuntary causes, such as bodily debility itself or heredity, this nervous erethism can be produced or rendered more serious by venereal excesses, especially frequent masturbation, unnatural intercourse, and especially interrupted intercourse, but not by sexual abstinence ¹.

¹ Ellis and Moll, op. cit., p. 699.

In the man it prevents either erection alone, or ejaculation, or both; or it permits only an incipient erection with a discharge of semen.

It also induces excessively frequent nocturnal pollutions, which leave behind heaviness of the head and dejection of spirit ².

² Ibid., p. 697 ff.

Even a slight cause is sufficient for the sick to have diurnal pollutions, or to suffer from spermatorrhea.

Sometimes they have pains of the penis without an exterior cause, or experience heat and itching; they feel themselves filled with semen that is to be emitted, ready for carnal arousal; nor is their false hunger allayed by the venereal act.

We can also refer here an excessively prolonged erection of the penis, with a sense of pleasure, by which mark it is distinguished from priapism.

Sexual neurasthenia has been less explored in the woman. It is manifested in a similar manner by excessively easy excitation and more frequent pollution.

35. Under the name sexual psychopathology many defects are numbered which appear to affect sexual appetite itself. Accordingly:

In origin, these defects are not infrequently innate, that is, received from parents; but sometimes they are also due either to one's own sins or even to an accidental and inculpable event.

Moreover, they vary in manifold form and character. Let us enumerate the principal ones in a certain order:

36. In the first class we comprise defects which disclose a perverted subjective force of appetite. They are:

Paradoxism, when the appetite begins to rage at an unusual age; either it is too precocious - infantile paradoxism, before puberty and especially before the organs are developed - or it is too late - senile paradoxism.

Anesthesia or hypesthesia, when the appetite is shown to be either wholly absent or excessively weak. This defect occurs more frequently among women.

Hyperesthesia, which signifies excessive force of appetite. The insatiable fury of the man is called satyriasis, and that of the woman nymphomania.

The abuse of masturbation is often connected with excessive appetite; yet this abuse also often corrupts morals without a perverted appetite.

We can also refer to hyperesthesia the defect of those who are aroused by a very slight cause, or who, often because of depraved habits, think and speak about shameful things on almost every occasion and at every time. Forel also condemns this eroticism, La question sexuelle, pp. 127-128.

37. In the second class are comprised defects by which a man is so inclined that he is affected toward an object contrary to nature. This class of paresthesia or perversion is properly called inversion.

— As we noted above, n. 96-99, there are various perversions of the sexual appetite (sexual paresthesias).

In order that we may speak of the obligations of those who, in an unusual manner, either are moved carnally or, on the contrary, remain frigid:

1. Unmarried persons are forbidden to seek or intend venereal pleasures by unusual means as well as by usual means. And the proximate occasion of sin must be fled by all.

2. But by the distinction between pleasure strictly venereal and sensible carnal pleasure, these infirm persons will be helped, so that they can weigh the quality of the subjective affection and the gravity of the obligation. The sensible pleasure is not yet grave in itself.

3. But must they, on account of their special readiness for commotion, abstain from an action which is lawful for others, or at least is not gravely forbidden? Certainly they are greatly to be exhorted to take care of this without anxiety. We say this at least of itself. For the inconveniences of flight also must be weighed. And, with the danger of illusion and of consent excluded, this does not seem able to be prescribed under grave obligation, both because a precept of positively avoiding carnal movements is not demonstrated, and because to abstain from a thing which is lawful for others is already hard.

4. If certain things which move others leave these persons in a condition of perfect frigidity, they will have to abstain from these only insofar as the reason of scandal or positive law requires it. These, therefore, will be the privileges of that state.

— Concerning the imputation of depraved acts to those who are affected by psychic diseases, one must speak very circumspectly. (Cf. what we said in general theology, n. 103-104, concerning troublesome cases which occur in libidinous matters.) Here let it suffice to have noted that grave guilt itself can be had with diminished imputability; nor, universally or of itself, can those be excused who, truly awake during the night, indulge a depraved habit which by day they abhor.

I. Modesty is the virtue itself of chastity, which avoids every signification of lust and protects itself from occasions of sin.

II. Immodest acts are, by their external species itself, akin to lustful acts. Such acts can be done on account of a cause that is honorable, suspect, or strictly libidinous.

The judgments of theologians concerning these acts, when they are not perfectly excused, must be explained by a twofold presumption: of the danger of consent, and of hidden direct lust, that is, lust covered over by a pretext.

Presumptions can fall short of the truth. Therefore a prudent confessor will sometimes have to respond more benignly, sometimes more severely. These rules can be proposed: a) he who, without an equitable cause, does that from which, of itself, or as it were directly, he experiences pollution or a pleasure sufficiently proximate to pollution, is, practically and of itself, to be said to sin gravely, on account of the true intention by which he is led or the proximate danger of sinning. b) The more an exterior act bears the species of a libidinous demonstration, and the less the reason for acting is explained by a just and honorable cause, the more difficult it will be for it to be excused.

But efficacy toward a grave carnal movement is shown to be partly relative, or different in different persons. Yet in a thing truly immodest, and in the lingering manner in which looking, touching, or mental consideration takes place, this efficacy is commonly judged to be present.

These rules must prudently be applied to foul words, gestures, and writings, to immodest looks and touches, in which the principal agents, their cooperators, and those who undergo their action must be distinguished.

Immodest phantasms, concerning which there is a special question, can never, by a libidinous intention, either be stirred up, or fostered, or attended to. And if they move gravely, lingering consideration of them will generally be gravely culpable, because it contains a proximate occasion sought without utility. A grave obligation of positively repelling them is not demonstrated, saving the necessity of fleeing the proximate occasion. Quiet repudiation is to be preferred to anxious repudiation.

The scenic plays of theaters and modern dances must be judged alien from the evangelical spirit. Therefore these things must be declined by Christians, insofar as this can honorably be done.

Moreover, the excessive worldly servitude of Catholics in the clothing of women, girls, and adolescents is to be deplored.

In visiting museums of the arts, certain things sometimes will have to be tolerated; nevertheless only visits truly useful scientifically can be positively approved.

And generally one must strive more that the incentives of lust be warded off without scruple or timidity.

III. Those who, on account of a perverse sexual appetite, are carnally excited in an unusual manner, or remain frigid, have in common with the rest the obligation of declining every formal lust. Nevertheless, with the danger of illusion and of consent excluded, they are not bound under grave obligation to abstain from an action which is lawful for others, or not gravely unlawful. At the same time they can receive the advantage of their frigidity, insofar as, with scandal or the prohibition of positive law excluded, they are not bound to abstain from seeing, etc., those things which allow them to be perfectly frigid.

— In the first place, we wish this to be well noted: when, in the course of our work, we indicate what various documents or counsels are to be handed on to persons, according to various circumstances, we do not at all intend that these be handed on either in sacramental confession or by the confessor as such. Here there is need of great prudence and discretion. And in so delicate a matter, it is to be advised that what a priest can furnish through books or lay persons, he should furnish by this indirect manner. But here age, knowledge, the name of the confessor, the person whom he bears for his client, and the qualities of the persons who approach the confessor must be weighed. For the priest can be merely a confessor; he can, besides, be a pastor, a spiritual director in whom a young man has trusted for many years. One must act differently with a person of the weaker sex, differently with a man; differently with one pious and religious, differently with one little faithful; differently with one well known, differently with one unknown.

When in n. 21 we were treating of the revelation of the mysteries of life, we proposed no method of fuller revelation, when it seemed to have to be made. For since circumstances vary so greatly, we judge that no formula is to be proposed. In certain regions, pious priests have written excellent little books on this matter (for example, at Lyons, P. Guitton, De la Chasteté), which it will then suffice to hand over to be read. Nevertheless, these few things can be indicated. Let the instruction be simple, without solemn apparatus. - If a comparison must be used, let it be taken from the vegetable order rather than from the animal. - Let the sanctity and nobility of the action by which parents cooperate with God the Creator be set forth. Therefore let speech be made concerning the creation and infusion of the spiritual soul. Let the sanctity of the Christian body be recalled, as St. Paul gave us an example in I Cor., c. 3 and 6. With these things premised:

In causes of chastity and of the opposite lust, the confessor, although he cannot put forward false things, nevertheless must act so prudently that, as far as he can, he may avert from penitents the danger of falling; especially since it is often most difficult to pronounce with certainty concerning light or grave sin, concerning full or only imperfect imputation; and rash condemnation has not rarely led souls to despair, improvident hesitation to anxiety scarcely curable, and ill-considered excuse to destructive audacity. Therefore let him quiet the fearful with firm responses, yet at the same time efficaciously lead penitents, especially clerics and younger persons, to follow safer things, according to that saying: "In this matter of the sixth precept, it is necessary, as far as possible, to apply every severity." (St. Alph., Homo apost., tr. 9, n. 34.)

But paternal severity, which keeps rash actions away, by no means excludes benevolence toward persons.

Yet in order that he may take counsel for his own security and perfection, let the confessor sedulously attend to this, that his affability remain supernatural, and that in no matter he seek himself.

Thus also he will exhibit himself courteous and benign, so that he gives place to no sexual affection among others.

Let him not be ignorant that beneath the covering of intense piety there can lie religious paranoia, which is rooted in a morbid but most vehement concupiscence. Let him not be ignorant that there are persons for whom, in order to experience pleasure, it is enough to speak with another about sexual matters. Therefore persons of this kind, especially unmarried women, can seek base satisfactions in the very tribunal of penance.

"Let him be mindful of canon 888, §2: Let him beware entirely... lest by curious or useless questions, especially concerning the sixth precept of the Decalogue, he detain anyone, and especially lest he imprudently question younger persons concerning things which they do not know. Indeed St. Alphonsus, l. VI, n. 632, approves these things already laid down by Busembaum: Questions in the matter of chastity ought to be few and cautious, lest he either give occasion for investigating or drawing out the confession, or teach or offend one ignorant, or expose himself or another to danger. - And if he fears these things, he ought rather to suffer something to be lacking from material integrity." Therefore, let him be silent - I say - not for conniving at sins, but often for avoiding conversations which accord little with the sanctity of the sacrament. Let him take care that the confession be made at once modestly and sincerely, and dispense the penitent from the necessity of narrating particulars, so that he in no way fear that the confession is incomplete because of these things omitted; let him dexterously detect depraved habits of adolescents in order to extirpate them. And let him implore light from God, so that he can take sufficient counsel for the correction of vices and at the same time remove from himself every suspicion of curiosity. Only when compelled by necessity let him appear to interrogate prudently concerning the right use of matrimony or concerning onanistic abuse, according to the responses of the Holy See.

To spouses he will advise that tenor of life by which, each being content with the other, they may live and grow in mutual love and esteem. Although he will not neglect to lead them on to more perfect counsels.

But others he will chiefly exhort to these things:

That they flee whatever things are strange and unusual in these matters.

That if there is a grave cause for seeing, reading, or handling something which can move sense, they keep a simple, not anxious, manner of acting.

That, excepting a just cause, they be occupied as little as possible in these matters, and strongly repel specious pretexts.

That, even in a necessary action, they study to avoid less pure affections and movements of the flesh.

That they esteem sincerity and strength of soul very highly and acquire them for themselves.

That they be mindful of human dignity and of the love by which Christ has espoused the soul of the faithful person to himself.

That they foster higher studies earnestly.

That they most frequently taste the heavenly food of the Eucharist, with that devotion by which it is fitting.

That, also by tender devotion toward the most pure Virgin, they foster in themselves not only horror of sin but an apostolic love of chastity, of which St. Paul handed down an excellent lesson.

In this way he will inculcate delicate and joyful purity; and he will form Christians of whom Athenagoras already said in the second century: "Since we have the hope of eternal life, we despise the pleasures of this life." (Legatio pro Christianis, n. 22. P. G. 6, 966.)

VII. For a better understanding of sins against nature, a few things must be treated concerning abnormal sexual appetite, which deflects from the common norm; here there come to be considered: a. hypersexuality; b. sexual perversion.

Concerning hypersexuality Noldin notes, o. c., n. 46:

"1. Sensual affection in different men, as far as vehemence is concerned, is diverse; in men it is more vehement than in women. But even among persons of the same sex, some have obtained one more vehement than others; sometimes it reaches an extraordinarily great vehemence. A sexual appetite of this kind, more vehement, is found both in those who labor under a psychic defect, and in those who are not psychopathic.

"2. The cause of this matter is partly a disposition acquired by heredity, partly an illness of the nerves, partly abuse of alcoholic drink. There accede sexual excesses, which increase both the illness of the soul and the sexual affection; for repeated excesses generate a depraved habit, which sometimes grows so enormously that libido is excited from any, even the slightest, cause, and then almost mechanically, by physical necessity, drives to pollution.

"3. The signs from which it is known that sexual appetite has been increased beyond measure, pathologically, are these: if libido, scarcely satisfied, is soon excited again; if libido is excited from the sight of things indifferent in the genus of lust; if sexual affection so occupies a man that he thinks and speaks almost only of this matter and seeks means of satisfying the affection.

"Now: a. those who are of sound mind can and must repress and moderate sexual affection, even a more vehement one, nor do they suffer any injury to health from the fact that they do not satisfy sexual appetite, even the most vehement. Therefore sins committed against chastity are fully imputable to them.

"b. Indeed even those who labor under psychic defect sin voluntarily and culpably, unless the defect is of a greater degree. Namely, sexual excesses will be less voluntary and culpable the greater and more intense the illness of soul is.

"c. They are fully involuntary for those who are sick in mind or fully psychopathic."

VIII. Concerning sexual perversion, Noldin takes the following from Capellmann-Bergmann, o. c., n. 47:

"1. Sexual perversion consists in this, that the sexual appetite and sexual actions are abnormal in this, that libido is excited not by internal and external acts pertaining to venereal matters, as ordinarily happens, but by others altogether foreign to sexual life.

"2. It can indeed happen that a sexual disposition, at the beginning not alien from the common norm, has been made abnormal by sins of lust against nature committed for a long time; ordinarily, however, the abnormal disposition has been transmitted by heredity from the parents, together with a morbid affection of the nervous system.

"3. Four diverse forms of perverse sexual disposition are distinguished: sadism, masochism, fetishism, contrary sexuality.

"a. Sadism is so called if venereal pleasure is excited by imaginings which contain cruelty and violence, of which kind are: to strangle, to prick with a knife, to strike, to scourge, to slaughter, lust-murder.¹⁰

¹⁰ The name is drawn from the Marquis de Sade, who was affected by this perversity and exhibits, as it were, its prototype.

"These actions are not carried out to obtain copulation from the person to whom force is inflicted, but to excite and quiet and fulfill libido through them. This perversion is frequently found in men, scarcely ever in women; for since the man in sexual life is the active and, if it is permitted so to speak, aggressive principle, it seems to have arisen from the degeneration of the office which in sexual functions naturally belongs to the man.

"b. Masochism is so called if venereal pleasure is excited by this, that someone suffers violence and torments, of which kind are to be struck, kicked, beaten, scourged, pricked even to the effusion of blood, and so forth.¹¹

¹¹ The name is taken from Sacher-Masoch, who especially describes this perversion in his fictitious narratives, Romans.

"This perversion is found especially in women, which is easily understood from the things said above, since the woman bears herself more passively in sexual functions. They do not indeed lack the sense of pain while they suffer force, but by the sense of venereal pleasure the pain is abundantly compensated.

"c. Fetishism is so called if libido is excited by imaginings or actions which do not pertain to venereal things and therefore otherwise are not apt to excite pleasure.

"The things or parts of the body whose imagining or handling excites venereal feeling are the hand, foot, eye, hair, garment, shoes, feathers, cloths, rags, and so forth. For the most part these things or parts of the body have relation to a determinate person loved with inordinate affection; but it can happen that, even independently from relation to a certain person, they provoke venereal pleasure and pollution.

"d. Contrary sexuality, or homosexuality, is so called if sexual appetite tends toward a person of the same sex. Venereal feeling therefore is provoked not from the imagining, sight, or touch of a person of different sex, but of the same sex.

"The sins which are committed by those who labor under this perversion are pollutions provoked by touches and sodomitical concubituses. If the perverse inclination is borne toward boys, it is called pederasty; ordinarily, however, it tends toward men. This perversion is also found in women, in whom it is called Lesbian or Sapphic love and induces to mutual pollutions and sodomitical sins which women commit among themselves.

"Now: a. Sexual perversion is not a sign of a sick mind: perversions are also found in those who labor under no psychic defect. Yet this seems able to be affirmed, that perversions are more frequently had in men of sick mind than of sound mind.

"b. Not only those who are of sound mind but also those who labor under psychic defect can repress perverse sexual appetites; and therefore sins, or perversities, are imputable to them, unless the psychic defect has reached a greater degree. It becomes ineluctable when to psychic defect there accedes a great vehemence of sexual appetite, whether ordinary or perverse....

"Note: the confessor ought to know that certain traces of perverse sexual disposition are sometimes found even in those whose sexual life otherwise does not depart from the common norm. For not a few are met who are basely excited by imaginings or actions which scarcely refer at all to venereal matters, as by the chastisement of boys represented by imagination, by reading of the torments which the martyrs suffered, by the imagining or touch of hair gathered into a knot, and so forth. Against temptations arisen from imaginings or actions of this kind they must fight equally as against other temptations attacking chastity. Those whose sexual perversion is perfect are excited only by abnormal means, but by base means not at all or only a little."

"The greatest attention must be employed in choosing foods; the manner of alimentation ought to consist in tonic foods, least of all exciting. According to Doctor Fournier all who must be corrected of this vice ought to use light foods and those of easy digestion, those which in small volume contain sufficient force of nutrition, namely eggs, milk, tender and roasted meats, birds, light fish, tender roots, chicory; they ought to avoid acrid and irritating foods, starchy foods which dilate the intestines, fruits which weaken and burden the stomach, and swine meats. In the evening it would be better to abstain from meats; chocolate is not good since it is too nourishing, nor do crustaceans help, since they are excitants of the nervous system. Likewise alcoholic drinks, very alcoholic wines, beer, tea, and so forth, are forbidden. The best drink is water mixed with old wine. Likewise garments ought not be too warming, nor compress the genitals.

"But if all these things do not suffice, some medicines must be attended to, such as potassium bromide and especially camphor, lupulin, and so forth; hydrated chloral for insomnia.

"Sometimes besides it happens that all these things profit nothing, because of disease of the brain or spinal marrow, by which boys and girls unknowingly devote themselves to masturbation. Then mechanical means are to be employed. There are very many of these; but those judged of better effect are: the use of a garment which joins the arms and retains them before the chest; a binding in like manner of the hands to the neck so that they can never touch the genitals; the use of gloves made from metal for the hands, and of some apparatuses, likewise made from metal or caoutchouc, which are of various form according as they serve boys or girls, which are applied to the genitals day and night, and which have often brought very good effects.

"But if all these things still do not suffice for tearing out the lethal vice, one must have recourse to amputation of the clitoral organ, clitoridectomy, in women even adult. This operation is very easy and altogether harmless.... But if, the clitoral organ having been removed, masturbation of the external pudenda is substituted, then it is necessary to carry out cauterization of the internal face of the external pudendum, because any attempt in these parts excites pains which impede masturbation." Compare also Debreyne, Moechialogie, p. 53-61.