ENERGY
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THE
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2005 AND 2006 |
PsychopathTHE MASK OF SANITYSection 3: Cataloging the MaterialPart 2: A comparison with other disorders37. Specific homosexuality and other consistent sexual deviations
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37. Specific homosexuality and other consistent sexual deviations When the first edition of this book was written it had for many years been customary to use the term sexual psychopath to designate homosexuals, sadists, masochists, and also people specifically inclined towards exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, cross-dressing, and pedophilia. Included at times with these deviations under the concept of sexual psychopathy were also types of abnormal behavior designated as erotomania and sexual immaturity. For many years before and after the initial publication of the Mask of Sanity this custom had authoritative sanction in our nomenclature. This I believe tended to promote confusion and foster the belief that CATALOGING THE MATERIAL 287 these, or most of these, sexual disorders, deviations, or anomalies, along with the disorder of the psychopath or antisocial personality, were all types or variations of a unitary basic abnormality. Even now in our latest official nomenclature we find what I, and I believe most other psychiatrists, regard as the real psychopath, included with all the recognized sexual deviations under the general heading personality disorders. It is true that some sexually aberrant patients show additional pathologic features. Sometimes, but by no means regularly or even frequently, these features include those typical of the psychopath (true antisocial personality). This relatively rare mixing of features, however, has never seemed to me an adequate reason for identifying the two groups, or even for assuming that they are in fundamental respects closely related. No one is more ready than I to agree that the real psychopath's sexuality is abnormal. The schizophrenic, the patient with organic brain disease, the paranoid, and many other types of psychiatric patients also carry out deviated sexual activity, and in those who do not one often finds indications of extremely deviated attitudes about the basic erotic orientations. Yet we would not find it profitable to give up our distinguishing terms for these disorders and merge them as types under a general term that also embraces the sexual disorders. Such a scheme would, no doubt, tend in time to blur our concepts about what we are dealing with. It impresses me as inaccurate to assume that homosexuals as a class show the general life pattern of gratuitous folly and purposelessness so typical of the psychopath. It seems unlikely that more than a small percentage of homosexuals ever come to the attention of psychiatrists at all. Fewer by far are admitted to psychiatric hospitals. Whether or not the Kinsey Report167 correctly estimates the proportion of male homosexuals in the nation, it seems obvious that they are far from rare in almost any community. As noted above some deviates of this sort also show the more generalized and even the typical maladjustment seen in the psychopath, but the two groups, neither in medical practice nor in a survey of the community, seem to coincide. There is, indeed, some overlapping, but this is true of most psychiatric conditions. It would seem remarkable if any physician of experience could not call to mind a great many distinct and overt homosexuals who continue to lead peaceful, productive, and socially useful lives and who cannot, even by the most violent imaginative tour de force, be identified with the psychopath as he is here presented. It could hardly be said that characteristically these deviated people fail to show kindness and consideration for the rights of others, that they are incapable of gratitude, affection, or compassion. Only confusion is promoted by efforts to identify them as a group with the gross 288 THE MASK OF SANITY pattern of failure and the profound, generalized incompetency of the other life pattern. In the homosexual group are found people active and persistent in the promotion of painting, music, literature, and other expressions of art of learning, and reliable leaders in civic enterprises. In these endeavors they do not, usually, give evidence of such inconsistency and shallowness as we see in the other disorder. Among these better adjusted homosexuals are seen successful lawyers, artists, bankers, and scholars, who appear in their nonsexual activities to show persistent purpose and evidence of responsibility. There are also less successful but industrious and peaceful citizens who year after year carry out their duties in humbler occupations and regularly fulfill obligations to dependents. When we consider people of this sort, and it is not unlikely that they constitute a majority of homosexuals, it is not surprising to see that Greenspan and Campbell long ago made this statement: 102
The homosexual is so unlike the psychopath that it is hardly conceivable that the most
popular classification places him as a subgroup of the psychopathic personality [They add] However, there are possible two reasons for this error. One, any sexual anomaly, even in the minds of physicians, is unequivocally associated with antisocial behavior and therefore akin to psychopathic personality. Two, an occasional psychopath will admit to homosexual activities, thereby substantiating this impression. That some homosexuals show persistent and gross maladaptation all through their pattern of living seems less remarkable than that so many avoid what is typical of the psychopath or of the schizophrenic. It seems to me unlikely that the typical homosexual can escape deep frustration in what is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of living. The mockery and scorn deviation of this sort often evokes from society and the almost inevitable efforts at secrecy and pretense to which its victims are usually driven are likely to act as significant distorting forces on the whole personality. Having to suppress, evade, and implicitly deceive so much about something so vital every day of their lives, it is perhaps remarkable that homosexuals can adjust successfully or with dignity in any phase of living. Another much more complicated factor has also impressed me as contributing to the difficulties of the homosexual's life. Many of those who discussed their problems with me fully have left me with the convition that the ideal mate they seek is not another homosexual but a normally oriented person of their own sex. This need would lead to a futile quest for the impossible and bring not only inevitable frustration and repeated
CATALOGING THE MATERIAL 289 disillusionment but also, as can easily be seen, would make for pessimistic and cynical attitudes about love. In the early years of my psychiatric practice this frequently recurring feature of the homosexual's need and quest was vividly illustrated for me by an athletic and successful young man with a fine war record as an infantry officer. With frankness and dignity he discussed numerous and diverse erotic experiences, all with other men. The more he conveyed to me about his reactions, the more it seemed clear that he felt a paradoxical distaste for the available homosexual partners with whom he sought physical satisfaction or relief from tension. It seemed also that he could not, despite his freely admitted homosexuality, wholeheartedly identify himself with the group. In his complexly mixed feelings there seemed to be negative elements not unlike those so often found in the ordinary man's reactions to those he thinks of as "queers." At his deeper levels of feeling he seemed to reject other homosexuals from full acceptance, either in the role of erotic partners or as objects of fraternal fellowship. In sharp contrast to these negative reactions, and ambivalent reactions, toward his fellows, this man expressed pure adoration and unqualified admiration for a young heterosexual male whom he seemed to regard as the ideal, the ultimate, erotic choice. His longing for this unattainable figure seemed completely free from the negative qualities that marred his pleasure with available homosexual partners. In referring to the normally oriented young man who had so powerfully, but unwittingly attracted him, the patient exclaimed, "He was just a typical, clean-cut American boy." His yearning and his almost ecstatic admiration seemed not only genuine but touched with grief and reverence that brought a lyric note to the ordinarily banal words he seized upon as if in desperate need to convey something complex and specific. With emphasis this man repeated, "He was a perfectly typical young American boy! A clean-cut American boy!" Indications of a similar choice for the normally oriented and unavailable person of the same sex have often been evident in homosexuals I have since encountered. I have wondered if this specific emotional demand is not far more common among homosexuals than is generally recognized. I have indeed wondered if it might, in some degree, be universal. If so it could account for tragic difficulties in mating.* It is well, however, to avoid sweeping generalizations on the basis of one's necessarily limited experience. Some other types of sexual behavior regarded as abnormal have in the past been classified under such terms as erotomania and sexual immaturity. ___________________________________________ * I have discussed these questions at length in another work, The Caricature of Love."
290 THE MASK OF SANITY So far as erotomania is concerned, the following points may be made: Most psychopaths known to me have shown little compunction about seeking sexual gratification. They are so frequently found in brothels and with other professional vendors of erotic wares that one might at first glance conclude that they indeed suffer from erotomania.* A closer consideration of the circumstances, however, reveals that the psychopath is not pushed into these situations by an excessively vigorous eroticism but that even the feeblest and most transient impulse will cause him to seek gratification with partners and in environments shunned by a person with ordinary judgment and discretion and taste. It is indeed open to question whether the impulse is more than feeble in the sense of genitalized sexuality, to say nothing of mature sexuality. Sometimes the male psychopath, after carefully setting the stage for seduction, will instead of achieving intercourse, straightway drink himself into the purgatorial Nirvana of maudlin semiconsciousness, leaving his partner to nurse and pamper him. In my experience, the typical psychopath of either sex does not appear to have a sexual drive, normal or perverse, of sufficient vigor to account for the poor judgment shown in what seems rather to be a vague blundering along the roads of folly and frustration toward what is essentially life rejection. There are, of course, persons activated by strong libidinous drive who often commit extremely indiscrete deeds and who sometimes even bring disaster on themselves. These, however, do not impress me as fundamentally similar to the psychopath. Sexual immaturity can be more aptly used, in my opinion, as a term to describe all psychopaths than to segregate any particular group of them. Masochism, sadism, bestiality, fetishism, necrophilia, voyeurism, and the terms for various other perversions would seem to imply people who consistently sought definite erotic satisfaction in one or more of these ways and in whom this quest was a major and persistent life aim. Taken in this sense, such characteristics are not particularly common in the psychopaths whom I have studied. Psychopaths, of course, show a carelessness about drifting with virtually any impulse. But they do not regularly give the impression that efforts to attain specific gratification of this sort play an important role in their conduct or could account for their generalized patterns of failure. In a broader sense it might be said that the apparently willful persistence with which they bring humiliation and emotional suffering upon ________________________________________
* Such a conclusion would, however, be as seriously wrong as to assume that the inveterate reader of
sentimental rhymes gave evidence of a strong inclination for poetry or that the empty and aggressive braggart were really of stoic fiber. CATALOGING THE MATERIAL 291 those who love them, as well as failure and unpleasant circumstances upon themselves, marks all psychopaths as both sadists and masochists. Only in this sense, however, are these impulses common or consistent, and the gratification is probably not the directly erotic sensation enjoyed by perverts who literally whip others or have themselves whipped. I get the impression that a great many of the people who have attracted attention primarily as sadists have many characteristics of the classic psychopath. Certainly they seem to show extreme callousness to the suffering of others. The lives of other famous sadists strongly suggest the influence of deep schizoid disorder. It has been already stated that true psychopaths with serious tendencies to perpetrate violent crimes do exist. The real psychopath who is a real (persistently organized) sadist, of course, ranks as an extremely dangerous person. Like all psychopaths, he is unlikely to be greatly altered by punishment or training or treatment, and he constitutes a grave problem. People of this type are often responsible for perverse and murderous attacks on children frequently noticed in the newspapers. If true and full sadistic tendencies are combined with the psychopath's lack of compunction, a formidable menace to others is likely to emerge. Let us consider Neville G. C. Heath, who within a period of three weeks committed two of the most gruesome sexual murders and mutilations ever to be reported. According to reliable evidence, some of which was brought out at his trial, this man followed an extremely irresponsible career for many years. On several occasions he was court-martialed and discharged from the military service. Forgeries, thefts, housebreaking, impersonation of an officer, fraud, and many elaborate episodes of swindling brought him repeatedly to the attention of the police. The history available about this handsome, intelligent, attractive and carefree antisocial figure prior to his two sadistic murders strongly indicates the typical psychopath.61 His record as a charmer among the ladies is difficult to match. Many intelligent, lovely, and wealthy girls apparently succumbed to his quickly irresistible wooing and, with rapture and pride, considered themselves engaged to him until he disappeared after ingeniously borrowing or otherwise obtaining large sums of money from their families. He was regularly able to convince not only the girls but also their families that he was a man of great distinction and tremendous financial resources. One report indicates that while on a sea voyage he seduced a young Hungarian beauty and also her similarly enticing and voluptuous mother. After the mother and daughter discovered that he had been alternating his sexual attentions between them, with convincing vows of eternal fidelity to both, they maintained a fierce and idealistic loyalty to Heath and each sought diligently 292 THE MASK OF SANITY to obtain financial advantages for him through intercession with the husband (of the older) and father (of the younger), who had not, because of urgent and important business responsibilities, been able to accompany them on the voyage. This is apparently a typical example of Heath's ability to impress others, including very learned and intelligent people, with his appearance of profound sincerity and of innumerable other virtues and remarkable abilities and achievements. 135 The sexually perverse murders carried out by this handsome, athletic young man of idealistic and intensely virile appearance were acts of memorable brutality and horror. Each of the two young women tortured and killed by Heath within a period of three weeks was cruelly butchered. The sexually sadistic quality of Heath's behavior on these two occasions is made plain by the nature of the mutilations. A nipple was bitten entirely from one girl's breast. Much of the breast itself had been chewed and mangled to bloody pulp. With the other girl this had almost been accomplished. At the autopsy both showed that some instrument, perhaps a poker, had been thrust with violence into the vagina, rupturing it and damaging the abdominal viscera. In one of the victims the poker had apparently been driven far up into the abdominal cavity and twisted about with great violence. One body had been lashed severely by a heavy, metal-tipped whip. The nude bodies were found covered with clotted blood. The abdomen of one woman had been ripped open so extensively that the intestines emerged and spread sickeningly over the area about her body. One deep gash started below the genital organs and extended up into the breast. Heath is described as being extremely calm and poised after these deeds and entirely free of remorse. After the first murder he spoke with great interest about accounts of it in the newspapers, expressed opinions about how the gruesome wounds might have been inflicted, and even communicated with the police, offering to help them discover the murderer. The victims were tightly bound and gagged. Points brought out at the autopsies indicate that Heath wanted the women to remain alive as long as possible to experience the agone resulting from his vicious torture and that he seemed to relish the butchery particularly while the victims still remained conscious and capable of feeling it. Apparently he also found perverse sexual satisfaction in continuing after death the gruesome and protracted mutilation of the bodies. 61, 135 Those who devoutly believe that the psychopath carries out crimes because of an inner, unconscious sense of guilt and a need (also unconscious) to seek punishment in persistent efforts to gain expiation might say that Heath's getting in touch with the police and offering them advice after the first butchery and murder, and his making himself conspicuous at the scene CATALOGING THE MATERIAL 293 of the first crime, afford proof of their assumptions. It appears to me, however, that such an argument ignores the peculiar and astonishing callousness of psychopaths and also ignores the fact that they appear to take a positive and boastful delight in showing off in the midst of their uninviting, destructive, and antisocial achievements. They often seem to relish this as an exhibition of their prowess. I think it much more likely that such a man as Heath would want to savor the afterglow of his perverse and sadistic crime, to exult in his success, and to flaunt his ability to hoodwink the police than that he would be unconsciously seeking punishment in order to ease a conscience which was causing him great remorse of which he remained unaware. |
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Psychopath The Mask Of Sanity
Section 3, Part 2
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