There is nothing remarkable in this fact; it occurs in every sphere of
human life. The vague instinct of revenge on woman animates also, though
perhaps unconsciously, the pathological sadist.
There is one thing which the seeker of love and the woman-worshipper
have in common: both seek a higher ideal far beyond the woman of
every-day life; but while the worshipper safeguards the purity of his
feeling by putting the greatest possible distance between him and the
object of his worship (and is therefore never disappointed), the seeker
of love, blinded by the illusion that he has at last found the object of
his quest, draws every woman towards him and again and again discovers
that he is nothing but a sensualist. Every fresh conquest destroys his
dream afresh, and he revenges himself, if he is a Don Juan, by despising
and disgracing the unfortunate victim, and if he is a sadist, by
maltreating her. And yet he never entirely loses his illusion; he craves
for complete satisfaction, and as he is incapable of self-knowledge, he
never abandons the hope of meeting the woman he seeks.
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