Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXthey wish to attain, and it is often only with a severestruggle that they yield to their impulses; (2) cases inwhich the beginnings of mental or nervous disorder oralcoholic degeneration have diminished the sensibility ofthe higher centers; these subjects are sometimes old men(clergymen, etc.) whose lives have been absolutely correct;they are often only vaguely aware of the nature ofthe satisfaction they are seeking, and frequently no struggleprecedes the manifestation; with rest and restorativetreatment the health may be improved and the acts cease.It is in the first class of cases alone that there is a developedsexual anomaly. In the cases of the second class thereis a more or less definite sexual intention, but it isonlyjust conscious, and the emergence of the impulse is duenot to its strength but to the weakness, temporary or permanent,of the higher inhibiting centers. Of this alcoholis a common cause, either by causing real mental confusionor by liberating latent tendencies; Norwood East remarksthat the decreased consumption of alcohol in Englandhas been accompanied by decrease in the number ofconvictions for indecent exposure (in England and Walesin 1913 866 men were so convicted, in 1923 and among alarger population only 548) .Epileptic cases, with loss of consciousness during the act,can only be regarded as presenting a pseudo-exhibitionism.They are not so common as is sometimes supposed; NorwoodEast found none in a series of 150 cases (thoughepileptics were among them) and remarks that in his experiencethese cases are not as frequent as they are dramatic.It isundoubtedly true that cases of real or apparentexhibitionism may occur in epileptics as was clearly shownby Pelanda in Verona many years ago. We must not, however,too hastily conclude that because these acts occur inepileptics they are necessarily unconscious acts. When the[188]