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Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 is a scholarly treatise that gathers three extensive essays on the sexual impulse, its relation to love and pain, and its particular manifestations in women. The opening pages make clear that Ellis is building on a decade‑old framework while acknowledging recent advances in hormonal theory, and he positions his work as a synthesis of physiological, psychological, and medico‑legal perspectives. The preface outlines a methodical approach: first, a theoretical analysis of the impulse itself; second, an exploration of how love intertwines with pain and the origins of sadism and masochism; and third, a focused investigation of the female sexual drive, emphasizing qualitative differences rather than mere quantity. Throughout, Ellis cites contemporary German research, Darwinian concepts, and a range of anatomical and behavioral evidence, promising a balanced, interdisciplinary discussion rather than a novel doctrine.
The voice is that of an early‑twentieth‑century academic, formal and densely referenced, with a tone of earnest inquiry tempered by modesty about originality. Ellis’s prose is rich in scientific terminology, frequent quotations of authorities, and occasional philosophical digressions, reflecting the period’s blend of emerging endocrinology and Victorian moral concerns. Readers who appreciate historical psychology, the evolution of sexology, or the intellectual climate of 1910s Britain, particularly scholars, historians of medicine, and those interested in the roots of modern sexual theory, will find this volume a rewarding, if demanding, exploration of the era’s attempts to chart the complexities of human sexuality.
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It has not been found necessary to modify the main doctrines set forth ten years ago. At the same time, however, it may be mentioned, as regards the first study in the volume, that our knowledge of the physiological mechanism of the sexual instinct has been revolutionized during recent years. This is due to the investigations that have been made, and the deductions that have been built up, concerning the part played by hormones, or internal secretions of the ductless glands, in the physical production of the sexual instinct and the secondary sexual characters. The conception of the psychology of the sexual impulse here set forth, while correlated to terms of a physical process of tumescence and detumescence, may be said to be independent of the ultimate physiological origins of that process. But we cannot fail to realize the bearing of physiological chemistry in this field; and the doctrine of internal secretions, since it may throw light on many complex problems presented by the sexual instinct, is full of interest for us.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
June, 1913.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
The present volume of Studies deals with some of the most essential problems of sexual psychology. The Analysis of the Sexual Impulse is fundamental. Unless we comprehend the exact process which is being worked out beneath the shifting and multifold phenomena presented to us we can never hope to grasp in their true relations any of the normal or abnormal manifestations of this instinct. I do not claim that the conception of the process here stated is novel or original. Indeed, even since I began to work it out some years ago, various investigators in these fields, especially in Germany, have deprived it of any novelty it might otherwise have possessed, while at the same time aiding me in reaching a more precise statement. This is to me a cause of satisfaction. On so fundamental a matter I should have been sorry to find myself tending to a peculiar and individual standpoint. It is a source of gratification to me that the positions I have reached are those toward which current intelligent and scientific opinions are tending. Any originality in my study of this problem can only lie in the bringing together of elements from somewhat diverse fields. I shall be content if it is found that I have attained a fairly balanced, general, and judicial statement of these main factors in the sexual instinct.
In the study of Love and Pain I have discussed the sources of those aberrations which are commonly called, not altogether happily, "sadism" and "masochism." Here we are brought before the most extreme and perhaps the most widely known group of sexual perversions. I have considered them from the medico-legal standpoint, because that has already been done by other writers whose works are accessible. I have preferred to show how these aberrations may be explained; how they may be linked on to normal and fundamental aspects of the sexual impulse; and, indeed, in their elementary forms, may themselves be regarded as normal. In some degree they are present, in every case, at some point of sexual development; their threads are subtly woven in and out of the whole psychological process of sex. I have made no attempt to reduce their complexity to a simplicity that would be fallacious. I hope that my attempt to unravel these long and tangled threads will be found to make them fairly clear.
In the third study, on The Sexual Impulse in Women, we approach a practical question of applied sexual psychology, and a question of the first importance. No doubt the sex impulse in men is of great moment from the social point of view. It is, however, fairly obvious and well understood. The impulse in women is not only of at least equal moment, but it is far more obscure. The natural difficulties of the subject have been increased by the assumption of most writers who have touched it--casually and hurriedly, for the most part--that the only differences to be sought in the sexual impulse in man and in woman are quantitative differences. I have pointed out that we may more profitably seek for qualitative differences, and have endeavored to indicate such of these differences as seem to be of significance.
In an Appendix will be found a selection of histories of more or less normal sexual development. Histories of gross sexual perversion have often been presented in books devoted to the sexual instinct; it has not hitherto been usual to inquire into the facts of normal sexual development. Yet it is concerning normal sexual development that our ignorance is greatest, and the innovation can scarcely need justification. I have inserted these histories not only because many of them are highly instructive in themselves, but also because they exhibit the nature of the material on which my work is mainly founded.
I am indebted to many correspondents, medical and other, in various parts of the world, for much valuable assistance. When they have permitted me to do so I have usually mentioned their names in the text. This has not been possible in the case of many women friends and correspondents, to whom, however, my debt is very great. Nature has put upon women the greater part of the burden of sexual reproduction; they have consequently become the supreme authorities on all matters in which the sexual emotions come into question. Many circumstances, however, that are fairly obvious, conspire to make it difficult for women to assert publicly the wisdom and knowledge which, in matters of love, the experiences of life have brought to them. The ladies who, in all earnestness and sincerity, write books on these questions are often the last people to whom we should go as the representatives of their sex; those who know most have written least. I can therefore but express again, as in previous volumes I have expressed before, my deep gratitude to these anonymous collaborators who have aided me in throwing light on a field of human life which is of such primary social importance and is yet so dimly visible.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
Definition of Instinct--The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual Instinct--Theory of the Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation--The Evidence in Support of this Theory Inadequate--The Sexual Impulse to Some Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Animals and Men--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women, After the Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands--The Internal Secretions--Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of the Suckling Mother and her Child--The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a Reproductive Impulse--This Theory Untenable--Moll's Definition--The Impulse of Detumescence--The Impulse of Contrectation--Modification of this Theory Proposed--Its Relation to Darwin's Sexual Selection--The Essential Element in Darwin's Conception--Summary of the History of the Doctrine of Sexual Selection. Its Psychological Aspect--Sexual Selection a Part of Natural Selection--The Fundamental Importance of Tumescence--Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in Animals and in Man--The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence--The Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man--Dancing is a Potent Agent for Producing Tumescence--The Element of Truth in the Comparison of the Sexual Impulse with an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder--Both Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions--Their Intimate and Sometimes Vicarious Relationships--Analogy between Coitus and Epilepsy--Analogy of the Sexual Impulse to Hunger--Final Object of the Impulses of Tumescence and Detumescence.
LOVE AND PAIN.
I.
The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in Animal Courtship--Courtship a Source of Combativity and of Cruelty--Human Play in the Light of Animal Courtship--The Frequency of Crimes Against the Person in Adolescence--Marriage by Capture and its Psychological Basis--Man's Pleasure in Exerting Force and Woman's Pleasure in Experiencing it--Resemblance of Love to Pain even in Outward Expression--The Love-bite--In What Sense Pain May be Pleasurable--The Natural Contradiction in the Emotional Attitude of Women Toward Men--Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere in Women--The Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances in Coitus--The Sexual Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explainable as the Necessary Condition for Sexual Pleasure.
II.
The Definition of Sadism--De Sade--Masochism to some Extent Normal--Sacher-Masoch--No Real Line of Demarcation between Sadism and Masochism--Algolagnia Includes Both Groups of Manifestations--The Love-bite as a Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia--The Fascination of Blood--The Most Extreme Perversions are Linked on to Normal Phenomena.
III.
Flagellation as a Typical Illustration of Algolagnia--Causes of Connection between Sexual Emotion and Whipping--Physical Causes--Psychic Causes Probably More Important--The Varied Emotional Associations of Whipping--Its Wide Prevalence.
IV.
The Impulse to Strangle the Object of Sexual Desire--The Wish to be Strangled. Respiratory Disturbance the Essential Element in this Group of Phenomena--The Part Played by Respiratory Excitement in the Process of Courtship--Swinging and Suspension--The Attraction Exerted by the Idea of being Chained and Fettered.
V.
Pain, and not Cruelty, the Essential Element in Sadism and Masochism--Pain Felt as Pleasure--Does the Sadist Identify Himself with the Feelings of his Victim?--The Sadist Often a Masochist in Disguise--The Spectacle of Pain or Struggle as a Sexual Stimulant.
VI.
Why is Pain a Sexual Stimulant?--It is the Most Effective Method of Arousing Emotion--Anger and Fear the Most Powerful Emotions--Their Biological Significance in Courtship--Their General and Special Effects in Stimulating the Organism--Grief as a Sexual Stimulant--The Physiological Mechanism of Fatigue Renders Pain Pleasurable.
VII.
Summary of Results Reached--The Joy of Emotional Expansion--The Satisfaction of the Craving for Power--The Influence of Neurasthenic and Neuropathic Conditions--The Problem of Pain in Love Largely Constitutes a Special Case of Erotic Symbolism.
THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN.
Introduction.
I.
The Primitive View of Women--As a Supernatural Element in Life--As Peculiarly Embodying the Sexual Instinct--The Modern Tendency to Underestimate the Sexual Impulse in Women--This Tendency Confined to Recent Times--Sexual Anæsthesia--Its Prevalence--Difficulties in Investigating the Subject--Some Attempts to Investigate it--Sexual Anæsthesia Must be Regarded as Abnormal--The Tendency to Spontaneous Manifestations of the Sexual Impulse in Young Girls at Puberty.
II.
Special Characters of the Sexual Impulse in Women--The More Passive Part Played by Women in Courtship--This Passivity Only Apparent--The Physical Mechanism of the Sexual Process in Women More Complex--The Slower Development of Orgasm in Women--The Sexual Impulse in Women More Frequently Needs to be Actively Aroused--The Climax of Sexual Energy Falls Later in Women's Lives than in Men's--Sexual Ardor in Women increased After the Establishment of Sexual Relationships--Women Bear Sexual Excesses Better than Men--The Sexual Sphere Larger and More Diffused in Women--The Sexual Impulse in Women Shows a Greater Tendency to Periodicity and a Wider Range of Variation.
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