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Actual case study of real tickle torture from 1947

That’s an interesting find! Has anyone downloaded the remainder of the article?
 
I had read of a similar case. It didn't list so many childhood traumas, but it was just as depressing.
 
That’s amazing. I didn’t download the whole thing but it appears to be the same guy I mentioned in the Treatise On Tickling (he tied & tickled his maid, female visitors, etc.) I searched and searched about him -and the story about the men who were paid to do the tickling- but the Internet of the early 90s was mostly spinning rainbows and dancing babies. I want read further on this.
 
Here is the full text. Enjoy!

Gearloose


CASE REPORTS



‘A RARE CASE OF SADOMASOCHISM
(Torture by Tickling)

Emin A. GutHem, M.D.
New York, N.Y.

The following case of sadomasochism offers interesting psycho-
logical aspects. .

The patient is a thirty-nine-year-old lawyer. From early child-
hood, he has been obsessed by sexual ideas connected with the act
of tickling. He remembers that once at the age of six or seven his
older brother overpowered and tickled him. At the age of ten he
read a short story which contained a detail dealing with titillation.
In this story a boy was lying ill in bed and was tickled by two men
who were paid to do so. They tickled his soles until he was shaken
with spasms of laughter and finally lost consciousness. This story
made a deep impression on the boy. It provided him with a power-
ful stimulus for autoeroticism. He masturbated with the fantasy
of a boy who was tickled by force, particularly on his bare soles.
Whenever he played with young boys who were barefoot, he enjoyed
tickling their soles. He often gave money and other gifts to young
boys to induce them to overpower and tickle other young boys.
Watching them perform this act excited him immensely. The
greater the resistance of the overpowered boy, the greater the satis--
faction of the spectator.. The patient frequently imagined such
seenes involving good-looking boys whom he saw on the street.
Occasionally, in his dreams, he saw himself as the victim of a
tickling attack.

His conscious trend was at first apparently homosexual; but at
the age of fourteen he read a poem about an evil nymph who caught
a beautiful girl in the forest and, according to her custom, tickled
her to death. The poem was illustrated. The picture of the girl’s
torture took possession of the patient’s mind and his fantasies gradu-
ally began to show a more heterosexual-sadistic character. Their
homosexual origin, however, was recognizable in the fact that often’
women were engaged in the tickling, while the patient himself
played the role of a spectator.

88 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY.

It is striking how often the skin-erotic experience appears in the
patient’s report. We may assume that since his memory was partial
to the scene of titillation, his report depicts these recollections with
a more specific vividness than others. We know that patients whose
sexual life is dominated by a specific erotic fantasy have a special
gift for ‘‘discovering’’ erotic material in literature, art, and real
life situations. Often they are inclined to interpret certain life
situations according to their individual fantasies. A normal person
would pass over many situations without noticing anything con-
spicuous. But the paraphiliac whose senses are conditioned for the
detection of the specific scene responds promptly to it and displays
a peculiar memory for details. This phenomenon is particularly
well known from the studies on fetishism.

The patient’s mother, a widow, owned a boarding house. Once
the patient heard one of the tenants, a young girl, ask the patient’s
mother to tell a young mah that she wasn’t home for him that eve-
ning, casually adding that he frequently annoyed her by tickling
her. The patient became very much excited. Later, when the
young man visited her again, the patient often spent hours listening
at the girl’s door. He interpreted every spell of laughter and every
exclamation as response to tickling, and enjoyed an intense sexual
thrill at this occasion.

Gradually, the idea of sexual intercourse attached itself firmly
to the idea of tickling. In his autoerotic fantasies homosexual
seenes alternated with heterosexual ones. Daily events fed his
paraphilic imagination. One day he read in the newspaper that a
peasant girl traveling on a train was teased by male travelers and
was finally tickled by them until she almost died. This story kept
his imagination aflame for a long time.

In his personal contact with girls, he was always cool and de-
tached. He avoided conversation about sexual topics and the idea
of a physical (genital) contact was repulsive to him. <A few at-
tempts at intercouse to which he was persuaded by friends ended
with a complete failure. The only thing that interested him was
talking and dreaming about titillation.

Strange as it may seem, he succeeded in obtaining—for money
—persons as partners and objects for his paraphilic enjoyment.
But this type of prostitute was so expensive that he could not afford
them for any length of time. Autoeroticism became therefore his
only expedient. His fantasies varied. The objects were young
and beautiful girls, sometimes children of both sexes, at other times
boys up to sixteen or women up to forty. Their social background
varied and so did the place of action. In most cases several persons
were engaged in the play. The act of titillation was performed
with hands, a straw, a feather, a brush, or other objects. The victim
was often in the nude, invariably tied or made defenseless in some
other way. Sometimes, he visualized himself tied or crucified, with
girls or men tickling his soles.

When the patient was thirty-two years old, he met the woman
who later became his wife. She instinctively recognized the pa-
tient’s paraphilia, for she started to talk to him about her own
erogenous zones and gave him descriptions of tickling. scenes which
aroused him intensely. Following such conversation, he was able
to perform a normal intercourse with her.

A. short time later he married her. She was very cooperative
and permitted him to use her in various improvised sadomasochistic
scenes connected with titillation. She satisfied his most abstruse
desires in this respect. His repulsion towards the woman’s body
gradually disappeared and a few years later a child was born.

As time progressed, the patient, to his dismay, noticed that
tickling his wife excited him less and less. Her vivid descriptions
of her (fictitious) experiences with other partners began to grow
duller and less effective. In her desire to help her husband, she
tried to arrange scenes at her home, to offer the patient a substitute
gratification. She invited friends to her house and then, in the
course of the visit, without warning, she would start tickling them,
while he was watching. Aroused, he would withdraw to the ad-
jacent room and wait for her to join him in intercourse. During
this period, this was the only way he could perform intercourse with
his wife. Occasionally, the tickling scenes were arranged in a more
elaborate way. The servant girl would rush in and ‘‘jokingly’’ tie
the unsuspecting visitor, then remove her shoes and. stockings, so
that the soles were exposed. The patient would observe the scene
from the adjoining room through an open door.

In the course of time all their friends stayed away. It became
more and more difficult to obtain proper objects for his paraphilic
enjoyment, and finally, the patient had to rely completely on his
fantasies. He studied books of all nations and tried to ferret out
references to his paraphilia. Whatever he found, he copied or
pasted into a book which he called his ‘‘ Tickle Book.’’


If he could not find anything suitable, such as stories, pictures,
etc., he used his own imagination and described in glowing colors
typical paraphilic scenes. He also recorded episodes told him by
prostitutes. For this purpose he composed a questionnaire of 60
questions which he submitted to these women. He also ordered
from artists paintings and drawings portraying such scenes; thus
his collection grew larger and larger and his report ends with the
paraphilia apparently confirmed in him as continuing to require one
form or another of specific gratification. ,

COMMENT

The act of tickling can be classified as sadistic. It represents a
form of torture; the victims are rendered defenseless by being tied
or held down. There are always several persons who play the part
of attackers. The victims are submitted to prolonged and intense
tickling. They behave like other victims of torture, except for the
forced laughter that initiates the torture. Loss of consciousness,
frothing of the mouth, spasms and death are the consequences.
There is an element of ‘‘partialism’’ in the clinical picture, inas-
much as feet (soles) serve as the most attractive objects for the
aggression. The patient can play one of three parts: he can be one
of the attackers, or an onlooker (voyeur), and—rarely—even the
victim of the attack (masochistic component). The fact that the
torturers are predominantly of the same sex as the victim points
toward a homosexual background of the paraphilia.

Since the case was not analyzed, only superficial and incomplete
remarks can be made about its possible dynamics.

From the history of the case we may presume that the basic
pattern for this paraphilia was set. by the patient’s experience with
his elder brother. A pronounced skin eroticism may have served
as a suitable vehicle for the specific type of sexual gratification ; but
from the character of the patient’s masturbation fantasy we may
conclude that the patient reversed the original (traumatic) experi-
ence, turning in his fantasy the part played by the ‘‘passive’’ person
into that played by the ‘‘active’’ one. Apparently the patient,
having been overpowered by the older and stronger brother, experi-
enced an upsurge of violent hatred towards him; realizing, however,
that he was physically inferior, he repressed his aggressive impulses.
These impulses later became the propelling force of his paraphilia.
Each time he imagined, or witnessed, the overpowering of a helpless
victim, he enjoyed a belated victory over his brother.


Here we notice an important detail; the repetitive pattern. In
all cases of paraphilia the erotic horizon appears restricted to a
more or less cireumscribed area. Here it is the scene of titillation.
The repetitive tendency is due to the fact that the revenge on the
‘patient’s brother was achieved in effigy only, that is, was essentially
ineffective. The same motive of repetition can be observed also in
the patient’s ‘‘Tickle Book,’’ his secret library and pictorial harem.
This collection represents a typical implement of paraphilic enjoy-
ment. Most fetishists and partialists and many sadomasochists
possess albums of this sort and are, as a rule, not too eager to part
-with them. The fact that the symbolic satisfaction is essentially
ineffective can also be concluded from the patient’s inability to
derive pleasure from the same partner (wife) for any length of time.

As in fetishism, we may suppose also in this paraphilia a latent
religious root. It can be detected in the patient’s basic antifemi-
nistic attitude and in certain features suggesting an identification
with Christ; the desire for crucifixion belongs here. However, no
further details are available.

The other important detail of the case history is that the patient’s
fantasy of overpowering his victim frequently includes murder.
The fusion of this power fantasy with sexual elements (the origin
of which remains undisclosed) renders it suitable for the use-as a
symbol of a tabooed sexual act. The resemblance lies also in the
close relation between sexual detumescence following tumescence
on one hand and the explosion of laughter following titillation, on
the other.

The idea of murder through tickling is not altogether strange
to the human mind. Tortures of this type have been reported as
having been practiced in medieval ages.2, And the common expres-
sion ‘‘tickled to death’’ contains an allusion to the fatal form of
titillation as a specific form of gratification. . However, the litera-
ture of more recent times has left this type of case almost unex-
plored. As far as I know, no case has been analyzed, although
individual cases were more or less casually described.

Interesting are the correlations between the paraphilia described

1Groos pointed to the resemblance between obscene laughter and sexual
stimulation. Later Freud and Reik emphasized this relation.

2 Allin reports that the English adventurer Simon de Montfort during the
persecution of the Albigenses executed some of them by tickling the soles of
their feet with a feather.



Here we notice an important detail; the repetitive pattern. In
all cases of paraphilia the erotic horizon appears restricted to a
more or less cireumscribed area. Here it is the scene of titillation.
The repetitive tendency is due to the fact that the revenge on the
‘patient’s brother was achieved in effigy only, that is, was essentially
ineffective. The same motive of repetition can be observed also in
the patient’s ‘‘Tickle Book,’’ his secret library and pictorial harem.
This collection represents a typical implement of paraphilic enjoy-
ment. Most fetishists and partialists and many sadomasochists
possess albums of this sort and are, as a rule, not too eager to part
-with them. The fact that the symbolic satisfaction is essentially
ineffective can also be concluded from the patient’s inability to
derive pleasure from the same partner (wife) for any length of time.

As in fetishism, we may suppose also in this paraphilia a latent
religious root. It can be detected in the patient’s basic antifemi-
nistic attitude and in certain features suggesting an identification
with Christ; the desire for crucifixion belongs here. However, no
further details are available.

The other important detail of the case history is that the patient’s
fantasy of overpowering his victim frequently includes murder.
The fusion of this power fantasy with sexual elements (the origin
of which remains undisclosed) renders it suitable for the use-as a
symbol of a tabooed sexual act. The resemblance lies also in the
close relation between sexual detumescence following tumescence
on one hand and the explosion of laughter following titillation, on
the other.

The idea of murder through tickling is not altogether strange
to the human mind. Tortures of this type have been reported as
having been practiced in medieval ages.2, And the common expres-
sion ‘‘tickled to death’’ contains an allusion to the fatal form of
titillation as a specific form of gratification. . However, the litera-
ture of more recent times has left this type of case almost unex-
plored. As far as I know, no case has been analyzed, although
individual cases were more or less casually described.

Interesting are the correlations between the paraphilia described

Footnotes:
1Groos pointed to the resemblance between obscene laughter and sexual
stimulation. Later Freud and Reik emphasized this relation.

2 Allin reports that the English adventurer Simon de Montfort during the
persecution of the Albigenses executed some of them by tickling the soles of
their feet with a feather.



above and certain forms of psychogenic dermatoses, particularly
those connected with itching. In some cases of this type the sado-
masochistic component is rather obvious and it is not difficult to
assume that in the patient’s unconscious itching represents a sort of
self-inflicted erotic titillation. The masochistic character of scratch-
ing has been described repeatedly. Pruritus (local and generalized),
urticaria and other dermatoses may receive a special significance,
particularly if they affect erogenous zones. Scratching, which not
unlike tickling, ultimately leads to a sort of vasomotor shock, may
then be considered as a clear masturbation equivalent. Many pa-
tients claim even to obtain genital orgasm in this way.

Somewhere between the manifest paraphilia and the psychogenic
dermatosis ranks the haptic hallucination of being tickled which we
find in many eases of paranoia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allin, A.: ‘‘On Laughter,’’ Psychological Review, May 1903."

Dunbar, Flanders: ‘‘Emotions and Bodily Changes,’’ Columbia University
Press, 1938.

Ellis, Havelock: ‘‘Studies an the Psychology of Sex,’’ Val. 2, Random House,
New York.

Freud, Sigmund: ‘‘Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten’’ (The
Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious), Ges. Schriften, Inter. Psychoan.
Verlag, Vienna, 1925.

Hall & Allin: ‘‘ Tickling and Laughter,’’ American Journal of Psychology, Oc-
tober 1897.

Reik, Theodor: ‘‘Masochism in Modern Man,’’ Farrar & Rinehart, New York,
1941. ,

Sadger, J.: ‘‘Die Lehre von den Geschlechtsverirrungen (Psychopathia Sexua-
lis),’’? Deuticke, Vienna, 1921.

Stekel, Wilhelm: ‘‘Sexual Aberrations: The Phenomena of Fetishism in Rela-
tion to Sex,’’ Liveright, New York, 1930.
 
That was thrilling. Mostly.
And sometimes very funny and anti-scientific :) Like the execution by feather tickling.
 
Gearloose you are a star. I have had snippets of this in the past but never the full article.

Right off to paste this in my Tickle Book (well my digital one anyway)
 
I wish I knew what become of his book.

Or what those stories, poems & art were.
 
Thank you for this post. It was interesting, and horrifying, and interesting again.

But, it reminded me of when I would go to the psychology section at my college library or at Emory and read books on human sexuality that had sections about tickling in them.

This was before I discovered anything on the internet (or the internet at all).

(Yeah, I did that. LOL...)
 
This thing is so fake. Nobody in 1947 said “cool and detached” and all the other slang and wrongly spelled words.
 
This thing is so fake. Nobody in 1947 said “cool and detached” and all the other slang and wrongly spelled words.


Also, deeply-rooted fetish folks have heard about this guy since the 1990s; down to the details of the story of 2 men tickling the boy & the servant woman tying up guests. We just never saw this study before.

It reads very similarly to the case studies in the book Psychopathic Sexualis & to some extent those in The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.
 
Here is the full text. Enjoy!

Gearloose


CASE REPORTS



‘A RARE CASE OF SADOMASOCHISM
(Torture by Tickling)

Emin A. GutHem, M.D.
New York, N.Y.

The following case of sadomasochism offers interesting psycho-
logical aspects. .

The patient is a thirty-nine-year-old lawyer. From early child-
hood, he has been obsessed by sexual ideas connected with the act
of tickling. He remembers that once at the age of six or seven his
older brother overpowered and tickled him. At the age of ten he
read a short story which contained a detail dealing with titillation.
In this story a boy was lying ill in bed and was tickled by two men
who were paid to do so. They tickled his soles until he was shaken
with spasms of laughter and finally lost consciousness. This story
made a deep impression on the boy. It provided him with a power-
ful stimulus for autoeroticism. He masturbated with the fantasy
of a boy who was tickled by force, particularly on his bare soles.
Whenever he played with young boys who were barefoot, he enjoyed
tickling their soles. He often gave money and other gifts to young
boys to induce them to overpower and tickle other young boys.
Watching them perform this act excited him immensely. The
greater the resistance of the overpowered boy, the greater the satis--
faction of the spectator.. The patient frequently imagined such
seenes involving good-looking boys whom he saw on the street.
Occasionally, in his dreams, he saw himself as the victim of a
tickling attack.

His conscious trend was at first apparently homosexual; but at
the age of fourteen he read a poem about an evil nymph who caught
a beautiful girl in the forest and, according to her custom, tickled
her to death. The poem was illustrated. The picture of the girl’s
torture took possession of the patient’s mind and his fantasies gradu-
ally began to show a more heterosexual-sadistic character. Their
homosexual origin, however, was recognizable in the fact that often’
women were engaged in the tickling, while the patient himself
played the role of a spectator.

88 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY.

It is striking how often the skin-erotic experience appears in the
patient’s report. We may assume that since his memory was partial
to the scene of titillation, his report depicts these recollections with
a more specific vividness than others. We know that patients whose
sexual life is dominated by a specific erotic fantasy have a special
gift for ‘‘discovering’’ erotic material in literature, art, and real
life situations. Often they are inclined to interpret certain life
situations according to their individual fantasies. A normal person
would pass over many situations without noticing anything con-
spicuous. But the paraphiliac whose senses are conditioned for the
detection of the specific scene responds promptly to it and displays
a peculiar memory for details. This phenomenon is particularly
well known from the studies on fetishism.

The patient’s mother, a widow, owned a boarding house. Once
the patient heard one of the tenants, a young girl, ask the patient’s
mother to tell a young mah that she wasn’t home for him that eve-
ning, casually adding that he frequently annoyed her by tickling
her. The patient became very much excited. Later, when the
young man visited her again, the patient often spent hours listening
at the girl’s door. He interpreted every spell of laughter and every
exclamation as response to tickling, and enjoyed an intense sexual
thrill at this occasion.

Gradually, the idea of sexual intercourse attached itself firmly
to the idea of tickling. In his autoerotic fantasies homosexual
seenes alternated with heterosexual ones. Daily events fed his
paraphilic imagination. One day he read in the newspaper that a
peasant girl traveling on a train was teased by male travelers and
was finally tickled by them until she almost died. This story kept
his imagination aflame for a long time.

In his personal contact with girls, he was always cool and de-
tached. He avoided conversation about sexual topics and the idea
of a physical (genital) contact was repulsive to him. <A few at-
tempts at intercouse to which he was persuaded by friends ended
with a complete failure. The only thing that interested him was
talking and dreaming about titillation.

Strange as it may seem, he succeeded in obtaining—for money
—persons as partners and objects for his paraphilic enjoyment.
But this type of prostitute was so expensive that he could not afford
them for any length of time. Autoeroticism became therefore his
only expedient. His fantasies varied. The objects were young
and beautiful girls, sometimes children of both sexes, at other times
boys up to sixteen or women up to forty. Their social background
varied and so did the place of action. In most cases several persons
were engaged in the play. The act of titillation was performed
with hands, a straw, a feather, a brush, or other objects. The victim
was often in the nude, invariably tied or made defenseless in some
other way. Sometimes, he visualized himself tied or crucified, with
girls or men tickling his soles.

When the patient was thirty-two years old, he met the woman
who later became his wife. She instinctively recognized the pa-
tient’s paraphilia, for she started to talk to him about her own
erogenous zones and gave him descriptions of tickling. scenes which
aroused him intensely. Following such conversation, he was able
to perform a normal intercourse with her.

A. short time later he married her. She was very cooperative
and permitted him to use her in various improvised sadomasochistic
scenes connected with titillation. She satisfied his most abstruse
desires in this respect. His repulsion towards the woman’s body
gradually disappeared and a few years later a child was born.

As time progressed, the patient, to his dismay, noticed that
tickling his wife excited him less and less. Her vivid descriptions
of her (fictitious) experiences with other partners began to grow
duller and less effective. In her desire to help her husband, she
tried to arrange scenes at her home, to offer the patient a substitute
gratification. She invited friends to her house and then, in the
course of the visit, without warning, she would start tickling them,
while he was watching. Aroused, he would withdraw to the ad-
jacent room and wait for her to join him in intercourse. During
this period, this was the only way he could perform intercourse with
his wife. Occasionally, the tickling scenes were arranged in a more
elaborate way. The servant girl would rush in and ‘‘jokingly’’ tie
the unsuspecting visitor, then remove her shoes and. stockings, so
that the soles were exposed. The patient would observe the scene
from the adjoining room through an open door.

In the course of time all their friends stayed away. It became
more and more difficult to obtain proper objects for his paraphilic
enjoyment, and finally, the patient had to rely completely on his
fantasies. He studied books of all nations and tried to ferret out
references to his paraphilia. Whatever he found, he copied or
pasted into a book which he called his ‘‘ Tickle Book.’’


If he could not find anything suitable, such as stories, pictures,
etc., he used his own imagination and described in glowing colors
typical paraphilic scenes. He also recorded episodes told him by
prostitutes. For this purpose he composed a questionnaire of 60
questions which he submitted to these women. He also ordered
from artists paintings and drawings portraying such scenes; thus
his collection grew larger and larger and his report ends with the
paraphilia apparently confirmed in him as continuing to require one
form or another of specific gratification. ,

COMMENT

The act of tickling can be classified as sadistic. It represents a
form of torture; the victims are rendered defenseless by being tied
or held down. There are always several persons who play the part
of attackers. The victims are submitted to prolonged and intense
tickling. They behave like other victims of torture, except for the
forced laughter that initiates the torture. Loss of consciousness,
frothing of the mouth, spasms and death are the consequences.
There is an element of ‘‘partialism’’ in the clinical picture, inas-
much as feet (soles) serve as the most attractive objects for the
aggression. The patient can play one of three parts: he can be one
of the attackers, or an onlooker (voyeur), and—rarely—even the
victim of the attack (masochistic component). The fact that the
torturers are predominantly of the same sex as the victim points
toward a homosexual background of the paraphilia.

Since the case was not analyzed, only superficial and incomplete
remarks can be made about its possible dynamics.

From the history of the case we may presume that the basic
pattern for this paraphilia was set. by the patient’s experience with
his elder brother. A pronounced skin eroticism may have served
as a suitable vehicle for the specific type of sexual gratification ; but
from the character of the patient’s masturbation fantasy we may
conclude that the patient reversed the original (traumatic) experi-
ence, turning in his fantasy the part played by the ‘‘passive’’ person
into that played by the ‘‘active’’ one. Apparently the patient,
having been overpowered by the older and stronger brother, experi-
enced an upsurge of violent hatred towards him; realizing, however,
that he was physically inferior, he repressed his aggressive impulses.
These impulses later became the propelling force of his paraphilia.
Each time he imagined, or witnessed, the overpowering of a helpless
victim, he enjoyed a belated victory over his brother.


Here we notice an important detail; the repetitive pattern. In
all cases of paraphilia the erotic horizon appears restricted to a
more or less cireumscribed area. Here it is the scene of titillation.
The repetitive tendency is due to the fact that the revenge on the
‘patient’s brother was achieved in effigy only, that is, was essentially
ineffective. The same motive of repetition can be observed also in
the patient’s ‘‘Tickle Book,’’ his secret library and pictorial harem.
This collection represents a typical implement of paraphilic enjoy-
ment. Most fetishists and partialists and many sadomasochists
possess albums of this sort and are, as a rule, not too eager to part
-with them. The fact that the symbolic satisfaction is essentially
ineffective can also be concluded from the patient’s inability to
derive pleasure from the same partner (wife) for any length of time.

As in fetishism, we may suppose also in this paraphilia a latent
religious root. It can be detected in the patient’s basic antifemi-
nistic attitude and in certain features suggesting an identification
with Christ; the desire for crucifixion belongs here. However, no
further details are available.

The other important detail of the case history is that the patient’s
fantasy of overpowering his victim frequently includes murder.
The fusion of this power fantasy with sexual elements (the origin
of which remains undisclosed) renders it suitable for the use-as a
symbol of a tabooed sexual act. The resemblance lies also in the
close relation between sexual detumescence following tumescence
on one hand and the explosion of laughter following titillation, on
the other.

The idea of murder through tickling is not altogether strange
to the human mind. Tortures of this type have been reported as
having been practiced in medieval ages.2, And the common expres-
sion ‘‘tickled to death’’ contains an allusion to the fatal form of
titillation as a specific form of gratification. . However, the litera-
ture of more recent times has left this type of case almost unex-
plored. As far as I know, no case has been analyzed, although
individual cases were more or less casually described.

Interesting are the correlations between the paraphilia described

1Groos pointed to the resemblance between obscene laughter and sexual
stimulation. Later Freud and Reik emphasized this relation.

2 Allin reports that the English adventurer Simon de Montfort during the
persecution of the Albigenses executed some of them by tickling the soles of
their feet with a feather.



Here we notice an important detail; the repetitive pattern. In
all cases of paraphilia the erotic horizon appears restricted to a
more or less cireumscribed area. Here it is the scene of titillation.
The repetitive tendency is due to the fact that the revenge on the
‘patient’s brother was achieved in effigy only, that is, was essentially
ineffective. The same motive of repetition can be observed also in
the patient’s ‘‘Tickle Book,’’ his secret library and pictorial harem.
This collection represents a typical implement of paraphilic enjoy-
ment. Most fetishists and partialists and many sadomasochists
possess albums of this sort and are, as a rule, not too eager to part
-with them. The fact that the symbolic satisfaction is essentially
ineffective can also be concluded from the patient’s inability to
derive pleasure from the same partner (wife) for any length of time.

As in fetishism, we may suppose also in this paraphilia a latent
religious root. It can be detected in the patient’s basic antifemi-
nistic attitude and in certain features suggesting an identification
with Christ; the desire for crucifixion belongs here. However, no
further details are available.

The other important detail of the case history is that the patient’s
fantasy of overpowering his victim frequently includes murder.
The fusion of this power fantasy with sexual elements (the origin
of which remains undisclosed) renders it suitable for the use-as a
symbol of a tabooed sexual act. The resemblance lies also in the
close relation between sexual detumescence following tumescence
on one hand and the explosion of laughter following titillation, on
the other.

The idea of murder through tickling is not altogether strange
to the human mind. Tortures of this type have been reported as
having been practiced in medieval ages.2, And the common expres-
sion ‘‘tickled to death’’ contains an allusion to the fatal form of
titillation as a specific form of gratification. . However, the litera-
ture of more recent times has left this type of case almost unex-
plored. As far as I know, no case has been analyzed, although
individual cases were more or less casually described.

Interesting are the correlations between the paraphilia described

Footnotes:
1Groos pointed to the resemblance between obscene laughter and sexual
stimulation. Later Freud and Reik emphasized this relation.

2 Allin reports that the English adventurer Simon de Montfort during the
persecution of the Albigenses executed some of them by tickling the soles of
their feet with a feather.



above and certain forms of psychogenic dermatoses, particularly
those connected with itching. In some cases of this type the sado-
masochistic component is rather obvious and it is not difficult to
assume that in the patient’s unconscious itching represents a sort of
self-inflicted erotic titillation. The masochistic character of scratch-
ing has been described repeatedly. Pruritus (local and generalized),
urticaria and other dermatoses may receive a special significance,
particularly if they affect erogenous zones. Scratching, which not
unlike tickling, ultimately leads to a sort of vasomotor shock, may
then be considered as a clear masturbation equivalent. Many pa-
tients claim even to obtain genital orgasm in this way.

Somewhere between the manifest paraphilia and the psychogenic
dermatosis ranks the haptic hallucination of being tickled which we
find in many eases of paranoia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allin, A.: ‘‘On Laughter,’’ Psychological Review, May 1903."

Dunbar, Flanders: ‘‘Emotions and Bodily Changes,’’ Columbia University
Press, 1938.

Ellis, Havelock: ‘‘Studies an the Psychology of Sex,’’ Val. 2, Random House,
New York.

Freud, Sigmund: ‘‘Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten’’ (The
Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious), Ges. Schriften, Inter. Psychoan.
Verlag, Vienna, 1925.

Hall & Allin: ‘‘ Tickling and Laughter,’’ American Journal of Psychology, Oc-
tober 1897.

Reik, Theodor: ‘‘Masochism in Modern Man,’’ Farrar & Rinehart, New York,
1941. ,

Sadger, J.: ‘‘Die Lehre von den Geschlechtsverirrungen (Psychopathia Sexua-
lis),’’? Deuticke, Vienna, 1921.

Stekel, Wilhelm: ‘‘Sexual Aberrations: The Phenomena of Fetishism in Rela-
tion to Sex,’’ Liveright, New York, 1930.

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
 
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