Satyriasis (pronounced sey-tuh-rahy-uh-sis
or sat-uh-rahy-uh-sis)
(1) In psychology
& psychiatry, a neurotic condition in men in which the symptoms are an
excessive and unrestrainable venereal desire, manifesting as a compulsion to
have sexual intercourse with as many women as possible. In modern clinical use, it’s linked also to an
inability to sustain lasting relationships.
(2) A
disease involving swelling around the temples, causing the victim to resemble a
satyr, based on the depiction in Hellenic art of satyriatic men as horned goats.
1650s: A
creation of Medical Latin, from the Late Latin satyriasis, from the Ancient Greek στυρ́ησς (saturíēsis)
(excessively great venereal desire in the male), from satyros, accusative plural of satyrus,
from the Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos)
(satyr-like). The construct was στράω (saturiáō)
+ -σις (-sis). The –sis suffix was from the Ancient Greek
-σις (-sis) and was used to forms
noun of action), often via Latin but increasingly also from French; it had
exactly the same effect as the Latin –entia
and the English -ing. Historically, the
use in terms borrowed from Ancient Greek was comparatively rare but there are
many modern coinages based on Ancient Greek roots, reflecting to ongoing
reverence for the ancient languages. Satyriasis,
satyriasist, satyromaniac, satyrization & satyr are nouns, satyriatic is an
adjective; the common noun plural is satyriasist.
In Greek
mythology, a satyr was a deity or demigod, male companion of Pan or Dionysus,
represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment
and lasciviousness, depicted sometimes with a perpetual erection. Although that’s the same symptom as the
condition of priapism (morbidly persistent erection of the penis), a sufferer
is not of necessity also satyriatic. The
noun priapism was from the Late Latin priapismus,
from the Greek priapismos (lewdness),
from priapizein (to be lewd), from Priapos (the god of male reproductive
power). In Roman mythology satyr was a synonym
of faun and, by extension, a lecherous man.
In modern casual use, it’s referred to also as Don Juanism, an allusion
to the fictional fourteenth century Spanish nobleman Don Juan, whose sexual
exploits became a thing of legend. The term
satyriasis (if not the condition) is largely archaic although still used in
literature and by clinicians with a sense of history, the more popular form
being satyromania, a coining in Modern Latin from 1759 which first appeared in
dictionaries of English in 1889.
Don Juan (circa 1911), oil on canvas by Charles Ricketts (1866–1931).
Nymphomania (pronounced nim-fuh-mey-nee-uh
or nim-fuh-meyn-yuh)
In
psychology & psychiatry, a neurotic condition in women in which the
symptoms are an excessive and unrestrainable venereal desire, manifesting as a
compulsion to have sexual intercourse with as many men as possible. In modern clinical use, it’s linked also to
an inability to sustain lasting relationships.
1775: From
the New (Medical) Latin as nymphomania (morbid
and uncontrollable sexual desire in women), from the Classical Latin nympha (labia minora), the construct thus nympho- + -mania.
The first known instance of publication in English was in a translation
of Nymphomania, or a Dissertation
Concerning the Furor Uterinus (1771) by French physician Jean Baptiste
Louis de Thesacq de Bienville (1726-1813) on the model of the Ancient Greek nymphē (bride, young wife, young lady) +
-mania (madness) and may have been
influenced by the earlier French nymphomanie
(a frenzied state of (usually erotic) emotion, especially concerning something
or someone unattainable). The adjective
nymphomaniac was used first in 1861 in the sense “characterized by or suffering
from nymphomania”, the specific reference to “a woman who is afflicted with
nymphomania” first noted in medical literature in 1867. In pre-modern medicine, the synonyms were the
now obsolete furor uterinus and œstromania which, curiously, is said
still to be mentioned in some textbooks.
Nymph
was from the Middle English nimphe,
from the Old French nimphe, from the
Latin nympha (nymph, bride), from the
Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē) (bride)
and a doublet of nympha. The alternative spelling nymphe is archaic except as a poetic device. In Greek & Roman mythology, a nymph was
any female nature spirit associated with waterways, forests, grottos, the
breezes etc and is common use was applied to beautiful or graceful young girls
(often as nymphet or nymphette) although the specialized use in entomology to
refer to (1) the larva of certain insects and (2) any of various butterflies of
the family Nymphalidae is analogous with the nymphs of antiquity only in
relation to fragility and gracefulness rather than anything specifically
female. The modern equivalent (Lolita
& lolita) is decidedly “of youthful femininity”). The suffix –mania was from the Latin mania, from the Ancient Greek μανία (mania) (madness). In modern use in psychiatry it is used to
describe a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or
energy levels and as a suffix appended as required. In general use, under the influence of the
historic meaning (violent derangement of mind; madness; insanity), it’s applied
to describe any “excessive or unreasonable desire; a passion or fanaticism” which
can us used even of unthreatening behaviors such as “a mania for flower
arranging, crochet etc”. As a suffix,
it’s often appended with the interfix -o- make pronunciation more natural. Nymphomania is a noun, nymphomaniac is a noun
& adjective and nymphomaniacal is an adjective; the usual noun plural is nymphomaniacs.
Fairly or not, Lindsay Lohan may in 2013 have cemented a reputation as a nymphomaniac when, in a Beverley Hills hotel room, she complied a list of three dozen "conquests" although it wasn't clear if the list was selective or exhaustive and it produced reactions among those mentioned ranging from "no comment" to a Clintonesque "I did not have sex with that woman". In partially redacted form, the list was in 2014 published by In Touch magazine and points of interest included Ms Lohan's apparently intact short & long-term memory and her commendably neat handwriting. She seems to favor the "first letter bigger" style in which the style is "all capitals" but the first letter (in each word in the case of proper nouns such as names) is larger. In typography, the idea is derived from the "drop cap", a centuries-old tradition in publishing where the opening letter of a sentence is many times the size of the rest, the text wrapping around the big letter. In many cases, a drop cap was an elaborate or stylized version of the letter.
Sex
doesn't appear in the annals of psychiatry with quite the frequency suggested
by the volume of material published for popular consumption but it's certainly
a significant part of the development of the discipline and Sigmund Freud's
(1856-1939) thoughts on sex are better known even than his dream analysis. Few would doubt that sexual behaviours are
integral to some psychiatric diseases and while women are thought not
ordinarily prone to nymphomania, it has been treated as expression of
delusional disorder (which some, controversially, call late-onset paranoia, a
rare condition which may be under-diagnosed because research suggests sufferers
seem to avoid treatment. It's of
particular interest because while women with delusional disorder appear often
develop a powerful sexual fixation, men's fixations arise usually in the absence
of anything which could be diagnosed as a delusional disorder. Such caveats aside, the profession has always
been interested in the phenomenon of persistent, socially deviant sexual
behavior accompanied by an excessive sexual appetite that may be maladaptive
for the individual and the terms “compulsive sexual behavior”, “sex addiction”,
“Don Juanism”, “satyriasis” & “nymphomania” are all expressions of “hypersexuality”. Despite the long and well-documented history,
when the editorial committee of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) met to discuss
amendments and additions to the fifth edition (DSM-5, 2013), the members
decided not to introduce hypersexual disorder as a distinct diagnostic category,
apparently because of what was said to be a paucity of research on valid
diagnostic criteria.
Nymphomaniacs,
hysteria and steam-induced parosysm
The
gender-neutral form of satyriasis and nymphomania is erotomania (abnormal
exaltation of the sexual appetite which, perhaps surprisingly, predates the
modern culture wars, noted in the medical literature since 1875. The construct of erotomania was eroto- + -mania, eroto from the Ancient
Greek ἐρωτικός
(erōtikós) (related to love), from ἔρως (érōs)
(passionate or sexual love). There were
however in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, echoes of the culture
wars because physicians were known to diagnose nymphomania in women they deemed
“to enjoy sex too much”. Some physicians
however were sympathetic practical as well as sympathetic. While they might diagnose women as “hysterical”
(then an orthodox part of medicine without the exclusively “loaded” meaning of
today, some were prepared to stimulate the vagina until "parosysm" (the
then preferred terminology for orgasm) was achieved. For the doctor however, it could be a tiring
business, some taking longer to climax than others although (officially) the treatment
was offered only to unmarried women, reducing the patient load, so there was
that.
Dr Taylor’s steam-powered Manipulator. Still, hands and wrists must quickly have tired, thus the attraction of the vibrator, a device which pre-dates the use of electricity, crank-driven models (resembling a very specialised egg-beater) first produced in 1734 and the early, powered, vibrators of the nineteenth century were a deviation from the engineering practices of the day which were really a collection of techniques designed to optimize specific efficiencies. By contrast, the early vibrators required inefficient motors. While all motors have moving parts and will vibrate, engineers use precise tolerances to achieve balance, ensuring the vibrations are minimized because vibrations are just wasted energy. However, by definition a vibrator needs to vibrate and at the time, the easy way to achieve this with an inefficient motor, thus the steam-powered Manipulator invented by US physician George Taylor (1821-1896) in 1869. Steam-powered, it certainly vibrated as needed but was big and noisy, the steam engine installed in an room adjoining the surgery, the apparatus protruding through the wall. However, as a proof-of-concept exercise it worked and Dr Taylor reported good results. Since then the devices have evolved to be smaller, quieter and battery-powered and although electrical power has become ubiquitous, one innovation proved a cul-de-sac, the Electro-Spatteur (which augmented its vibrations with electric shocks) lacking sales appeal. The un-powered devices however didn’t entirely disappear and early in the twentieth century, the Pulsocon was advertised in the Sears mail-order catalog (the amazon.com of the age) and as recent examinations (it’s not clear if the tests were practical) confirmed, it worked well as a vibrator, its promoters jailed in 1913 only because the other claims they were making for its efficacy (curing just about every ailment known) were variously unproven, unsustainable, unbelievable or simply lies.
The Pulsocon.
No comments:
Post a Comment