The psychological basis of inebriety : its aetiological and social factors : remedies / by Tom A. Williams.

  • Williams, Tom A. (Tom Alfred), 1870-
Date:
1909
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychological basis of inebriety : its aetiological and social factors : remedies / by Tom A. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The feeing of terror is a painful one ; but with pleas- urable sensations, the principle of substitution for their excitation is equally clear, and is most con- spicuously shown in cases of fetishism, which illus- trate this law. Thus, Stcherbak (4) reports a case of a man in whom an orgasm was produced only when he held upon his knees the feet of a woman clothed in elegant shoes. The cause of this “condi- tioned reflex” was his early association of sexual de- sire with the elegant ladies he saw in the street when a boy. More normally, the response to dissatisfied mental states may be directed toward the opposite sex; but accident or defective instruction may per- vert this to homosexuality or onanism. Longing may find satisfaction in religious search- ings, taking the form of a desire for completeness and perfection. The brooding may eventuate in ec- stasy, produced expressly and preceded by orison, so well described by Madame Guyon (21) and St. Theresa (22). An analogous phenomenon among the Wesleyans was called “the power.” It was very puzzling to their founder, who, however, discour- aged its manifestations. Though these phenomena often arose from, and were fortified by, suggestions from without in the nature of religious rites or personal exhortations, yet they responded to a need of certain organizations, and betrayed a lowered psychological tension pro- ceeding from physical nerve inadequacy. This state is shown also, and more familiarly, bv worry, despondency, bad temper, lack of decision in small matters, morbid introspection, overcon- sciousness, increased susceptibility to temptation of appetite, which more often are at the root of the addictions to drugs for the purpose of uplifting the depressed feeling. In general, a habit reflex forms, and the early in-