The Sexual Question Part 26

For example, I suggest to a man that his forehead itches. As soon as he feels it he is surprised, being unable to understand how my prophecy has been transformed into real itching. He then believes in my power over his nervous system, _i.e._, that his brain becomes more receptive to my words, and offers less resistance after having proved the value of my predictions. It matters little whether these are directed toward sensations or movements, or vaso-motor actions causing blus.h.i.+ng and blanching, or suppression or bringing on of menstruation (in the case of a woman), etc. My influence over him by suggestion will increase; _i.e._, his brain will accustom itself to the suggestions which I give it by letting them dissociate its activity.

This tendency to be influenced by suggestion is very contagious by example. When A influences B successfully, and C, D, E, F and G are witnesses of the fact, they will be much more easily influenced by A in the same direction; and so on. This explains suggestion affecting the ma.s.ses.

It is quite indifferent whether the subjective sentiment of sleep occurs more or less in the state of hypnosis or suggestion. This sentiment depends chiefly on the presence or absence of a variable degree of amnesia (want of memory to awaken). But amnesia only depends on the rupture, often fortuitous and unimportant, of the chain of remembrances in the series of super-conscious or attentional states of cerebral activity.

In somnambulists, who are the most suggestible people, we can produce or suppress amnesia at will by a single word, and make them forget or remember what has pa.s.sed. I must dwell on this point, because of the current dogma which a.s.sumes an essential difference between hypnotism and suggestion in the waking state. Such an a.s.sumption is based on false conception of the psychology of suggestion. The only difference consists in the suggestion of amnesia, or the subjective sentiment of sleep; or, if one prefers it, the subjective remembrance of sleep opposed to the remembrance of having been awakened. But these two remembrances may be voluntarily connected with the same past state of the brain.

By _auto-suggestion_ is meant the suggestive action of spontaneous ideas--that is to say, ideas which are not suggested to the subject by any other person, but the effect of which is identical to that of external suggestions. An idea, a sentiment, dominates the mind, overcomes all its antagonists and produces a strong suggestive effect on the whole nervous system in the direction which it symbolizes. The idea of being unable to sleep often produces insomnia; the idea of s.e.xual impotence may at once inhibit erection and render coitus impossible. The idea of yawning makes one yawn; that of coitus provokes erections; the idea of shame causes blus.h.i.+ng; that of fear blanching; that of pity weeping.

But it often happens unconsciously, in yawning for example, that one man suggests it to another who begins to yawn; or the sight of certain objects, the hearing of certain sounds, provokes suggestions. Thus the sight of an object belonging to a certain woman may cause an erection; the odor of some article of diet which has caused indigestion is sufficient to cause nausea, etc. We thus see that there is a series of transitions between external intentional suggestion and auto-suggestion, in the form of suggestion of objects and unconscious or involuntary suggestion of persons. The conception of true or intentional suggestion infers the determined will of one man influencing another by suggestion; there is no other criterion.

It is quite another question whether the one who suggests wishes to benefit his subject, or wishes on the contrary to abuse him or make him ridiculous.

=Sympathy. Love and Suggestion.=--It is of great importance for us to know that sympathy and confidence are the fundamental elements of success in suggestive action. Even when deceived by the one who hypnotizes him, the subject may yield to him while he is not aware of it. But there is here a point to be noted. A man may very well see clearly with his reason and his logic, he may understand that harm is done to him, he may even curse a thing or a person when he reflects, and in spite of this be instinctively and subconsciously attracted toward this thing or this person, like a moth to a candle, when certain sentiments of sympathy or attraction urge him to it. The two following examples will make this more clear:

(1). An actor fell in love with a hysterical married woman. This woman was very polyandrous, and deceived not only her husband but the actor and many others. The actor tried with all the power of his reason to be delivered from the tyrannical charm of this siren; but the power of attraction of the woman was so strong that he could not succeed in resisting her. He came to me in despair and begged me to rid him of his pa.s.sion by hypnotism.

I realized the difficulty of the situation but did my best to help him. Although aided by his reason, all my suggestions were overcome by the violence of the pa.s.sion that his hysterical seducer had inspired in him, and I obtained absolutely no result.

(2). A well-educated, unmarried woman became so enamored of a young man, that she was consumed with pa.s.sion, grew thin, and lost her appet.i.te and sleep. Having exchanged ideas with the young man for some time, she became convinced that their two characters were not suited to each other, and that incompatibility of temper and quarrels would necessarily follow marriage. She therefore resisted with all her power and came to me to be cured of her pa.s.sion by suggestion. My failure in the preceding case increased my skepticism, but I did my best to succeed; the result, however, was no better than with the actor in the preceding case. Time and separation alone gradually restored equilibrium in this lady's nervous system.

These two cases are very instructive. Suggestion can only successfully combat powerful sentiments by arousing other sentiments of sympathy which increase little by little and finally become subst.i.tuted for the preceding ones. This brings us to a very difficult question.

In order to influence other persons by suggestion, it is above all things necessary to try and a.s.sociate the ideas which we suggest to them with sentiments of sympathy, so as to arouse in them the impression that the object to be attained is desirable and agreeable, or at any rate that it const.i.tutes a necessity. The woman who surrenders to the mercy of her conqueror often experiences a kind of pleasure which is a.s.sociated with the pa.s.siveness of her s.e.xual sentiments. It is the same in the male m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t.

The physician who hypnotizes is obliged to awaken sentiments of sympathy in his subject to combat with their a.s.sistance the sentiments a.s.sociated with the morbid state which it is desired to suppress. This is usually free from danger when there is no natural s.e.xual attraction between the hypnotizer and the hypnotized; when, for example, a normal man hypnotizes another man, a normal woman another woman, or an invert another invert. Otherwise there is a risk of exciting s.e.xual sympathies difficult to eliminate afterwards, when necessary precautions have not been taken at first. These attractive s.e.xual sensations or sentiments may affect both the hypnotizer and the hypnotized and provoke love scenes, which are fatal to success.

For example, a hysterical baroness, whose s.e.xual desire had been excited by hypnotism, fell in love with a person named Czinsky, whose case was studied and published by Schrenck-Notzing. This baroness experienced a kind of suggested love against which her reason resisted to a certain extent, while her hypnotizer, himself amorous, lost his head. One might say in such a case that suggestion only reenforced the very human sentiments which occur in all love stories of everyday life. Between normal love and suggested love there is such an infinite number of gradations that it is impossible to fix exactly the limits which separate them.

A hypnotizer may abuse his suggestive power to exploit the love of the hypnotized. I have been consulted in a case where an old woman had hypnotized a rich young man and had so powerfully influenced him that he abandoned his family and married her. As in the case of Czinsky, the abuse was obvious. The case was even more grave, for this old woman acted only from mercenary motives; in fact, she procured young girls for her husband, so as not to lose her suggestive influence after marriage: Czinsky, on the contrary, was truly amorous.

As a general rule we may say that, when amorous intoxication is the result of intentional suggestion, the subject obeys a certain sentiment of constraint, which he may describe later on when he has succeeded in recovering himself. He feels a kind of duplication of his personality, and perceives that the excitation of his s.e.xual desire, as well as his love, have a somewhat forced nature, against which his reason attempts to defend him. This reaction often only appears afterwards, when the sympathetic action of suggestion begins to fade.

Here again the gradations are infinite, and no absolute rules can be formulated, for if the hypnotizer is very skillful and does not let his intentions appear, the subjective sentiment of constraint may be absolutely wanting; _i.e._, never become conscious. If, however, the hypnotizer is clumsy and the subject a hysterical woman, love is often transformed into hatred in the latter soon afterwards, as is so often the case in these subjects, and she may afterwards be convinced by auto-suggestion that she was the object of artificial constraint or even violence, and describe imaginary or unnatural events as if they were real; while she was simply amorous after the fas.h.i.+on of hysterical subjects.

It is quite otherwise with cases where a hypnotizer produces in a hypnotized woman a state of deep somnambulism and does harm to her without her knowledge. Here the victim is absolutely without will, and incapable of resisting. These last cases are much more easy to decide, especially from the legal point of view; but, as far as we are now concerned, the first cases are the most important.

The amorous irradiations produced by the s.e.xual appet.i.te react on the latter and increase it. They awaken sentiments of reciprocal sympathy, from which results a mutual attraction similar to that of animals.

Suggestive action depends on the mastery we obtain over the a.s.sociated constellations of subconscious engrams, and we have already become acquainted with the phylogenetic and actual relations.h.i.+p which exists between s.e.xual sensations and sensations of sympathy. The simple juxtaposition of these facts clearly shows that powerful affinities exist between suggestion and love. I use the word "affinity"

advisedly, for we must not go further and regard the two things as identical. Fortunately, the majority of curable patients may be cured by the prudent awakening of a slight degree of sympathy, and by the common efforts made by the hypnotizer and the hypnotized to subdue the morbid symptoms, without anything but a certain sentiment of reciprocal friends.h.i.+p resulting. On the other hand two human beings may be united by s.e.xual love, without either being able to hypnotize the other. This is especially the case when, for example, two conjoints have known each other for many years, or when two persons of higher intelligence, who are not too dependent on their s.e.xual intercourse, meet each other.

I am obliged to dwell on these facts, so that my ideas may not be falsely interpreted, by premature generalization. On the other hand, when a strongly a.s.sociated brain suggests to a weak brain of the opposite s.e.x sentiments of sympathy and makes use of them to arouse the s.e.xual appet.i.te, it may produce a suggested love which closely resembles natural amorous intoxication. If the discovery of an imposture or abuse of power on the part of the hypnotizer weakens or destroys the effect of suggestion, the hypnotized subject recovers herself. Despite and repentance may then transform her love into hatred.

In other cases there is a struggle between s.e.xual desire and the disillusion of a deceived love, which often serves as the tragic motive in romance and the drama. The following is a typical case of suggested love without formal hypnotic proceedings:

An old _roue_ aged sixty, married and the father of a family, persecuted a very suggestible young girl with his attentions, and systematically seduced her by means of erotic readings. He produced such an impression on this young girl that she became hypnotized and fell in love with the old _roue_ She lost all conscience, became deceitful and untruthful by suggestion, and compromised herself and her family. Her seducer was poor, so that it was not his fortune that attracted her. She knew very well that this union could lead to nothing, but could not resist, and eloped with him. Later on she came to her senses and left him.

According to an old proverb, young girls laugh at old men and only marry them reluctantly or for their money; but in reality this is by no means always true.

=Amorous Intoxication.=--Let us now compare these phenomena with those of ordinary life called _amorous intoxication_. The affinities are at once apparent. A man and a woman meet and take a fancy for each other.

The reciprocal action of looks, speech and touch, in fact all the apparatus of the senses and the mind, awakens in both of them sentiments of sympathy and s.e.xual desire which mutually strengthens each other. s.e.xual desire invests every action and appearance of the loved object with an ever-increasing halo of charm and splendor, and this halo of s.e.xual origin increases in its turn the sentiments of sympathy; and the sentiments of sympathy increase the s.e.xual desire.

In this way mutual suggestions grow like a s...o...b..ll, and rapidly attain the culminating point of amorous intoxication, or what is called being _madly in love_.

All this depends only on reciprocal illusion. The more violent and foolish the amorous intoxication, without preparation or reflexion, and the less the individuals know each other, the more rapidly these illusions collapse, like a castle of cards, as soon as some douche of cold water sobers the two lovers. Thus indifference, disgust, and even hatred, follow "love."

The suggestive element in love is here apparent. Just as a hypnotized person will eagerly swallow a raw potato which he takes for an orange; so will a person madly in love regard an ugly or wicked girl as a G.o.ddess, or an amorous girl find her ideal of chivalry and manliness in an egoistic Don Juan.

The affinity is still more evident when the amorous intoxication is only on one side, while the other plays the part of seducer. When motives of pecuniary interest are not the only cause of seduction, and even often when they are, the seducer generally brings into play his s.e.xual appet.i.te, but only as a collaborator in his work of seduction without allowing himself to be dominated by it. In this case one is the seducer and the other the seduced. The seducer plays the part of the hypnotizer who suggests, while the seduced plays the part of the hypnotized, unless the seduction is due to fear, weakness of mind or good nature. The seducer is no doubt more or less under erotic influence, but never completely. The seduced, on the contrary, falls completely under the power of the seducer. The thoughts, sentiments and will are all directed by the impulses of the seducer. The latter acquires his ascendancy by means of a kind of suggestive power, often a.s.sisted by the s.e.xual appet.i.te.

In many cases the seduced gives way by pure suggestion of love without s.e.xual desire. These are precisely the cases that the law does not foresee, and jurists cannot usually understand. In ordinary life, the man most often plays the part of seducer or hypnotizer; but this is not always the case. Antony, who threw himself at the feet of Cleopatra and obeyed her least gesture, was evidently hypnotized.

Antonys are not rare even at the present day; but they do not const.i.tute the rule, nor the normal state.

As we have just described it, suggestion plays a great role in love, and explains to a great extent the phenomena of illusion produced by amorous intoxication. In spite of the act which deifies it and the ecstatic happiness that accompanies it, we must admit that amorous intoxication, with its illusory suggestions uncontrolled by reason, brings more poison than true happiness into human life. I will attempt to explain the matter more clearly. When two human beings with loyal instincts have learned to know each other sufficiently, honestly avowing their reciprocal feelings and their past life, at the same time subduing their sensual appet.i.tes and judging the latter with calmness, so as to be convinced that they may reasonably hope to form a durable and happy union, then only may they abandon themselves to amorous intoxication, but not before. The fact that the latter makes each lover appear to the other in the most ideal light only serves to strengthen the feelings of sympathy and make them last for life.

On the other hand, two egoists calculating coldly, even if they have strong s.e.xual appet.i.tes and trouble themselves very little with reflections on their intellect, may contract a comparatively happy marriage, based simply on reciprocal convenience and interest; a marriage in which amorous intoxication only plays a very small part, or none at all.

The latter case is of great frequency. The novel which delights in the description of admirable or ign.o.ble sentiments, and which shows a special preference for bizarre and sensational situations, often of a pathological nature, makes us forget that the majority of mediocre and normal men are little susceptible to the suggestions of amorous intoxication, and that they give vent to their s.e.xual desires in a more or less reflective and calculating frame of mind, like a _gourmand_. This is not poetical, I admit, but it is much more human.

Many women also become _gourmands_ in s.e.xual matters.

In all this s.e.xual commerce there are only vestiges or caricatures of the poetry of amorous intoxication. It is no longer a question of deep love, but of essentially commonplace s.e.xual enjoyment, wisely and prudently adapted to other objects of concupiscence, such as money, social position, t.i.tles, business, etc.

If the poets and the preachers of morality apostrophize me with indignation saying that this is the prost.i.tution of love, I shall be obliged to protest. So long as s.e.xual enjoyment is not bought, there is no prost.i.tution. Man has as much right to a certain agreeable satisfaction of his s.e.xual appet.i.te, even without exalted sentiments, as he has to satisfy his hunger and thirst, as long as he does no harm to anyone. But, I repeat, this question has nothing to do with amorous intoxication. The latter is a powerful shock to the whole mind, to the princ.i.p.al spheres of cerebral activity, by a suggestive effect, usually with the aid of the s.e.xual appet.i.te, but sometimes without it.

Amorous intoxication naturally differs in quality and in intensity in different individuals. In a person with ideal tendencies it may awaken the finest harmonies of the symphony of human sentiments, while brutal and debased persons may wallow in the mud.

=Suggestion in Art.=--Suggestion does not act only in the s.e.xual sphere, but on the whole mental life. In aesthetics and in art it has an immense and irresistible influence, which gives rise to all the capricious exaltations of fas.h.i.+on. The average artist is more or less the slave of the aesthetic suggestions which are in fas.h.i.+on, but the average members of the public are absolutely dominated by them.

Originating in a correct idea of certain effects of light, the most absurd exaggerations may become accepted as beautiful and natural by an imitative public devoid of personal judgment, by the aid of suggestion. These deplorable effects of suggestion may last a long time till their nullity or their absurdity causes them gradually to disappear. But they are usually replaced by other absurdities.

=Suggestive Action in s.e.xual Anomalies.=--In very suggestible persons the s.e.xual appet.i.te may be easily led astray by sensory impressions created by perverse images. In this way the erotic imagination of a very suggestible boy, excited indirectly by another boy, may even make the latter the object of his s.e.xual desire. This is how h.o.m.os.e.xual inclinations may be formed by suggestion and maintained by mutual masturbation, pederasty, etc. The duration of a perversion of this kind often depends on the power of the erotic image which suggested s.e.xual desire. This is also the case with onanism, sodomy, etc.; and in the inverse direction with impotence.

These facts explain at the same time why and how suggestion may cure or ameliorate the anomalies of s.e.xual life. Just as suggestion may excite or pervert the s.e.xual appet.i.te, so may it calm it and put it in the right direction, unless there is a deeply rooted hereditary perversion. We can nearly always considerably attenuate too-frequent emissions, masturbation and perversions by suggestion, and often entirely cure their acquired forms.

I must here point out that when we have succeeded in removing by suggestion a perversion based in whole or in part on organic or hereditary causes, this result is always more or less precarious, and does not give the physician the right to give his sanction to marriage. The following case shows us what prudence on the part of the hypnotizer can do with patients of this kind:

A young girl, of good education, was troubled with intense s.e.xual desire. She was incapable of resisting masturbation and dreamed at night that men and animals were in contact with her v.u.l.v.a. These dreams caused intense excitement and were accompanied by o.r.g.a.s.ms. The treatment of a patient of this kind by suggestion was no easy matter. However, with the aid of a local sedative, the action of which it is needless to say was purely suggestive and was combined with appropriate verbal suggestions, I succeeded not only in suppressing the onanism, but also in almost completely curing the nervous exhaustion of this young girl, so that she was afterwards able to resume work.

I may add that the patient was hypnotized in the presence of others, which can always be done in such cases with a little tact. This is a rule from which the physician should never depart.

I cannot enter into more details on this subject, but what I have said will suffice to draw the attention of my readers to the action of suggestion in the s.e.xual appet.i.te and in love.

CHAPTER X

THE s.e.xUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO MONEY AND PROPERTY PROSt.i.tUTION, PROXENETISM AND VENAL CONCUBINAGE

GENERAL REMARKS

In Chapter VI we have studied the historical development of human marriage as a continuation of the phylogeny of our species, and we have shown that marriage by purchase and different forms of polygamy const.i.tute a kind of intermediate stage and at the same time an aberration of civilization, which has resulted from the a.s.sociation of men, combined with the birth of individual property.