In the case of another young woman described by Krafft-Ebing—­where there was neurasthenia with other minor morbid conditions in the family, but the girl herself appears to have been sound—­the desire to be whipped existed from a very early age.  She traced it to the fact that when she was 5 years old a friend of her father’s playfully placed her across his knees and pretended to whip her.  Since then she has always longed to be caned, but to her great regret the wish has never been realized.  She longs to be the slave of a man whom she loves:  “Lying in fancy before him, he puts one foot on my neck while I kiss the other.  I revel in the idea of being whipped by him and imagine different scenes in which he beats me.  I take the blows as so many tokens of love; he is at first extremely kind and tender, but then in the excess of his love he beats me.  I fancy that to beat me for love’s sake gives him the highest pleasure.”  Sometimes she imagines that she is his slave, but not his female slave, for every woman may be her husband’s slave.  She is of proud and independent nature in all other matters, and to imagine herself a man who consents to be a slave gives her a more satisfying sense of humiliation.  She does not understand that these manifestations are of a sexual nature. (Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of tenth edition, p. 189.)

Sometimes a woman desires to take the active part in whipping.  Thus Marandon de Montyel records the case of a girl of 19, hereditarily neuropathic (her father was alcoholic), but very intelligent and good-hearted, who had never been whipped or seen anyone whipped.  At this age, however, she happened to visit a married friend who was just about to punish her boy of 9 by whipping him with a wet towel.  The girl spectator was much interested, and though the boy screamed and struggled she experienced a new sensation she could not define.  “At every stroke,” she said, “a strange shiver went through all my body from my brain to my heels.”  She would like to have whipped him herself and felt sorry when it was over.  She could not forget the scene and would dream of herself whipping a boy.  At last the desire became irresistible and she persuaded a boy of 12, whom she was very fond of, and who was much attached to her, to let her whip him on the naked nates.  She did this so ferociously that he at last fainted.  She was overcome by grief and remorse.  (Marandon de Montyel, Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, Jan., 1906, p. 30.)

Although masochism in a pronounced degree may be said to be rare in women, the love of active flagellation, and sadistic impulses generally are not uncommon among them.  Bloch believes they are especially common among English women.  Cases occur from time to time of extreme harshness,