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

SEXUAL DEVIATIONfestations of the abnormal sexual impulse. Sadism leadsto the most violent outrages against human nature; masochismto the most fantastic humiliations of human nature.It is, therefore, important to remember that both sadismand masochism are based on normal human impulses;they are the extreme term of tendencies which in a slightdegree are strictly within the biological sphere.The normal basis of algolagniaiscomplex and manifold.There are especially two elements to be borne inmind in this connection: (i) pain, inflicted or suffered,is a by-product of the process of courtship, alike in thelower animals and in man; (2) pain, more especially inenfeebled nervous conditions, congenital or acquired, isnervous stimulant, whether suffered or inflicted, and iscapable of acting powerfully on the sexual centers. If westeadily bear in mind these two fundamental factors wehave little in difficulty comprehending the mechanism ofthe algolagnic processes, various as they are in form, andwe have the clew to their psychology. Every algolagnicform of the sexual impulse is either a hypertrophied manifestation(sometimes perhaps atavistic in character) ofsome primitive phase of courtship, or it is the attempt ofan enfeebled organism to secure a powerful aphrodisiacalaid to the attainment of tumescence.All love, as the old English writer, Robert Burton longsince said, is a kind of slavery. The lover is his mistress'sservant; he must be ready to undertake all sorts of risks, toencounter many dangers, to fulfill many unpleasant du-her favor. Romanticties, in order to serve her and to gainpoetryis full of evidence of this attitude of the lover. Thefurther back we go among savages, towards primitive conditions,the more marked, on the whole, becomes thissubjection of the lover in courtship and the severity of thetrials he must undergo to win his mistress's favor. Among[203]a