His
attitude, which closely imitates purely spiritual love, cannot be other
than sexual. The blending of love and sexuality together with the
incapacity of effecting a real synthesis, the confusion of value and
pleasure is most clearly shown in the masochist--far more clearly than
in the case of the (rare) seeker of love. The outward modes preferred by
the individual are a matter of indifference; for the most part they are
symbolical acts, indicating the lover's inferiority and the loftiness
and power of his mistress. What is really of importance is the spiritual
attitude which induces him to commit these strange acts, and in these we
find the characteristic attitude of the woman-worshipper: that of the
slave before his queen. The slave of love is a sensualist incapable of
approaching woman in a normally manly, instinctive and natural way, but
requiring the pose of the spiritual worshipper. One might be tempted to
believe that he harboured the secret wish to atone for his incapacity of
feeling a pure love by being degraded and ill-treated.
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