Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud
page 31 of 174 (17%)
page 31 of 174 (17%)
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the other hand, the fondness for looking becomes a perversion (_a_) when
it limits itself entirely to the genitals; (_b_) when it becomes connected with the overcoming of loathing (voyeurs and onlookers at the functions of excretion); and (_c_) when instead of preparing for the normal sexual aim it suppresses it. The latter, if I may draw conclusions from a single analysis, is in a most pronounced way true of exhibitionists, who expose their genitals so as in turn to bring to view the genitals of others. In the perversion which consists in striving to look and be looked at we are confronted with a very remarkable character which will occupy us even more intensively in the following aberration. The sexual aim is here present in twofold formation, in an _active_ and a _passive_ form. The force which is opposed to the peeping mania and through which it is eventually abolished is _shame_ (like the former loathing). *Sadism and Masochism.*--The desire to cause pain to the sexual object and its opposite, the most frequent and most significant of all perversions, was designated in its two forms by v. Krafft-Ebing as sadism or the active form, and masochism or the passive form. Other authors prefer the narrower term algolagnia which emphasizes the pleasure in pain and cruelty, whereas the terms selected by v. Krafft-Ebing place the pleasure secured in all kinds of humility and submission in the foreground. The roots of active algolagnia, sadism, can be readily demonstrable in the normal. The sexuality of most men shows a taint of _aggression_, it is a propensity to subdue, the biological significance of which lies in the necessity of overcoming the resistance of the sexual object by |
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