refore be said that, in so far as pain is pleasurable,
it is so only in so far as it is recognized as a prelude to
pleasure, or else when it is an actual stimulus to the nerves
conveying the sensation of pleasure. The nymphomaniac who
experienced an orgasm at the moment when the knife passed through
her clitoris (as recorded by Mantegazza) and the prostitute who
experienced keen pleasure when the surgeon removed vegetations
from her vulva (as recorded by Fere) took no pleasure in pain,
but in one case the intense craving for strong sexual emotion,
and in the other the long-blunted nerves of pleasure, welcomed
the abnormally strong impulse; and the pain of the incision, if
felt at all, was immediately swallowed up in the sensation of
pleasure. Moll remarks (_Kontraere Sexualempfindung_, third
edition, p. 278) that even in man a trace of physical pain may be
normally combined with sexual pleasure, when the vagina
contracts on the penis at the moment of ejaculation, the pain,
when not too severe, being almost immediately felt as pleasure.
That there is no pleasure in the actual pain, even in masochism,
is indicated by the following statement which Krafft-Ebing gives
as representing the experiences of a masochist (_Psychopathia
Sexualis_ English translation, p. 201): "The relation is not of
such a nature that what causes physical pain is simply perceived
as physical pleasure, for the person in a state of masochistic
ecstasy feels no pain, either because by reason of his emotional
state (like that of the soldier in battle) the physical effect on
his cutaneous nerves is not apperceived, or because (as with
religious martyrs and enthusiasts) in the preoccupation of
consciousness with sexual emotion the idea of maltreatment
remains merely a symbol, without its quality of pain. To a
certain extent there is overcompensation of physical pain in
psychic pleasure, and only the excess remains in consciousness as
psychic lust. This also undergoes an increase, since, either
through reflex spinal influence or through a peculiar coloring in
the sensorium of sensory impressions, a kind of hallucination of
bodily pleasure takes place, with a vague localization of the
objectively projected sensation. In the self-torture of religious
enthusiasts (fakirs, howling dervishes, religious flagellants)