Studies on the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 by Havelock Ellis. - HTML preview

PLEASE NOTE: This is an HTML preview only and some elements such as links or page numbers may be incorrect.
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.

STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME V

Erotic Symbolism

The Mechanism of Detumescence

The Psychic State in Pregnancy

By HAVELOCK ELLIS

1927

PREFACE.

In this volume the terminal phenomena of the sexual process are discussed,

before an attempt is finally made, in the concluding volume, to consider

the bearings of the psychology of sex on that part of morals which may be

called "social hygiene."

Under "Erotic Symbolism" I include practically all the aberrations of the

sexual instinct, although some of these have seemed of sufficient

importance for separate discussion in previous volumes.

It is highly

probable that many readers will consider that the name scarcely suffices

to cover manifestations so numerous and so varied. The term "sexual

equivalents" will seem preferable to some. While, however, it may be fully

admitted that these perversions are "sexual equivalents"--or at all events

equivalents of the normal sexual impulse--that term is merely a

descriptive label which tells us nothing of the phenomena. "Sexual

Symbolism" gives us the key to the process, the key that makes all these

perversions intelligible. In all of them--very clearly in some, as in

shoe-fetichism; more obscurely in others, as in exhibitionism--it has come

about by causes congenital, acquired, or both, that some object or class

of objects, some act or group of acts, has acquired a dynamic power over

the psycho-physical mechanism of the sexual process, deflecting it from

its normal adjustment to the whole of a beloved person of the opposite

sex. There has been a transmutation of values, and certain objects,

certain acts, have acquired an emotional value which for the normal person

they do not possess. Such objects and acts are properly, it seems to me,

termed symbols, and that term embodies the only justification that in most

cases these manifestations can legitimately claim.

"The Mechanism of Detumescence" brings us at last to the final climax for

which the earlier and more prolonged stage of tumescence, which has

occupied us so often in these _Studies_, is the elaborate preliminary.

"The art of love," a clever woman novelist has written,

"is the art of

preparation." That "preparation" is, on the physiological side, the

production of tumescence, and all courtship is concerned in building up

tumescence. But the final conjugation of two individuals in an explosion

of detumescence, thus slowly brought about, though it is largely an

involuntary act, is still not without its psychological implications and

consequences; and it is therefore a matter for regret that so little is

yet known about it. The one physiological act in which two individuals are

lifted out of all ends that center in self and become the instrument of

those higher forces which fashion the species, can never be an act to be

slurred over as trivial or unworthy of study.

In the brief study of "The Psychic State in Pregnancy"

we at last touch

the point at which the whole complex process of sex reaches its goal. A

woman with a child in her womb is the everlasting miracle which all the

romance of love, all the cunning devices of tumescence and detumescence,

have been invented to make manifest. The psychic state of the woman who

thus occupies the supreme position which life has to offer cannot fail to

be of exceeding interest from many points of view, and not least because

the maternal instinct is one of the elements even of love between the

sexes. But the psychology of pregnancy is full of involved problems, and

here again, as so often in the wide field we have traversed, we stand at

the threshold of a door it is not yet given us to pass.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

Carbis Water, Lelant, Cornwall.

CONTENTS.

EROTIC SYMBOLISM.

I.

The Definition of Erotic Symbolism. Symbolism of Act and Symbolism of

Object. Erotic Fetichism. Wide Extension of the Symbols of Sex. The

Immense Variety of Possible Erotic Fetiches. The Normal Foundations of

Erotic Symbolism. Classification of the Phenomena. The Tendency to

Idealize the Defects of a Beloved Person. Stendhal's

"Crystallization".

II.

Foot-fetichism and Shoe-fetichism. Wide Prevalence and Normal Basis.

Restif de la Bretonne. The Foot a Normal Focus of Sexual Attraction Among

Some Peoples. The Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Spaniards, etc. The Congenital

Predisposition in Erotic Symbolism. The Influence of Early Association and

Emotional Shock. Shoe-fetichism in Relation to Masochism. The Two

Phenomena Independent Though Allied. The Desire to be Trodden On. The

Fascination of Physical Constraint. The Symbolism of Self-inflicted Pain.

The Dynamic Element in Erotic Symbolism. The Symbolism of Garments.

III.

Scatalogic Symbolism. Urolagnia. Coprolagnia. The Ascetic Attitude Towards

the Flesh. Normal Basis of Scatalogic Symbolism.

Scatalogic Conceptions

Among Primitive Peoples. Urine as a Primitive Holy Water. Sacredness of

Animal Excreta. Scatalogy in Folk-lore. The Obscene as Derived from the

Mythological. The Immature Sexual Impulse Tends to Manifest Itself in

Scatalogic Forms. The Basis of Physiological Connection Between the

Urinary and Genital Spheres. Urinary Fetichism Sometimes Normal in

Animals. The Urolagnia of Masochists. The Scatalogy of Saints. Urolagnia

More Often a Symbolism of Act Than a Symbolism of Object. Only

Occasionally an Olfactory Fetichism. Comparative Rarity of Coprolagnia.

Influence of Nates Fetichism as a Transition to Coprolagnia, Ideal

Coprolagnia. Olfactory Coprolagnia. Urolagnia and Coprolagnia as Symbols

of Coitus.

IV.

Animals as Sources of Erotic Symbolism. Mixoscopic Zoophilia. The

Stuff-fetichisms. Hair-fetichism. The Stuff-fetichisms Mainly on a Tactile

Base. Erotic Zoophilia. Zooerastia. Bestiality. The Conditions that Favor

Bestiality. Its Wide Prevalence Among Primitive Peoples and Among

Peasants. The Primitive Conception of Animals. The Goat.

The Influence of

Familiarity With Animals. Congress Between Women and Animals. The Social

Reaction Against Bestiality.

V.

Exhibitionism. Illustrative Cases. A Symbolic Perversion of Courtship. The

Impulse to Defile. The Exhibitionist's Psychic Attitude.

The Sexual Organs

as Fetiches. Phallus Worship. Adolescent Pride in Sexual Development.

Exhibitionism of the Nates. The Classification of the Forms of

Exhibitionism. Nature of the Relationship of Exhibitionism to Epilepsy.

VI.

The Forms of Erotic Symbolism are Simulacra of Coitus.

Wide Extension of

Erotic Symbolism. Fetichism Not Covering the Whole Ground of Sexual

Selection. It is Based on the Individual Factor in Selection.

Crystallization. The Lover and the Artist. The Key to Erotic Symbolism is

to be Found in the Emotional Sphere. The Passage to Pathological Extremes.

THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE.

I.

The Psychological Significance of Detumescence. The Testis and the Ovary.

Sperm Cell and Germ Cell. Development of the Embryo. The External Sexual

Organs. Their Wide Range of Variation. Their Nervous Supply. The Penis.

Its Racial Variations. The Influence of Exercise. The Scrotum and

Testicles. The Mons Veneris. The Vulva. The Labia Majora and their

Varieties. The Public Hair and Its Characters. The Clitoris and Its

Functions. The Anus as an Erogenous Zone. The Nymphæ and their Function.

The Vagina. The Hymen. Virginity. The Biological Significance of the

Hymen.

II.

The Object of Detumescence. Erogenous Zones. The Lips.

The Vascular

Characters of Detumescence. Erectile Tissue. Erection in Woman. Mucous

Emission in Women. Sexual Connection. The Human Mode of Intercourse.

Normal Variations. The Motor Characters of Detumescence.

Ejaculation. The

Virile Reflex. The General Phenomena of Detumescence.

The Circulatory and

Respiratory Phenomena. Blood Pressure. Cardiac Disturbance. Glandular

Activity. Distillatio. The Essentially Motor Character of Detumescence.

Involuntary Muscular Irradiation to Bladder, etc. Erotic Intoxication.

Analogy of Sexual Detumescence and Vesical Tension. The Specifically

Sexual Movements of Detumescence in Man. In Woman. The Spontaneous

Movements of the Genital Canal in Woman. Their Function in Conception.

Part Played by Active Movement of the Spermatozoa. The Artificial

Injection of Semen. The Facial Expression During Detumescence. The

Expression of Joy. The Occasional Serious Effects of Coitus.

III.

The Constituents of Semen. Function of the Prostate. The Properties of

Semen. Aphrodisiacs. Alcohol, Opium, etc.

Anaphrodisiacs. The Stimulant

Influence of Semen in Coitus. The Internal Effects of Testicular

Secretions. The Influence of Ovarian Secretion.

IV.

The Aptitude for Detumescence. Is There an Erotic Temperament? The

Available Standards of Comparison. Characteristics of the Castrated.

Characteristics of Puberty. Characteristics of the State of Detumescence.

Shortness of Stature. Development of the Secondary Sexual Characters. Deep

Voice. Bright Eyes. Glandular Activity. Everted Lips.

Pigmentation.

Profuse Hair. Dubious Significance of Many of These Characters.

THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREGNANCY.

The Relationship of Maternal and Sexual Emotion.

Conception and Loss of

Virginity. The Anciently Accepted Signs of This Condition. The Pervading

Effects of Pregnancy on the Organism. Pigmentation. The Blood and

Circulation. The Thyroid. Changes in the Nervous System.

The Vomiting of

Pregnancy. The Longings of Pregnant Women. Mental Impressions. Evidence

for and Against Their Validity. The Question Still Open.

Imperfection of

Our Knowledge. The Significance of Pregnancy.

APPENDIX.

Histories of Sexual Development.

INDEX OF AUTHORS.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

EROTIC SYMBOLISM.

I.

The Definition of Erotic Symbolism--Symbolism of Act and Symbolism of

Object--Erotic Fetichism--Wide extension of the symbols of Sex--The

Immense Variety of Possible Erotic Fetiches--The Normal Foundations of

Erotic Symbolism--Classification of the Phenomena--The Tendency to

Idealize the Defects of a Beloved Person--Stendhal's

"Crystallization."

By "erotic symbolism" I mean that tendency whereby the lover's attention

is diverted from the central focus of sexual attraction to some object or

process which is on the periphery of that focus, or is even outside of it

altogether, though recalling it by association of contiguity or of

similarity. It thus happens that tumescence, or even in extreme cases

detumescence, may be provoked by the contemplation of acts or objects

which are away from the end of sexual conjugation.[1]

In considering the phenomena of sexual selection in a previous volume,[2]

it was found that there are four or five main factors in the constitution

of beauty in so far as beauty determines sexual selection. Erotic

symbolism is founded on the factor of individual taste in beauty; it

arises as a specialized development of that factor, but it is,

nevertheless, incorrect to merge it in sexual selection.

The attractive

characteristics of a beloved woman or man, from the point of view of

sexual selection, are a complex but harmonious whole leading up to a

desire for the complete possession of the person who displays them. There

is no tendency to isolate and dissociate any single character from the

individual and to concentrate attention upon that character at the expense

of the attention bestowed upon the individual generally.

As soon as such a

tendency begins to show itself, even though only in a slight or temporary

form, we may say that there is erotic symbolism.

Erotic symbolism is, however, by no means confined to the individualizing

tendency to concentrate amorous attention upon some single characteristic

of the adult woman or man who is normally the object of sexual love. The

adult human being may not be concerned at all, the attractive object or

act may not even be human, not even animal, and we may still be concerned

with a symbol which has parasitically rooted itself on the fruitful site

of sexual emotion and absorbed to itself the energy which normally goes

into the channels of healthy human love having for its final end the

procreation of the species. Thus understood in its widest sense, it may be

said that every sexual perversion, even homosexuality, is a form of erotic

symbolism, for we shall find that in every case some object or act that

for the normal human being has little or no erotic value, has assumed such

value in a supreme degree; that is to say, it has become a symbol of the

normal object of love. Certain perversions are, however, of such great

importance on account of their wide relationships, that they cannot be

adequately discussed merely as forms of erotic symbolism. This is notably

the case as regards homosexuality, auto-erotism, and algolagnia, all of

which phenomena have therefore been separately discussed in previous

studies. We are now mainly concerned with manifestations which are more

narrowly and exclusively symbolical.

A portion of the field of erotic symbolism is covered by what Binet

(followed by Lombroso, Krafft-Ebing, and others) has termed "erotic

fetichism," or the tendency whereby sexual attraction is unduly exerted by

some special part or peculiarity of the body, or by some inanimate object

which has become associated with it. Such erotic symbolism of object

cannot, however, be dissociated from the even more important erotic

symbolism of process, and the two are so closely bound together that we

cannot attain a truly scientific view of them until we regard them broadly

as related parts of a common psychic tendency. If, as Groos asserts,[3] a

symbol has two chief meanings, one in which it indicates a physical

process which stands for a psychic process, and another in which it

indicates a part which represents the whole, erotic symbolism of act

corresponds to the first of these chief meanings, and erotic symbolism of

object to the other.

Although it is not impossible to find some germs of erotic symbolism in

animals, in its more pronounced manifestations it is only found in the

human species. It could not be otherwise, for such symbolism involves not

only the play of fancy and imagination, the idealizing aptitude, but also

a certain amount of power of concentrating the attention on a point

outside the natural path of instinct and the ability to form new mental

constructions around that point. There are, indeed, as we shall see,

elementary forms of erotic symbolism which are not uncommonly associated

with feeble-mindedness, but even these are still peculiarly human, and in

its less crude manifestations erotic symbolism easily lends itself to

every degree of human refinement and intelligence.

"It depends primarily upon an increase of the psychological

process of representation," Colin Scott remarks of sexual

symbolism generally, "involving greater powers of comparison and

analysis as compared with the lower animals. The outer

impressions come to be clearly distinguished as such, but at the

same time are often treated as symbols of inner experiences, and

a meaning read into them which they would not otherwise possess.

Symbolism or fetichism is, indeed, just the capacity to see

meaning, to emphasize something for the sake of other things

which do not appear. In brain terms it indicates an activity of

the higher centers, a sort of side-tracking or long-circuiting of

the primitive energy; ... Rosetti's poem, 'The Woodspurge,'

gives a concrete example of the formation of such a symbol. Here

the otherwise insignificant presentation of the three-cupped

woodspurge, representing originally a mere side-current of the

stream of consciousness, becomes the intellectual symbol or

fetich of the whole psychosis forever after. It seems, indeed, as

if the stronger the emotion the more likely will become the

formation of an overlying symbolism, which serves to focus and

stand in the place of something greater than itself; nowhere at

least is symbolism a more characteristic feature than as an

expression of the sexual instinct. The passion of sex, with its

immense hereditary background, in early man became centered often

upon the most trivial and unimportant features....

This

symbolism, now become fetichistic, or symbolic in a bad sense, is

at least an exercise of the increasing representative power of

man, upon which so much of his advancement has depended, while it

also served to express and help to purify his most perennial

emotion." (Colin Scott, "Sex and Art," _American Journal of

Psychology_, vol. vii, No. 2, p. 189.) In the study of "Love and Pain" in a previous volume, the analysis of the

large and complex mass of sexual phenomena which are associated with pain,

gradually resolved them to a considerable extent into a special case of

erotic symbolism; pain or restraint, whether inflicted on or by the loved

person, becomes, by a psychic process that is usually unconscious, the

symbol of the sexual mechanism, and hence arouses the same emotions as

that mechanism normally arouses. We may now attempt to deal more broadly

and comprehensively with the normal and abnormal aspects of erotic

symbolism in some of their most typical and least mixed forms.

"When our human imagination seeks to animate artificial things," Huysmans

writes in _Là-bas_, "it is compelled to reproduce the movements of animals

in the act of propagation. Look at machines, at the play of pistons in the

cylinders; they are Romeos of steel in Juliets of cast-iron." And not only

in the work of man's hands but throughout Nature we find sexual symbols

which are the less deniable since, for the most part, they make not the

slightest appeal to even the most morbid human imagination. Language is

full of metaphorical symbols of sex which constantly tend to lose their

poetic symbolism and to become commonplace. Semen is but seed, and for the

Latins especially the whole process of human sex, as well as the male and

female organs, constantly presented itself in symbols derived from

agricultural and horticultural life. The testicles were beans (_fabæ_) and

fruit or apples (_poma_ and _mala_); the penis was a tree (_arbor_), or a

stalk (_thyrsus_), or a root (_radix_), or a sickle (_falx_), or a

ploughshare (_vomer_). The semen, again, was dew (_ros_). The labia majora

or minora were wings (_alæ_); the vulva and vagina were a field (_ager_

and _campus_), or a ploughed furrow (_sulcus_), or a vineyard (_vinea_),

or a fountain (_fons_), while the pudendal hair was herbage

(_plantaria_).[4] In other languages it is not difficult to trace similar

and even identical imagery applied to sexual organs and sexual acts. Thus

it is noteworthy that Shakespeare more than once applies the term

"ploughed" to a woman who has had sexual intercourse.

The Talmud calls the

labia minora the doors, the labia majora hinges, and the clitoris the key.

The Greeks appear not only to have found in the myrtle-berry, the fruit of

a plant sacred to Venus, the image of the clitoris, but also in the rose

an image of the feminine labia; in the poetic literature of many

countries, indeed, this imagery of the rose may be traced in a more or

less veiled manner.[5]

The widespread symbolism of sex arose in the theories and conceptions of

primitive peoples concerning the function of generation and its nearest

analogies in Nature; it was continued for the sake of the vigorous and

expressive terminology which it furnished both for daily life and for

literature; its final survivals were cultivated because they furnished a

delicately æsthetic method of approaching matters which a growing

refinement of sentiment made it difficult for lovers and poets to approach

in a more crude and direct manner. Its existence is of interest to us now

because it shows the objective validity of the basis on which erotic

symbolism, as we have here to understand it, develops.

But from first to

last it is a distinct phenomenon, having a more or less reasoned and

intellectual basis, and it scarcely serves in any degree to feed the

sexual impulse. Erotic symbolism is not intellectual but emotional in its

origin; it starts into being, obscurely, with but a dim consciousness or

for the most part none at all, either suddenly from the shock of some

usually youthful experience, or more gradually through an instinctive

brooding on those things which are most intimately associated with a

sexually desirable person.

The kind of soil on which the germs of erotic symbolism may

develop is well seen in cases of sexual hyperæsthesia. In such

cases all the emotionally sexual analogies and resemblances,

which in erotic symbolism are fixed and organized, may be traced

in vague and passing forms, a single hyperæsthetic individual

perhaps presenting a great variety of germinal symbolisms.

Thus it has been recorded of an Italian nun (whose sister became

a prostitute) that from the age of 8 she had desire for coitus,

from the age of 10 masturbated, and later had homosexual

feelings, that the same feelings and practices continued after

she had taken the veil, though from time to time they assumed

religious equivalents. The mere contact, indeed, of a priest's

hand, the news of the presentation of an ecclesiastic she had

known to a bishopric, the sight of an ape, the contemplation of

the crucified Christ, the figure of a toy, the picture of a

demon, the act of defecation in the children entrusted to her

care (whom, on this account, and against the regulations, she

would accompany to the closets), especially the sight and the

mere recollection of flies in sexual connection--all these things

sufficed to produce in her a powerful orgasm.

(_Archivio di

Psichiatria_, 1902, fasc. II-III, p. 338.) A boy of 15 (given to masturbation), studied by Macdonald in

America, was similarly hyperæsthetic to the symbols of sexual

emotion. "I lik