Sexual Neuroses E-Book

James Tyler Kent

• Herausgeber: Science & Technology Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 138

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Sexual Neuroses is a comprehensive exploration of the psychological and physiological dimensions of human sexuality, authored by Dr. Wilhelm Stekel, a prominent figure in early psychoanalysis and a close associate of Sigmund Freud. First published in the early 20th century, this seminal work delves into the complex interplay between sexual instincts, neuroses, and the broader spectrum of mental health. Drawing upon a wealth of clinical case studies, Stekel examines the origins and manifestations of sexual disorders, including their roots in childhood experiences, repression, and societal taboos. The book is structured to guide readers through the foundational theories of sexuality, the development of sexual identity, and the myriad ways in which sexual energy can be diverted or distorted, leading to various forms of neuroses. Stekel discusses topics such as fetishism, sadism, masochism, homosexuality, and other sexual variations, always with a focus on understanding rather than judgment. He emphasizes the importance of open dialogue, self-awareness, and therapeutic intervention in addressing sexual dysfunctions and breaking the cycle of shame and secrecy that often surrounds them. Sexual Neuroses is notable for its candid and progressive approach, challenging the moralistic attitudes of its time and advocating for a more compassionate and scientific understanding of human sexuality. Stekel’s writing is both accessible and deeply insightful, making complex psychoanalytic concepts understandable to both professionals and lay readers. The book remains a valuable resource for those interested in the history of psychology, the evolution of sexual health discourse, and the enduring quest to unravel the mysteries of the human mind and its desires.

Leseprobe

Cover

SEXUAL NEUROSES.

—BY—

J. T. KENT, A. M., M. D.

ST. LOUIS:Maynard & Tedford, Printers and Binders. 1879.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, byJ. T. Kent, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

LIST OF CHAPTERS

CHAPTER ICHAPTER IICHAPTER IIICHAPTER IVCHAPTER VCHAPTER VICHAPTER VIICHAPTER VIIICHAPTER IXCHAPTER XCHAPTER XI

PREFACE.

In presenting this little monograph to the profession, I have no apologies to offer. My only hope is, that the subject may be as seriously considered as it deserves. Believing that a superabundance of modesty has prevented facts from being duly presented to the profession, and thinking myself endowed with less of that desirable virtue than others, I can but conclude that my reputation will not suffer from reverses such as might ensue from elucidating theories, and maybe fancies, connected with such a delicate topic. But if professional minds are stimulated to a renewed study of these important phenomena, my highest anticipations will be reached.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Introductory

5

Predisposition

11

Continence

22

Sodomy

25

Onanism

27

Masturbation

18

—

31

Among Females

33

As a Cause of Organic Stricture

36

The Effect of upon the Neural Axis

37

Copulation

39

Social Attributes of

44

Nymphomania

46

Causes of

47

Treatment

49

Satyriasis

56

Sexual Neurasthenia

60

Treatment of

70

Pseudo-Spermatorrhœa

71

Cases of

74

Prostatorrhœa

76

Spermatorrhœa

80

Cases of

81

—

83

Moral Effect of

90

Symptoms of

90

Spinal Congestion

92

Spinal Anæmia

94

Cerebral Sexual Neurosis

97

Clinical Illustrations

102

Local Structural Changes in Genital Organs

109

Spermal Changes

110

Sequelæ

111

Treatment

113

Of Spinal Congestion

114

Of Spinal Anæmia

117

Cerebral Sexual Neurosis

120

Dilatation of the Anus

123

Anal Plug

123

Impotence

126

Treatment of

133

Aspermatism

140

SEXUAL NEUROSES.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory.—The term sexual presupposes the possibility of two distinct and perfect beings, yet one is counterpart of the other, distinguished by anatomical features designated male and female; with attributes such as passion, love and reciprocal admiration. Sexually the two beings become united, constituting plurality in unity.

The sequel of such coalescence of the sexes, or marriage legitimately considered, is copulation and reproduction of the species. The summit, or peripheral center of venereal sensibility, is found at the genitalia, and in the male a concentration of nerve-force conducts, as it were, to and unites at the glans penis; and division of the terminal nerves at this point will render erection impossible. In both man and beast, the only mechanical irritation capable of exciting venereal sensibility must be at this point. When the sexual centers are physiologically irritated, from peripheral or centric influences, contentment is only possible (physiologically speaking) when male and female counterparts coalesce, or are in juxtaposition. The sexual attributes also constitute an instructive topic for study, as they become modified by civilization and the development of reason. The procreation of organic life is the sequel of the sexual connection. The living universe has been called into existence, and the perpetuation of its life-spark is only dependent upon the contact of sexes.

The universe, it is said by one theorist, was evolved; by another, who depends upon the Holy Book for a guide, all living creatures were thaumaturgically or miraculously, and “in the twinkling of an eye,” made to exist in full form and shape. This problem will never be settled to the satisfaction of all men as long as theory and faith are at war; and small is the prospect of peace while both parties are redoubling in their forces annually. Then, we can but accept the situation of the human race, as it is, since we have no historical data of its origin, that are beyond controversy and that would be accepted as evidence in a physiological point of view. But we need no ponderous evidence to show the truth of the premise, that animal life is not perpetuated except through sexual congress. Not life only, but good and evil of every degree; vice, folly, crime; love and hate; society, social evil and social good: all depend, largely, upon the sexual. It is the bond of our existence; it is the wheel of our fortune; it is our guiding star; and it may be our loadstone to crime and premature death. Passions leading to love, true and gentle, or jealousy, hate, revenge, murder and suicide, all hinge on circumstances connected, directly or indirectly, with the sexual.

Our schools are conducted upon a foundation entirely sexual; educating each of the sexes in the role they are to pursue, with reference to exclusiveness in conduct. The girl is taught to pursue only such vocations, practices and manners as are becoming to her sex; the boy, on the other hand, is instructed not to enact girlish capers, but to pursue masculine vocations, from the childish toys to settled, adult labors. This all means nothing but distinctive development of the sexes.

The sexual enters our every-day lives, from childhood up; it governs our development; it modulates the voice, the build, the dress, the hair, the fashion of wearing the dress, and even the gait. In all this we can but observe the worship of the sexual; though obscure, yet every manifestation of human existence points to it. The good people of the earth profit by the grand and noble sexual unity in the marital existence, and by the pure, social relations, and chaste affections of the unmarried; but these are but a small part of human society. The masses express their worship for the sexual by debauch, dissipation, vice and crime. The common saying, whenever suicide or murder has been committed, that “woman was at the bottom of it,” might just as well read, “man was at the bottom of it;” as without the one, where would the other have been?

It is the bad use of noble agencies that often constitutes vice. Nothing ignoble, was intended by the Great Designer, should grow out of the sexual privileges, and when nobly appreciated, for moral beings a greater happiness or pleasure has not been instituted. But by long prostitution of these privileges, vices have originated; beliefs have been established; customs have been founded; even religions have been constructed and modified to suit the wishes of designing “sexualists,” “free-thinkers,” Mormons, etc. Occasionally, dissatisfied members of one sex will establish an innovation, or a revolutionary commotion, demanding rights which they claim have been usurped from them, and sometimes thirsting for prerogatives belonging to the opposite sex. They agitate their cause until their isolated followers establish societies and churches, effecting discord in families, and no good to the world in general, and for themselves an unenviable reputation. Such individuals are often advocating reforms; temperance, charity, etc.; but when good comes out of one, evil grows out of ten. They often take a decided stand against the opposite sex, and when their true history is known, it will be often found that they have been suffering from unrequited love, disappointment in matrimony, deception in society, misplaced confidence, illegitimate pregnancy, etc.; or, they are phlegmatic and passionless; or, hermaphrodites; or wanting in some of the sexual appendages necessary to constitute a perfect man or woman. Then, without the complete sexual system, harmoniously balanced, all is imperfect.

My purpose in dwelling so much upon these mixed relations and disappointments, has been more especially to fully expose the predisposing causes of neuroses and more essentially of the sexual variety. As I shall labor to show that neurosis is the condition throughout our list of sexual diseases, and that all the foregoing changes, excesses and defects, depending upon the sexual, are more or less influential in predisposing human beings to brain and spinal cord disease. No person, so well as the physician, will comprehend, after once meditating upon this theme, the necessity for thorough study and a more rational understanding of the sexual. Medical writers, with one or two exceptions, have only ventured now and then an isolated paragraph, and left the physician to draw his own conclusion. Among the aboriginal tribes, the sexual appetite is and has always been indulged ad libitum; not only in the natural manner, but in every conceivable way, without noticeable harm to the organs themselves, or to the nervous system. In a lesser degree this is true of slaves, sailors and peasantry, and the lower orders of civilization. Sexual endurance diminishes in proportion to the advancement in civilization and intellectual culture. A long-cultured family can not sustain, in sexual indulgence, what to the uncivilized would be a matter of indifference.

Sexual intercourse, when not contra-indicated, may relieve nervous tension and produce sleep in a moderately feeble individual; but on the other hand, if carried to excess, it may produce nervous tension, wakefulness, headache and exhaustion. There are no definite rules to regulate the sexual appetite, more than the stomach for food.

The evils of sexual intemperance are temporary, and if recent, quickly recoverable by rest only.

Says Dr. Briggs, of New York, “The sexual system is notoriously the seat of excitement and depression from psychical and mental influences. It is under the control of the sympathetic nerves, and influenced by the solar flexus. Much of the peculiar sensibility experienced in this part of the body is directly referable to the mind and imagination: the manifestations are controlled by the sympathetic nerves, from the impulse given in this manner. But the mind and will, however intense, have little power over the sexual functions, except through this medium. The emotions are superior.”

Predisposition.—The innate or uncaused condition, which is so commonly found among the young, is quite likely congenital and constitutional. There is evidently structural malformation in the neuroglia, or nerve cells proper, which predisposes the child to sexual excitement. This may not be derived from the immediate parent, but far back. In the third or fourth generation, debauchés may be found. Licentious parents commonly predispose their children to morbid sexual desires; and what evidence have we that structural changes do not exist in or about the nerve centres that preside over the sexual functions, and that such changes are not constitutional? Then, with this structural change as a predisposition, the least cause will set the sexual centers into a blaze of excitement. They who are predisposed by many generations, show upon their faces the lines of coarse breeding; that they are the offspring of debauchés; congenital degradation; not but these conditions, under favorable circumstances, may be overcome, by rigidly cultivating opposite nerve centers; but such opportunities are seldom presented, and when presented seldom embraced.

Circumstances are also to be considered as having a bearing upon the sexual “ups and downs” of our human career. With a predisposing sexual cause, a downfall may occur under circumstances less seductive in character than when no such congenital condition is present.

Listen to the heart-rending stories of girls in the houses of prostitution. Each has her story of circumstantial events to relate. Circumstances of varied gravity have caused the multitudes of “fallen women” to occupy their degraded sphere of shame and debauch. Many of these have never been predisposed to a sexual livelihood by an erotic disposition, and they only stay by compulsion and fear of reproach that must follow if they return to society. The line of social demarkation is drawn, and there is no palliation or chance of redemption by reform—only secret forgiveness, secret repentance, or a nunnery. There are some who follow this life by choice, from the pleasure therein. Such are predisposed: they naturally follow this course: they learn it on the streets, in mere childhood: their ancestors, or some one of them at least, were of this type—mal-constructed—and circumstances are meagre that, as is said, lead them astray. They are not led astray: it is more natural to them than to pursue the path of rectitude and virtue.

These people are predisposed to evil, and it is only, even if guarded from childhood up by constant watching and being kept from every possible circumstance, and taught only the good and pure, to adult life, that any reasonable assurance may be had of their safety from vice. This inheritance is almost indestructible and may crop out after the best of culture, with very slight cause, any time in adult life or in future generations.

Not only the predisposition to sexual desire is congenital, but the enfeebled nervous system that can endure only a limited amount of sexual indulgence. They learn to indulge the sexual appetite at a very early period, and the males grow up effeminate, or half-sexed. The tendency of civilization is toward brain and mental culture. In this we have a cause of nervousness which is wonderful. Our ancestors, who knew very little of brain-work compared to the cramming of the present day—compared to the curriculums of our present school system—were not nervous; they were not excitable, but physically strong. They labored at a variety of toils without machinery, and they obtained physical endurance. Now, the boy is crammed at school and hurried through to professional studies, when he has but just begun life; or he is placed at business, to find that excitement of competition which is the greatest brain-stimulus and the greatest cause of nervousness of the present age. The multitude of collateral sciences that a young man is compelled to read; the books, scientific and novel, that must be perused by every popular student; and the short period of time in which he is expected to pass over this entire field: all tend to change the young man into a habit of nervousness which would surprise our ancestors of one hundred years ago.

The labor that was performed by hand by our ancestors, which was the cause of their physical endurance, is now entirely accomplished by machinery; and the modern man, instead of patiently doing the labor by hand, expends months and years at brain-work, attempting to construct a machine that will run by steam, water, or horse-power, that he may save physical force, time, and perhaps, in the end, money.

The haste in which Americans live and move, must also become an exciting cause of nervousness. The ancients were patient in obtaining information; in performing works of art, literature, or agriculture. The Greeks did not expect to become proficient in the varied vocations until middle life; but an average American is expected to finish college at twenty-two; to have invented some kind of a machine for the saving of labor, to have made a fortune, married and raised a family of children, wasted his father’s fortune, and be prepared to begin life anew by the time he is thirty years of age.

Then, to answer the question, “Why are American people so nervous?” we have but to compare the present with the past; our country with others. The nervousness and mental development of our people, preclude anything but moderation in sexual indulgence; and whenever fast living, brain-working, nervous people indulge to satiety in sexual pleasure, they are in danger of grave consequences, such as our ancestors never knew of, as the results of excessive sexual indulgence. They could cohabit ad libitum, and never notice such consequences as nervous people are constantly suffering.

CHAPTER II.

Incidents—Observation—Historical Data, and Sexual Hygiene.—Nature furnishes us a vast field for speculation and inquiry, when even confined within the domain of certainties; and there is an occult line beyond which everything is speculative and imaginary; but there are facts enough in common view to enlighten the seeker after knowledge by simply collecting commonplace occurrences and gleaning therefrom their rich lessons. Observation, by association and comparison, and correct judgment will teach us many things not in the least hypothetical—facts.

To comprehend the obscure relations of the sexual function and the varieties of morbid changes, we must first systematically inquire into a few of nature’s designs, and ascertain thereby the true purpose of the sexual organs.

What purpose? is the first point at issue in any observation, and must be answered by the physiologist and Physician in this investigation, as he only has the results of abuse, or wrong application, to investigate and correct.

The production of healthy offspring must be nature’s only design for the sexual organs. How to accomplish this end, is the great question of scientific observers.

It seems quite axiomatic to remark, that maturity and perfect development only can assure perfect reproduction of the species. Again, that pleasure should always attend the act of copulation, otherwise the pain of parturition and the care of rearing the young would always militate against the perpetuation of the race.

With the normal condition of the sexual organs and functions the physician has comparatively little to do; but with their abuses he has all to do. To comprehend the abnormal, he must be familiar with the normal condition of structure and function. Masturbation is a small part of the indiscretions and evils of the sexual; and the lesions growing out of such evils are too numerous to mention. There is no doubt venereal diseases grew out of the evils of repetition of sexual congress, with certain unknown violations of nature’s laws, by depraved human beings.

I am credibly informed of an occasion: “A prostitute received the embraces of eleven men in immediate succession: the ninth and eleventh took gonorrhœa, and again gave it; but the prostitute remained free from the disease until two months after, when she took the disease from one to whom she had given it, on the above-mentioned occasion, after which she spread it through a small town in which she lived and also in which she was in the habit of plying her vocation. She was free from disease before this occasion.”

It is no more doubted that a male will contract a purulent urethritis from contact with a woman during her menstrual crisis, or if she be afflicted with an infective leucorrhœa; but such a discharge in the male is not generally contagious, and he may indulge freely without giving the disease.

Uncleanliness may be considered a common cause of sexual disease in both sexes.

Masturbation