[37]
Archivio di Psichiatria, 1902, fasc. ii-iii, p. 338. In the case of pathological s.e.xuality in a boy of 15, reported by A. MacDonald, and already summarized, the sight of copulating flies is also mentioned among many other causes of s.e.xual excitation.
[38]
Krafft-Ebing presents or quotes typical cases of all these fetiches, Op. cit., pp. 255-266.
[39]
G. Stanley Hall, "A study of Fears," American Journal of Psychology, 1897, pp. 213-215.
[40]
Op. cit., p. 268.
[41]
W. Howard, "s.e.xual Perversion," Alienist and Neurologist, January, 1896. Krafft-Ebing (op. cit., p. 532) quotes from Boeteau the somewhat similar case of a gardener"s boy of 16-an illegitimate child of neuropathic heredity and markedly degenerate-who had a pa.s.sion, of irresistible and impulsive character, for rabbits. He was declared irresponsible. Moll (Untersuchungen uber die Libido s.e.xualis, bd. i, pp. 431-433) presents the case of a neurotic man who from the age of 15 had been s.e.xually excited by the sight of animals or by contact with them. He had repeatedly had connection with cows and mares; he was also s.e.xually excited by sheep, donkeys, and dogs, whether female or male; the normal s.e.xual instinct was weak and he experienced very slight attraction to women.
[42]
Moll also remarks ("Perverse s.e.xualempfindung," in Senator"s and Kaminer"s Krankheiten und Ehe) that in this matter it is often hardly possible to draw a sharp line between vice and disease.
[43]
Instances of this widespread belief-found among the Tamils of Ceylon as well as in Europe-are quoted from various authors by Bloch, Beitrage zur aetiologie der Psychopathia s.e.xualis, Teil II, p. 278, and Moll, Untersuchungen uber die Libido s.e.xualis, bd. i, p. 700. On the frequency of b.e.s.t.i.a.lity, from one cause or another, in the East, see, e.g., Stern, Medizin und Geschlechtsleben in der Turkei, bd. ii, p. 219.
[44]
Sometimes (as among the Aleuts) the animal pantomime dances of savages may represent the transformation of a captive bird into a lovely woman who falls exhausted into the arms of the hunter. (H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific, vol. i, p. 93.) A system of beliefs which accepts the possibility that a human being may be latent in an animal obviously favors the practice of b.e.s.t.i.a.lity.
[45]
For an example of the primitive confusion between the intercourse of women with animals and with men see, e.g., Boas, "Sagen aus British-Columbia," Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, heft V, p. 558.
[46]
Herodotus, Book II, Chapter 46.
[47]
Dulare (Des Divinites Generatrices, Chapter II) brings together the evidence showing that in Egypt women had connection with the sacred goat, apparently in order to secure fertility.
[48]
Various facts and references bearing on this subject are brought together by Blumenbach, Anthropological Memoirs, translated by Bendyshe, p. 80; Block, Beitrage zur aetiologie der Psychopathia s.e.xualis, Teil II, pp. 276-283; also Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, seventh edition, p. 520.
[49]
Mantegazza mentions (Gli Amori degli Uomini, cap V) that at Rimini a young goatherd of the Apennines, troubled with dyspepsia and nervous symptoms, told him this was due to excesses with the goats in his care. A finely executed marble group of a satyr having connection with a goat, found at Herculaneum and now in the Naples Museum (reproduced in Fuchs"s Erotische Element in der Karikatur), perhaps symbolizes a traditional and primitive practice of the goatherd.
[50]
Bayle (Dictionary, Art, Bathyllus) quotes various authorities concerning the Italian auxiliaries in the south of France in the sixteenth century and their custom of bringing and using goats for this purpose. Warton in the eighteenth century was informed that in Sicily priests in confession habitually inquired of herdsmen if they had anything to do with their sows. In Normandy priests are advised to ask similar questions.
[51]
It is worth noting that in Greek the work ?????? means both a sow and a woman"s pudenda; in the Acharnians Aristophanes plays on this a.s.sociation at some length. The Romans also (as may be gathered from Varro"s De Re Rustica) called the feminine pudenda porcus.
[52]
Schurig, Gynaecologia, pp. 280-387; Bloch, op. cit., 270-277. The Arabs, according to Kocher, chiefly practice b.e.s.t.i.a.lity with goats, sheep and mares. The Annamites, according to Mondiere, commonly employ sows and (more especially the young women) dogs. Among the Tamils of Ceylon b.e.s.t.i.a.lity with goats and cows is said to be very prevalent.
[53]
Mantegazza (Gli Amori degli Uomini, cap. V) brings together some facts bearing on this matter.
V.
Exhibitionism-Ill.u.s.trative Cases-A Symbolic Perversion of Courtship-The Impulse to Defile-The Exhibitionist"s Psychic Att.i.tude-The s.e.xual Organs as Fetichs-Phallus Worship-Adolescent Pride in s.e.xual Development-Exhibitionism of the Nates-The Cla.s.sification of the Forms of Exhibitionism-Nature of the Relationship of Exhibitionism to Epilepsy.
There is a remarkable form of erotic symbolism-very definite and standing clearly apart from all other forms-in which s.e.xual gratification is experienced in the simple act of exhibiting the s.e.xual organ to persons of the opposite s.e.x, usually by preference to young and presumably innocent persons, very often children. This is termed exhibitionism.[54] It would appear to be a not very infrequent phenomenon, and most women, once or more in their lives, especially when young, have encountered a man who has thus deliberately exposed himself before them.
The exhibitionist, though often a young and apparently vigorous man, is always satisfied with the mere act of self-exhibition and the emotional reaction which that act produces; he makes no demands on the woman to whom he exposes himself; he seldom speaks, he makes no effort to approach her; as a rule, he fails even to display the signs of s.e.xual excitation. His desires are completely gratified by the act of exhibition and by the emotional reaction it arouses in the woman. He departs satisfied and relieved.
A case recorded by Schrenck-Notzing very well represents both the nature of the impulse felt by the exhibitionist and the way in which it may originate. It is the case of a business man of 49, of neurotic heredity, an affectionate husband and father of a family, who, to his own grief and shame, is compelled from time to time to exhibit his s.e.xual organs to women in the street. As a boy of 10 a girl of 12 tried to induce him to coitus; both had their s.e.xual parts exposed. From that time s.e.xual contacts, as of his own naked nates against those of a girl, became attractive, as well as games in which the boys and girls in turn marched before each other with their s.e.xual parts exposed, and also imitation of the copulation of animals. Coitus was first practiced about the age of 20, but sight and touch of the woman"s s.e.xual parts were always necessary to produce s.e.xual excitement. It was also necessary-and this consideration is highly important as regards the development of the tendency to exhibition-that the woman should be excited by the sight of his organs. Even when he saw or touched a woman"s parts o.r.g.a.s.m often occurred. It was the naked s.e.xual organs in an otherwise clothed body which chiefly excited him. He was not possessed of a high degree of potency. Girls between the ages of 10 and 17 chiefly excited him, and especially if he felt that they were quite ignorant of s.e.xual matters. His self-exhibition was a sort of psychic defloration, and it was accompanied by the idea that other people felt as he did about the s.e.xual effects of the naked organs, that he was shocking but at the same time s.e.xually exciting a young girl. He was thus gratifying himself through the belief that he was causing s.e.xual gratification to an innocent girl. This man was convicted several times, and was finally declared to be suffering from impulsive insanity. (Schrenck-Notzing, Kriminal-psychologische und Psycho-pathologische Studien, 1902, pp. 50-57.) In another case of Schrenck-Notzing"s, an actor and portrait painter, aged 31, in youth m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.ed and was fond of contemplating the images of the s.e.xual organs of both s.e.xes, finding little pleasure in coitus. At the age of 24, at a bathing establishment, he happened to occupy a compartment next to that occupied by a lady, and when naked he became aware that his neighbor was watching him through a c.h.i.n.k in the part.i.tion. This caused him powerful excitement and he was obliged to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e. Ever since he has had an impulse to exhibit his organs and to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e in the presence of women. He believes that the sight of his organs excites the woman (Ib., pp. 57-68). The presence of masturbation in this case renders it untypical as a case of exhibitionism. Moll at one time went so far as to a.s.sert that when masturbation takes place we are not ent.i.tled to admit exhibitionism, (Untersuchungen uber die Libido s.e.xualis, bd. i, p. 661), but now accepts exhibitionism with masturbation ("Perverse s.e.xualempfindung," Krankheiten und Ehe). The act of exhibition itself gratifies the s.e.xual impulse, and usually it suffices to replace both tumescence and detumescence.
A fairly typical case, recorded by Krafft-Ebing, is that of a German factory worker of 37, a good, sober and intelligent workman. His parents were healthy, but one of his mother"s and also one of his father"s sisters were insane; some of his relatives are eccentric in religion. He has a languishing expression and a smile of self-complacency. He never had any severe illness, but has always been eccentric and imaginative, much absorbed in romances (such as Dumas"s novels) and fond of identifying himself with their heroes. No signs of epilepsy. In youth moderate masturbation, later moderate coitus. He lives a retired life, but is fond of elegant dress and of ornament. Though not a drinker, he sometimes makes himself a kind of punch which has a s.e.xually exciting effect on him. The impulse to exhibitionism has only developed in recent years. When the impulse is upon him he becomes hot, his heart beats violently, the blood rushes to his head, and he is oblivious of everything around him that is not connected with his own act. Afterwards he regards himself as a fool and makes vain resolutions never to repeat the act. In exhibition the p.e.n.i.s is only half erect and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n never occurs. (He is only capable of coitus with a woman who shows great attraction to him.) He is satisfied with self-exhibition, and believes that he thus gives pleasure to the woman, since he himself receives pleasure in contemplating a woman"s s.e.xual parts. His erotic dreams are of self-exhibition to young and voluptuous women. He had been previously punished for an offense of this kind; medico-legal opinion now recognized the incriminated man"s psychopathic condition. (Krafft-Ebing, Op. cit., pp. 492-494.)
Trochon has reported the case of a married man of 33, a worker in a factory, who for several years had exhibited himself at intervals to shop-girls, etc., in a state of erection, but without speaking or making other advances. He was a hard-working, honest, sober man of quiet habits, a good father to his family and happy at home. He showed not the slightest sign of insanity. But he was taciturn, melancholic and nervous; a sister was an idiot. He was arrested, but on the report of the experts that he committed these acts from a morbid impulse he could not control he was released. (Trochon, Archives de l"Anthropologie Criminelle, 1888, p. 256.)
In a case of Freyer"s (Zeitschrift fur Medizinalbeamte, third year, No. 8) the occasional connection of exhibitionism with epilepsy is well ill.u.s.trated by a barber"s a.s.sistant, aged 35, whose father suffered from chronic alcoholism and was also said to have committed the same kind of offense as his son. The mother and a sister suffered nervously. From ages of 7 to 18 the subject had epileptic convulsions. From 16 to 21 he indulged in normal s.e.xual intercourse. At about that time he had often to pa.s.s a playground and at times would urinate there; it happened that the children watched him with curiosity. He noticed that when thus watched s.e.xual excitement was caused, inducing erection and even e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. He gradually found pleasure in this kind of s.e.xual gratification; finally he became indifferent to coitus. His erotic dreams, though still usually about normal coitus, were now sometimes concerned with exhibition before little girls. When overcome by the impulse he could see and hear nothing around him, though he did not lose consciousness. After the act was over he was troubled by his deed. In all other respects he was entirely reasonable. He was imprisoned many times for exhibiting himself to young schoolgirls, sometimes vaunting the beauty of his organs and inviting inspection. On one occasion he underwent mental examination, but was considered to be mentally sound. He was finally held to be a hereditarily tainted individual with neuropathic const.i.tution. The head was abnormally broad, p.e.n.i.s small, patellar reflex absent, and there were many signs of neurasthenia. (Krafft-Ebing, Op. cit., pp. 490-492.)
The prevalence of epilepsy among exhibitionists is shown by the observations of Pelanda in Verona. He has recorded six cases of this perversion, all of which eventually reached the asylum and were either epileptics or with epileptic relations. One had a brother who was also an exhibitionist. In some cases the p.e.n.i.s was abnormally large, in others abnormally small. Several had very weak s.e.xual impulse; one, at the age of 62, had never effected coitus, and was proud of the fact that he was still a virgin, considering, he would say, the epoch of demoralization in which we live. (Pelanda, "p.o.r.nopatici," Archivio di Psichiatria, fasc. ii-iv, 1889.)
In a very typical case of exhibitionism which Garnier has recorded, a certain X., a gentleman engaged in business in Paris, had a predilection for exhibiting himself in churches, more especially in Saint-Roch. He was arrested several times for exposing his s.e.xual organs here before ladies in prayer. In this way he finally ruined his commercial position in Paris and was obliged to establish himself in a small provincial town. Here again he soon exposed himself in a church and was again sent to prison, but on his liberation immediately performed the same act in the same church in what was described as a most imperturbable manner. Compelled to leave the town, he returned to Paris, and in a few weeks" time was again arrested for repeating his old offense in Saint Roch. When examined by Garnier, the information he supplied was vague and incomplete, and he was very embarra.s.sed in the attempt to explain himself. He was unable to say why he chose a church, but he felt that it was to a church that he must go. He had, however, no thought of profanation and no wish to give offense. "Quite the contrary!" he declared. He had the sad and tired air of a man who is dominated by a force stronger than his will. "I know," he added, "what repulsion my conduct must inspire. Why am I made thus? Who will cure me?" (P. Garnier, "Perversions s.e.xuelles," Comptes Rendus, International Congress of Medicine at Paris in 1900, Section de Psychiatrie, pp. 433-435.)
In some cases, it would appear, the impulse to exhibitionism may be overcome or may pa.s.s away. This result is the more likely to come about in those cases in which exhibitionism has been largely conditioned by chronic alcoholism or other influences tending to destroy the inhibiting and restraining action of the higher centers, which may be overcome by hygiene and treatment. In this connection I may bring forward a case which has been communicated to me by a medical correspondent in London. It is that of an actor, of high standing in his profession and extremely intelligent, 49 years of age, married and father of a large family. He is s.e.xually vigorous and of erotic temperament. His general health has always been good, but he is a high-strung, neurotic man, with quick mental reactions. His habits had for a long time been decidedly alcoholic, but two years ago, a small quant.i.ty of alb.u.men being found in the urine, he was persuaded to leave off alcohol, and has since been a teetotaller. Though ordinarily very reticent about s.e.xual matters, he began four or five years ago to commit acts of exhibitionism, exposing himself to servants in the house and occasionally to women in the country. This continued after the alcohol had been abandoned and lasted for several years, though the attention of the police was never attracted to the matter, and so far as possible he was quietly supervised by his friends. Nine months after, the acts of exhibitionism ceased, apparently in a spontaneous manner, and there has so far been no relapse.
Exhibitionism is an act which, on the face of it, seems nonsensical and meaningless, and as such, as an inexplicable act of madness, it has frequently been treated both by writers on insanity and on s.e.xual perversion. "These acts are so lacking in common sense and intelligent reflection that no other reason than insanity can be offered for the patient," Ball concluded.[55] Moll, also, who defines exhibitionism somewhat too narrowly as a condition in which "the charm of the exhibition lies for the subject in the display itself," not sufficiently taking into consideration the imagined effect on the spectator, concludes that "the psychological basis of exhibitionism is at present by no means cleared up."[56]
We may probably best approach exhibitionism by regarding it as fundamentally a symbolic act based on a perversion of courtship. The exhibitionist displays the organ of s.e.x to a feminine witness, and in the shock of modest s.e.xual shame by which she reacts to that spectacle, he finds a gratifying similitude of the normal emotions of coitus.[57] He feels that he has effected a psychic defloration.
Exhibitionism is thus a.n.a.logous, and, indeed, related, to the impulse felt by many persons to perform indecorous acts or tell indecent stories before young and innocent persons of the opposite s.e.x. This is a kind of psychic exhibitionism, the gratification it causes lying exactly, as in physical exhibitionism, in the emotional confusion which it is felt to arouse. The two kinds of exhibitionism may be combined in the same person: Thus, in a case reported by Hoche (p. 97), the exhibitionist an intellectual and highly educated man, with a doctor"s degree, also found pleasure in sending indecent poems and pictures to women, whom, however, he made no attempt to seduce; he was content with the thought of the emotions he aroused or believed that he aroused.
It is possible that within this group should come the agent in the following incident which was lately observed by a lady, a friend of my own. An elderly man in an overcoat was seen standing outside a large and well-known draper"s shop in the outskirts of London; when able to attract the attention of any of the shop-girls or of any girl in the street he would fling back his coat and reveal that he was wearing over his own clothes a woman"s chemise (or possibly bodice) and a woman"s drawers; there was no exposure. The only intelligible explanation of this action would seem to be that pleasure was experienced in the mild shock of interested surprise and injured modesty which this vision was imagined to cause to a young girl. It would thus be a comparatively innocent form of psychic defloration.
It is of interest to point out that the s.e.xual symbolism of active flagellation is very closely a.n.a.logous to this symbolism of exhibitionism. The flagellant approaches a woman with the rod (itself a symbol of the p.e.n.i.s and in some countries bearing names which are also applied to that organ) and inflicts on an intimate part of her body the signs of blushing and the spasmodic movements which are a.s.sociated with s.e.xual excitement, while at the same time she feels, or the flagellant imagines that she feels, the corresponding emotions of delicious shame.[58] This is an even closer mimicry of the s.e.xual act than the exhibitionist attains, for the latter fails to secure the consent of the woman nor does he enjoy any intimate contact with her naked body. The difference is connected with the fact that the active flagellant is usually a more virile and normal person than the exhibitionist. In the majority of cases the exhibitionist"s s.e.xual impulse is very feeble, and as a rule he is either to some degree a degenerate, or else a person who is suffering from an early stage of general paralysis, dementia, or some other highly enfeebling cause of mental disorganization, such as chronic alcoholism. s.e.xual feebleness is further indicated by the fact that the individuals selected as witnesses are frequently mere children.
It seems probable that a form of erotic symbolism somewhat similar to exhibitionism is to be found in the rare cases in which s.e.xual gratification is derived from throwing ink, acid or other defiling liquids on women"s dresses. Thoinot has recorded a case of this kind (Attentats aux Moeurs, 1898, pp. 484, et seq.). An instructive case has been presented by Moll. In this case a young man of somewhat neuropathic heredity had as a youth of 16 or 17, when romping with his young sister"s playfellows, experienced s.e.xual sensations on chancing to see their white underlinen. From that time white underlinen and white dresses became to him a fetich and he was only attracted to women so attired. One day, at the age of 25, when crossing the street in wet weather with a young lady in a white dress, a pa.s.sing vehicle splashed the dress with mud. This incident caused him strong s.e.xual excitement, and from that time he had the impulse to throw ink, perchloride of iron, etc., on to ladies" white dresses, and sometimes to cut and tear them, s.e.xual excitement and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n taking place every time he effected this. (Moll, "Gutachten uber einem s.e.xual Perversen [Besudelungstrieb]," Zeitschrift fur Medizinalbeamte, Heft XIII, 1900). Such a case is of considerable psychological interest. Thoinot considers that in these cases the fleck is a fetich. That is an incorrect account of the matter. In this case the white garments const.i.tuted the primary fetich, but that fetich becomes more acutely realized, and at the same time both parties are thrown into an emotional state which to the fetichist becomes a mimicry of coitus, by the act of defilement. We may perhaps connect with this phenomenon the attraction which muddy shoes often exert over the shoe-fetichist, and the curious way in which, as we have seen (p. 18), Restif de la Bretonne a.s.sociates his love of neatness in women with his attraction to the feet, the part, he remarks, least easy to keep clean.
Garnier applied the term sadi-fetichism to active flagellation and many similar manifestations such as we are here concerned with, on the grounds that they are hybrids which combine the morbid adoration for a definite object with the impulse to exercise a more or less degree of violence. From the standpoint of the conception of erotic symbolism I have adopted there is no need for this term. There is here no hybrid combination of two unlike mental states. We are simply concerned with states of erotic symbolism, more or less complete, more or less complex.
The conception of exhibitionism as a process of erotic symbolism, involves a conscious or unconscious att.i.tude of attention in the exhibitionist"s mind to the psychic reaction of the woman toward whom his display is directed. He seeks to cause an emotion which, probably in most cases, he desires should be pleasurable. But from one cause or another his finer sensibilities are always inhibited or in abeyance, and he is unable to estimate accurately either the impression he is likely to produce or the general results of his action, or else he is moved by a strong impulsive obsession which overpowers his judgment. In many cases he has good reason for believing that his act will be pleasurable, and frequently he finds complacent witnesses among the low-cla.s.s servant girls, etc.
It may be pointed out here that we are quite justified in speaking of a p.e.n.i.s-fetichism and also of a v.u.l.v.a-fetichism. This might be questioned. We are obviously justified in recognizing a fetichism which attaches itself to the pubic hair, or, as in a case with which I am acquainted, to the c.l.i.toris, but it may seem that we cannot regard the central s.e.xual organs as symbols of s.e.x, symbols, as it were, of themselves. Properly regarded, however, it is the s.e.xual act rather than the s.e.xual organ which is craved in normal s.e.xual desire; the organ is regarded merely as the means and not as the end. Regarded as a means the organ is indeed an object of desire, but it only becomes a fetich when it arrests and fixes the attention. An attention thus pleasurably fixed, a v.u.l.v.a-fetichism or a p.e.n.i.s-fetichism, is within the normal range of s.e.xual emotion (this point has been mentioned in the previous volume when discussing the part played by the primary s.e.xual organs in s.e.xual selection), and in coa.r.s.e-grained natures of either s.e.x it is a normal allurement in its generalized shape, apart from any attraction to the person to whom the organs belong. In some morbid cases, however, this p.e.n.i.s-fetichism may become a fully developed s.e.xual perversion. A typical case of this kind has been recorded by Howard in the United States. Mrs. W., aged 39, was married at 20 to a strong, healthy man, but derived no pleasure from coitus, though she received great pleasure from masturbation practiced immediately after coitus, and nine years after marriage she ceased actual coitus, compelling her husband to adopt mutual masturbation. She would introduce men into the house at all times of the day or night, and after persuading them to expose their persons would retire to her room to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e. The same man never aroused desire more than once. This desire became so violent and persistent that she would seek out men in all sorts of public places and, having induced them to expose themselves, rapidly retreat to the nearest convenient spot for self-gratification. She once abstracted a pair of trousers she had seen a man wear and after fondling them experienced the o.r.g.a.s.m. Her husband finally left her, after vainly attempting to have her confined in an asylum. She was often arrested for her actions, but through the intervention of friends set free again. She was a highly intelligent woman, and apart from this perversion entirely normal. (W. L. Howard, "s.e.xual Perversion," Alienist and Neurologist, January, 1896.) It is on the existence of a more or less developed p.e.n.i.s-fetichism of this kind that the exhibitionist, mostly by an ignorant instinct, relies for the effects he desires to produce.
The exhibitionist is not usually content to produce a mere t.i.tillated amus.e.m.e.nt; he seeks to produce a more powerful effect which must be emotional whether or not it is pleasurable. A professional man in Stra.s.sburg (in a case reported by Hoche[59]) would walk about in the evening in a long cloak, and when he met ladies would suddenly throw his cloak back under a street lamp, or igniting a red-fire match, and thus exhibit his organs. There was an evident effort-on the part of a weak, vain, and effeminate man-to produce a maximum of emotional effect. The attempt to heighten the emotional shock is also seen in the fact that the exhibitionist frequently chooses a church as the scene of his exploits, not during service, for he always avoids a concourse of people, but perhaps toward evening when there are only a few kneeling women scattered through the edifice. The church is chosen, often instinctively rather than deliberately, from no impulse to commit a sacrilegious outrage-which, as a rule, the exhibitionist does not feel his act to be-but because it really presents the conditions most favorable to the act and the effects desired. The exhibitionist"s att.i.tude of mind is well ill.u.s.trated by one of Garnier"s patients who declared that he never wished to be seen by more than two women at once, "just what is necessary," he added, "for an exchange of impressions." After each exhibition he would ask himself anxiously: "Did they see me? What are they thinking? What do they say to each other about me? Oh! how I should like to know!" Another patient of Garnier"s, who haunted churches for this purpose, made this very significant statement: "Why do I like going to churches? I can scarcely say. But I know that it is only there that my act has its full importance. The woman is in a devout frame of mind, and she must see that such an act in such a place is not a joke in bad taste or a disgusting obscenity; that if I go there it is not to amuse myself; it is more serious than that! I watch the effect produced on the faces of the ladies to whom I show my organs. I wish to see them express a profound joy. I wish, in fact, that they may be forced to say to themselves: How impressive Nature is when thus seen!"
Here we trace the presence of a feeling which recalls the phenomena of the ancient and world-wide phallic worship, still liable to reappear sporadically. Women sometimes took part in these rites, and the osculation of the male s.e.xual organ or its emblematic representation by women is easily traceable in the phallic rites of India and many other lands, not excluding Europe even in comparatively recent times. (Dulaure in his Divinites Generatices brings together much bearing on these points; cf.: Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, Chapter XVII, and Bloch, Beitrage zur Psychopathia s.e.xualis, Teil I, pp. 115-117. Colin Scott has some interesting remarks on phallic worship and the part it has played in aiding human evolution, "s.e.x and Art," American Journal of Psychology, vol. vii, No. 2, pp. 191-197. Irving Rosse describes some modern phallic rites in which both men and women took part, similar to those practiced in vaudouism, "s.e.xual Hypochondriasis," Virginia Medical Monthly, October, 1892.)
Putting aside any question of phallic worship, a certain pride and more or less private feeling of ostentation in the new expansion and development of the organs of virility seems to be almost normal at adolescence. "We have much reason to a.s.sume," Stanley Hall remarks, "that in a state of nature there is a certain instinctive pride and ostentation that accompanies the new local development. I think it will be found that exhibitionists are usually those who have excessive growth here, and that much that modern society stigmatizes as obscene is at bottom more or less spontaneous and perhaps in some cases not abnormal. Dr. Seerley tells me he has never examined a young man largely developed who had the usual strong instinctive tendency of modesty to cover himself with his hands, but he finds this instinct general with those whose development is less than the average." (G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. ii, p. 97.) This instinct of ostentation, however, so far as it is normal, is held in check by other considerations, and is not, in the strict sense, exhibitionism. I have observed a full-grown telegraph boy walking across Hampstead Heath with his s.e.xual organs exposed, but immediately he realized that he was seen he concealed them. The solemnity of exhibitionism at this age finds expression in the climax of the sonnet, "Oraison du Soir," written at 16 by Rimbaud, whose verse generally is a splendid and insolent manifestation of rank adolescence:-
"Doux comme le Seigneur du cedre et des hysopes, Je p.i.s.se vers les cieux bruns tres haut et tres loin, Avec l"a.s.sentiment des grands heliotropes."