Under favoring conditions, each perversions might occur with a traditional vita sexualis; in each, the acts through which they specific themselves are preparatory for coitus or substitutes for it. But even here, within the phenomena, there’s a sure outward correspondence with processes of the traditional psychical vita sexualis; the inner connection and that means of pathological fetichism, nevertheless, are completely completely different. Both are to be regarded as unique psychopathies in mentally abnormal individuals, who, specifically, are affected with psychical hyperæsthesia sexualis, and, as a rule, also with other abnormalities; and for every of those perversions two constituent elements may be demonstrated, which have their roots in psychical info lying inside physiological limits. There are numerous circumstances in which, even within the absence of the fetich, coitus is possible, but it’s incomplete and compelled (typically with the assistance of fancies regarding the fetich), and particularly unsatisfying and exhausting; and, too, closer examine of the distinctive subjective psychical conditions in these cases shows that there are transitional states, passing, on the one hand, to mere physiological preferences, and, on the other, to psychical impotence in the absence of the fetich.
This pathological fetichism doesn’t confine itself to certain elements of the physique alone, but it’s even extended to inanimate objects, which, nonetheless, are virtually always articles of feminine carrying-apparel, and thus stand in close relation with the female individual. Since such circumstances are quite a few, in such acts (and in flagellation in masochists, having like significance) we should search to ascertain in what relation pain and lust stand to each other. That is shown by the quite a few instances of masochism-in truth, the majority-through which flagellation never seems; by which the perverse impulse is directed exclusively to purely symbolic acts expressing subjection without any actual infliction of ache. The relation just isn’t of such a nature that that which causes bodily pain is right here merely perceived as physical pleasure; however the particular person in a state of masochistic ecstasy feels no ache; either because, by reason of his emotional state (like that of the soldier in battle), the physical effect on his cutaneous nerves just isn’t apperceived; or as a result of (as with religious martyrs and fans), with the preoccupation of consciousness with lustful emotion, the idea of maltreatment remains merely an emblem, without its high quality of pain. Within the self-torture of religious enthusiasts (fakirs, howling dervishes, religious flagellants) there may be an analogous state, solely with a difference in the quality of pleasurable feeling.
In the active maltreatment forming the thing of the sadist’s sexual want there’s, actually, no irritation of his personal sensory nerves by the act of maltreatment; so that there may be little question of the purely psychical character of the origin of this perversion. By the side of this physiological fetichism, however, there is, within the psycho-sexual sphere, an undoubted pathological, erotic fetichism, of which there’s already a quite a few series of circumstances presenting phenomena having great clinical and psychiatric curiosity, and, below certain circumstances, forensic importance. For masochism, as shown above, these parts lie in the very fact (1) that in the state of sexual emotion every impression produced by the consort, independently of the manner of its manufacturing, is, per se, attended with lustful pleasure, which, where there’s hyperæsthesia sexualis, may go so far as to over-compensate all painful sensation; and in the fact (2) that “sexual bondage,” dependent on mental factors that are in themselves not perverse, could, underneath pathological conditions, change into a perverse, pleasurable need for subjection to the other intercourse, which-even if or not it’s quite unnecessary to assume its inheritance from the feminine aspect-represents a pathological degeneration of the character belonging to girl,-of the instinct of subordination, physiological in lady.
These are: the very fact (1) that in sexual emotion, to a certain extent, as an accompanying psychical excitation, an impulse could arise to affect the object of desire in every potential manner and with the best doable depth, which, in individuals sexually hyperæsthetic, could change into an impulse to inflict ache; and the actual fact (2) that, under pathological conditions, the man’s lively rôle of winning woman might become a limiteless want for subjugation. Within the perverse sexual act he had all the time thought of himself within the rôle of a girl. I repeat that the decisive factors, within the differentiation of simple passive flagellation from flagellation dependent upon masochistic want, are that, in the former, the act is a method to make coitus, or no less than ejaculation, potential; and that, in the latter, it’s a means of gratification of masochistic desires. Actress Emma Stone has defended graphic intercourse scenes in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Oscar-tipped film Poor Things, saying they’re true to her character’s expertise.