Aug. 20, 1896 Boston Medical Journal: Sexual Perversion, Sadism, WCM's

[Archaic]

August 20, 1896 article from the Boston Medical & Surgical Journal offering a physician's detailed discussion of Sexual Perversion,
Lust Murder and Sadism, and making reference to the Whitechapel Murders as an example of that phenomenon.

Written by Morton Prince, M.D., Physician for Nervous Diseases, Boston City Hospital.

Best regards, Archaic

[Archaic]

Text of Aug. 20, 1896 Boston Medical & Surgical Journal Article

Hi, everyone. Below is the text of this article as I transcribed it for my own use. I believe it is transcribed accurately, but please bear in mind that the scanned article is the one which is definitely accurate. I'm just posting this text version for your convenience as it may be easier to read. Thanks.

Personally, I think this is one of the most fascinating of the Whitechapel Murder-related medical articles that I've come across.
Despite being 115 years old, it gives an excellent insight into the strange psychological pathways by which individuals can develop
and then voluntarily reinforce their addiction to vivid sexual fantasies involving violence.

Dr Morton uses an actual case study to explore this topic, and the article includes portions of his interviews with the patient. The patient's description of his own escalating fantasies of sexual violence and his confused attempt to blame an entity sometimes described in the third person as a "demon" inside him or within his "environment", sound very much like what Ted Bundy described in his last prison interviews before being executed.

Neither Bundy nor the patient in this article really believed it was an actual external demon compelling them to act; they were instead searching for a way to describe to others the strange 'split' that they were aware of within themselves. This feeling of being 'split' is both a facet of Addiction (because the individual is allowing their addiction to direct their behavior, rather than exercising fully conscious personal choice and will-power)
and also of the need to deflect conscious awareness of their personal responsibility and culpability in order to be able to indulge in the behaviors they find most satisfying.
Assigning blame to some force or entity beyond themselves also functions very effectively to lower the individual's initial resistance to dwelling on fantasies of committing violent acts which they know to be morally wrong- which in turn serves to perpetuate the fantasies, escalate the desire for sexual violence, and reinforce the addiction.

Best regards, Archaic

>>Aug. 20, 1896 Boston Medical & Surgical Journal

A CASE OF IDEATIONAL SADISM (SEXUAL PERVERSION).
BY MORTON PRINCE, M.D.,
Physician for Nervous Diseases, Boston City Hospital.

By Sadism is meant the association of active cruelty and violence with lust. By this association the performance of an act which is repulsive to the ordinary person, such as the infliction of torture or pain, the shedding of blood, the tearing of flesh, etc., directly excites intense lustful feelings in the individual. The name is derived from the "notorious Marquis de Sade, whose obscene novels treated of lust and cruelty." This perversion of the sexual instinct is the exciting motive of many notorious murders. The Whitechapel murderer was undoubtedly the subject of Sadism. Similar instances are well known and may be found described in the literature.

The subject is an important one from a medico-legal point of view, as well as of psychological interest ; and it is desirable that the motives leading to crimes of this kind should be thoroughly recognized. Lust murders, not murders for the purpose of concealing or committing rape, but violence and murder for the purpose of inducing sexual excitement in the murderer, are probably more common than is generally supposed. The sexually exciting element in such cases, is the sight or smell of blood, or the cutting, tearing or mutilation of the victim's flesh. Verzeui found, as he confessed, unspeakable delight in strangling women, experiencing during the act erections and real sexual pleasure. Some find delight in actually eating the flesh or drinking the blood (Leger, Verzeni- -). Sometimes special pleasure is found in cutting or tearing out the uterus, ovaries and genitalia which are carried away (Whitechapel murderer), but this is not always the case, and the victims are not mutilated in this respect.
A similar perversion is found in the excitement which some have in harmlessly cutting, beating or whipping women and boys. A case has been brought to my attention of a man who was in the habit of visiting a prostitute whom he used to strike over the nates with a shingle. No coitus was indulged in.

In the following case, for the observation of which I am indebted to Dr. Harold Williams, with whom I saw the boy in consultation, the sexual perversion was fortunately not gratified by actual violence, but was limited to the excitement which the subject intentionally induced in himself by dreams and probably hallucinations of violence and murder. The association was between lust on the one hand and volitionally-induced hallucinations of murder and mutilation of women on the other. Hence it might be called ideational Sadism. The case is, I think, unique in this respect. It only needed perhaps, the opportunity, perhaps a sudden impulse or thought to convert this embryo Sadist into an actual murderer. That such possibilities made him dangerous to the community is self-evident.

The subject was a young man, twenty-two years of age. When I saw him this sexual perversion was unsuspected, nor were the other symptoms of insanity clearly recognized by the family. His condition had been regarded (before coming into Dr. Williams' hands) as one of neurasthenia or hysteria. The diagnosis of some near relatives had been general laziness, with the usual corresponding advice to the mother, who recognized in a general way that the boy was not right. The fact that the boy had concealed his mental condition so long is noteworthy. After considerable difficulty I obtained a complete confession.

It was his custom to lie upon the bed in the daytime and fall into a sort of trance or day-dream state in which he was apparently between waking and sleeping. He said he thought he was awake because if any one should knock on the door or come into the гoom he would know it. While in this state he used to imagine that he killed and mutilated women. It was not possible to learn from him the exact mode in which this habit began, or what was the original exciting occasion, but his imagination began in a moderate way and afterward extended. At first, it was only a single woman whom he imagined he thus mutilated, but afterward in each " seance " he destroyed great numbers. His imagination seems to have created actual hallucinations, for he said that at these times he actually saw his victims with great vividness as objective realities, and had the sensations of actually killing them ; for the time being his acts were absolutely real to him, and soon a belief in them persisted.

At first it was a single girl whom he mutilated ; he killed her, tore her to pieces and ate her; later he imagined that he lived in towns where it was the custom for the men to destroy all the women in this way. Then, as the habit grew, the towns became cities and the cities countries. These countries were completely depopulated of the women by the men, all of whom together held these Sadistic feasts.

While indulging in these dreams or hallucinations, he had most intense sexual excitement with emissions. His habit was thus a form of masturbation, the peculiarity being the association of sexual feeling with hallucinations of cruelty. When in the waking state he seemed to be at times confused as to whether he actually committed these imaginary murders or not ; for while at one time he said he had not, at other times there was sufficient confusion in his mind to make him think that he had committed these unpardonable sins and to be in great misery in consequence; he would then be in a state of great penitence which was not understood by his mother until this confession was obtained. He also admitted to me that at times he thought he had actually committed these acts. He had practiced this habit from the time he was ten years old until about twenty, that is, up to about two or three years ago. During the last two years this habit had largely died out but there has been of late (September, 1895) a tendency to recurrence. It was apparent that such a person was dangerous to the community and that at any time there was a possibility, under favorable conditions, that he might put what had hitherto been pure imagination into actual practice; we therefore sent him to an asylum without delay. He denied that in mutilating the bodies of his victims that he selected any particular parts of the body, as is the case with many Sadists.

Besides these perverted sexual tendencies there were other mental and physical phenomena of interest which showed that his mental condition was one of degeneration. He had practiced masturbation frequently in the ordinary way. It was very difficult, at first, to obtain from him a statement of his feelings and thoughts ; he became very easily tired and exhausted when interrogated, and every few minutes, when a question was put to him he would remain silent and make no attempt to answer; when asked why he did not answer he professed not to hear the question or at least not to hear it intelligently but merely as sounds which conveyed no meaning to his mind (word deafness ? ); at first I thought this a subterfuge to avoid answering pointed questions, but afterwards I became satisfied that it was a fact; for every few minutes he would go into a semi-trance-like state of only a few seconds' duration when he seemed to be in a condition much like that of petit mal. In these states he seemed to be no longer in association with the outer world but given over to a sort of union with an inner consciousness. Questions put to him at that time were not understood, but after a moment's silence he would say, " I did not hear that."

These momentary trance-like states increased in frequency as the interview was prolonged, until at the end of an hour it was impossible to carry the examination further. He then became very much fatigued and was obliged to lie down. The explanation of them I soon learned to be as follows: He thought there was an evil being or demon inside of him, and with this being he was continually contending. This evil one was trying to get control of him, and it was he who was urging him to do all sorts of things that he did not want to do ; and when he did such things it was the evil one, not he, who did them. He was confused regarding the character of this person ; but he, the evil being, was without sentiment, pity or feeling; his sole desire was to do him injury. When the patient did any wrongful act it was the being that was responsible, but as yet this being had not got absolute control of him. The boy said that he was losing his control over his demon, and was afraid he would be eventually overpowered. The ideas of the patient regarding the relations of this demon to himself were not clear, but confused, as were also his notions regarding his own ideas and those of the demon ; it was difficult for him to distinguish what were his and what were the demon's, and even to clearly define his own notions in a logical way.

When I asked him what he thought was the matter with himself, whether he had any particular hallucinations, fixed ideas, or mental impulses, he said he did not know, he could not remember; this evil one had them, not he; he was willing to tell if he could, but he knew nothing. He heard a voice at times, but was not quite certain whether the voice was that of the evil one speaking to him or the voice of a third person was speaking to the evil one as a separate person. On one occasion, ten days before my first interview, he heard a voice saying it was his duty to God to kill his mother; then be broke off all relation with tbis being. When 1 asked whether he was not afraid that this being would compel him to do some wrong act, be answered, " No," because when the demon went too far he broke off all relation with him and had nothing to do with him, and in this way felt himself safe. Now it was when he went into the above-described trance-like states, when he did not hear me, that he entered into communication with the evil one. At such times, he said the room seemed to become slightly darker, or rather he saw a sort of dark object, which was the evil one between him and the light; then, he said he "poked and jabbed this demon." '.I his seemed to be a way of punishing him. 1 noticed at such times his eyelids blinked or quivered continuously and a sense of exhaustion came over him. When this state passed off he would say, "There, I jabbed him." When I asked him if this demon was a real person or only a figure of speech, he found difficulty in explaining, but said it was his "environment." He evidently had no clear conception of this person.
Another perverted idea of the patient was that he was turned inside out.

His general condition was one of neurasthenia. He had much depression and suffered from great anguish of mind from which he broke down and cried at times, saying that he "suffered intensely," but could not describe very definitely from what particular feelings; it seemed to be more an anguish of mind. His heredity is bad, and throws light upon the distinctively degenerate character of his mental condition. His mother was excessively neurasthenic. One maternal aunt was described as nervous, with abnormally fixed ideas on certain social subjects, and two maternal aunts suffered from hysteria. A maternal brother was delicate and always on the point of breaking down. His maternal grandfather was a very able and physically strong man, with decided elements of genius. He is well known to the public, and recognized to be very brilliant mentally, but a man of very extreme opinions. Up to the age of forty he bad a tendency to melancholia. The maternal grandmother was neuralgic, ailing, neurasthenic. The patient's father was eccentric and a dipsomaniac. One paternal aunt was well; a second was described as having a bad temper and at one time as having had delirium (about this my notes are confused). A third had hysteria. Two cousins, sons of the second paternal aunt, both drank to excess. The first paternal aunt had four children; of these, one had some sort of puerperal insanity, from which she recovered. Two paternal uncles are said to have died of dissipation.
The early history of this patient is interesting, as showing the progressive physical descent (facilis descensus averni) of such a case. Since two years of age always more or less out of order; five years of age, attacks of nausea, vomiting and headache with fever, delirium alternating with coma; these attacks were followed by excessive prostration and weakness slow recovery from weakness which persisted until the next attack, which occurred at the end of about one mouth; he lost flesh and his temper became irritable, so that he became violently excited and enraged over little things.

Several eminent physicians of New York were consulted. One said that he was unable to make a diagnosis. A second said it was brain disease ; and a third said it was lithemia from the liver. Accordingly he was treated, for this last, with calomel, with the apparent results that after this he had no more attacks but only premonitory signs which were always stopped by calomel.

The patient was then taken from New York to the seaside. He is said to have always become ill whenever taken back to New York, that is, lost flesh and color and looked sick ; became well again when taken back to the seaside; accordingly experiments of living in different parts of the country in search of health during his boyhood were tried. He has always been unable to study any length of time, fifteen minutes having been the longest time during which he has been able to concentrate his thoughts ; if he studies for a longer time at one stretch be becomes pale, and it is evident something is wrong with him.
At twelve years of age he went to school; at first he was well, then went down hill but did good work. In the spring he became ill, so that finally, after numerous attempts, school was given up and he went back to the seashore, where he became strong and rugged. Five years ago he passed his preliminary examinations for the Institute of Technology, having in spite of the above difficulties for the most part educated himself. Four years ago a trip was made to Europe ; this was a failure. Relatives strongly advised his being put into business, so three years ago he went to California on a ranch ; there became melancholy, inert and unequal to the physical exertion necessary; be was obliged to give up the ranch and went to the Pacific Coast, where he sailed all the time and became better. Then he tried looking after bis property as an occupation, but found the necessary mental exertion too exhausting. Then in the summer of 1893, upon the advice of relatives, who insisted that bis whole trouble was merely indolence, he went into a newspaper office, where he again broke down.

In the autumn of 1893 he went to Florida, where he improved ; but the following Christmas he broke down, and has been ill ever since with periods of intermission when be is comparatively better and has fair health. Further, his mother states she noticed his personality has changed, which is manifest in his voice, manner of speech and actions. He has giddy turns and his mind becomes possessed with thoughts he cannot direct. In the spring of 1894 his mother said " he wanted to attack people," a bell-boy, for example, in the hotel. In the spring of 1895, while in Europe, he bad a strong desire for suicide, fell into fits of deep depression of days' and weeks' duration. His present condition, as observed by the mother (in September, 1895), was one of depression, debility, languor, slowness of bearing and speech and mental action, inertia and lack of interest in everything. He has told her that he has committed a great sin and that be is going crazy. This refers to the hallucinations of Sadism ; further particulars he did not confess.

Certain physical stigmata can be recognized. He is of average physical development, but there is an asymmetry in the two sides of the face, that is, the muscles of one side move more energetically than those of the other so that when he smiles the mouth is drawn more to the right. The vault of the pharynx is high. The fingers do not show what some writers claim to be the relative proper development, some being too short.

[lynn cates]

D'Onston

Hello Archaic. Very interesting article.

"His general condition was one of neurasthenia."

I'm sure you recognize this as D'Onston Stephenson's diagnosed malady.

The best.
LC

[Archaic]

Neuraesthenia

Hy, Lynn; glad you like the article.

'Neuraesthenia' is actually one of the most commonly diagnosed ailments of the mid-to-late 19th Century.

'Neuraesthenia' was a catch-all term for a large number of different conditions and ailments, including various physical illnesses, fatigue, general weakness & lack of vigor, mood swings and depressive states, indigestion, phobias, hysterical conditions, fainting spells, sexual dysfunctions, headaches, flatulence, etc.

Even married ladies who were bored out of their minds by their own restrictive lifestyle and boring sex lives were diagnosed as suffering from 'Neurasthenia'.

Today it is regarded more as a 19th C. socio-cultural appellation than an actual health condition.

...Maybe it was just a nice way of saying "We don't know what's wrong with you... here's the bill."

Best regards, Archaic

[lynn cates]

whiner

Hello Archaic. Yes. And hence the (unflattering) designation, "whining neurasthenic."

The best.
LC

[Archaic]

RX

Hi, Lynn. You'll be alright. Take 3 swigs of Snake Oil and call me in the morning.

Cheers, Dr. Archaic

PS: I will email you the bill.

[lynn cates]

Dr T

Hello Archaic. Snake oil, eh? Does Dr. Tumblety get a consultation fee?

The best.
LC

[Archaic]

My goodness Lynn, you aren't accusing me of working for a quack like Dr. Tumblety, are you?


I assure you, all my cures are patented.

Cheers, Dr. Archaic