Effects of Castration, chapt. 10
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2002 5:04 pm
Effects of Castration on Men and Women: Accidental, Voluntary and Involuntary Castration; Eunuchism and History - Medical Treatment and Aspects
X. CONCLUSION
Normality is an evasive entity. Educators, scientists and others are constantly endeavoring to establish "norms." Various norms become accepted - temporarily - at least. There are now so-called norms for the intellect, for determining human conduct, for gauging the personality, etc., at infinitum. A norm may be accepted as having value because anything which may contribute to an eventual intelligent analysis may be regarded as having value.
That which is normal to or for one person may be far from normal when another person is considered. Except a biopsy be performed, the sex of many persons cannot be established in the early years of life. The author has shown this in detail in another book, "What Is a Hermaphrodite?", naturally a Haldeman-Julius publication. It is impossible to establish a rule for normal sex conduct for a person whose sex is not known. So-called normal persons will find it difficult to establish rules of normal sex conduct for cryptorchids, or for members of the female sex whose genital systems remain infantile into and through adult life. Cryptorchids and females of infantile sexuality are incapable of understanding even an approach to normality in well-sexed individuals. Another problem arises in both males and females castrated before puberty and still another problem is that of persons of both sexes castrated after puberty.
The mental castrate, and a norm of conduct for such castrate, must be studied from a point of view entirely different from that applying to individuals who are healthy in body and mind.
At present little is known - and but little is guessed - as to means of preventing the cryptorchid because cryptorchidism is due to a developmental defect. It may be that in time supplying special substances to the pregnant woman will serve to prevent cryptorchidism in males and infantile sexuality in females.
Accidental and pathological castrates, doubtless, there will ever be.
When, and if, castration can improve the human race, then legal castration may be justified.
Forced castration has no place in an intelligent society.
Ignorance is no excuse, yet, speaking paradoxically, it is the only shadow of an excuse for mental castration - the castration complex.
Many valuable books are not available to the general public. Much valuable information is withheld from the public. This is not because members of scientific professions will it so, but because of economic, and other factors. As yet the general public has not reached a point of technical education which would permit of ready comprehension of numerous works of science circulated to members of the scientific professions only.
In books such as the present one historical facts and other valuable data are presented in such a non-technical manner that all who are capable of reading may understand. Books of this kind present no economic problem to persons interested in availing themselves of adding to their accomplishments through a University in Print.
Many books are available to the scientific professions only. The public is denied these books by a set of so-called humans who are worse social misfits than many persons confined in asylums for the insane. The name of this genus is censor.
The censor, often no more than a psychopathic misfit, seeks to tell you and you and you what you may read, what shows you may see - and almost what you may or may not think. Thoughts are governed to such a great extent by what we see and read.
Recently the censors banned a motion picture because the leading lady wore a costume which showed a faint line of cleavage at the upper margin of her breasts. Yet, the press in general, and that widely circulated weekly, The Pathfinder, gave considerable space to editorial comment and pulled no punches. Censors have never stopped mothers so inclined from hauling out ample breasts, sometimes with a pseudo-gesture at shielding, and feeding their babies wherever the babies voiced hunger. And why should not a mother feed her child by any accepted and feasible method when the nature of the infant causes it to cry for nourishment? Shall the showy eating places of the country be remodeled with an eye to bathroom seclusion?
This seeming digression has a purpose. The purpose is to direct attention toward various sources which serve, like the priestcraft of old (and even modern) times, to keep people in ignorance. Today you may be whole of body. Tomorrow you may lose an eye, an arm, a leg, your teeth, or your testicles, or your ovaries. You have no difficulty in learning how persons overcome, to an extent, at least, the loss of an eye, an arm, a leg, or the teeth. But should you become a castrate - you will be fortunate that you chanced to find this book - a book giving but brief facts - yet notwithstanding, facts. You will have an insight which may help you to solve or find a solution - insofar as a solution is to be had.
Medical treatment of castrates is not as yet all that is hoped for by earnest medical scientists. A philosophy of helpfulness must be spread among members of the medical profession. Unfortunately for this profession and for the vast clientele of the profession, bias is as rife as it is among members of a jury.
Medicine, for centuries in the hands of the priesthood, made some great advances - backward. Even after medicine was taken out of the direct hands of the priesthood it remained for a long dark period under the dominance of the priesthood. Had not a daring queen of England permitted the administration of chloroform by her physician to ease the pains of childbirth, anesthesia might have remained unused until the present day. The priesthood - the clergy - cried down the use of anesthesia as the "work of the devil" until a "divine" queen, who could do no wrong, gave the lie to the devil and enjoyed a painless childbirth.
As rapidly as medical men free themselves of priestly biases, greater knowledge and greater blessings are becoming the property of every man, woman and child.
While various biases and mass ignorance remain with us we shall continue to see here and there our pitiful fellow creature, the mental castrates - persons made afraid of marriage - afraid of sexual relations as a healthy procedure with the opposite sex by an ignorant mother and equally ignorant and negligent father.
Through ignorance fathers and mothers give their children a castration complex. And such parent, fathers especially, have winked at friends and spoken of their sons: "He's not the man with the ladies his father was at the same age."
Other equally ignorant men have winked back with "I see what you mean."
The female castrated in middle life needs more help, perhaps, than any other castrated person. The male castrated in middle life is often compensated to a great extent through hormone production and by the powers inherent in the prostate gland. Man's emotions at this time are fairly stable. Woman's emotions are less stable. She is likely to suffer greater personality disturbances if she has had an unsatisfactory sex life. But a small number of women who experience satisfactory sex lives ever become castrates. One of the reasons is that their sexual systems remain healthier.
Various medical measures including material therapeutic agents may be made to be of value to males and females who suffer castration.
Thorough knowledge and assistance in developing the reasoning faculties can be invaluable in adjusting the personality to the end that the effects of castration in both the male and the female be, to as great an extent as possible, compensated.
[And thus concludes this 1947 pamphlet on castration and eunuchs. I find it interesting what has, and has not, changed in the half century since its publication. I find interesting Dr. Cauldwell's thought that anyone, male or female, who wants to be castrated should be able easily to find a surgeon willing to perform the operation. (chapter 4) He personally disapproves of castration on demand, but accepts that some will desire it and ought to be able of obtain it. I plan to follow up on Judge Frank P. Collier, who sentenced sex offenders to castration in the 1930s and 40s. I find it interesting that the first men he sentenced to judicial castration were the sons of WEALTHY families convicted of sex with under-age girls.
[The booklet is clearly written for a general audience. Most of the chapters use vocabulary and sentence structure such that a normal elementary school graduate of the time should have had no trouble reading them. Only a couple of chapters are written at the high school reading level. This was clearly not written for specialists. I would be interested in the thoughts of others on this booklet, in its historical and social context. -JA]
X. CONCLUSION
Normality is an evasive entity. Educators, scientists and others are constantly endeavoring to establish "norms." Various norms become accepted - temporarily - at least. There are now so-called norms for the intellect, for determining human conduct, for gauging the personality, etc., at infinitum. A norm may be accepted as having value because anything which may contribute to an eventual intelligent analysis may be regarded as having value.
That which is normal to or for one person may be far from normal when another person is considered. Except a biopsy be performed, the sex of many persons cannot be established in the early years of life. The author has shown this in detail in another book, "What Is a Hermaphrodite?", naturally a Haldeman-Julius publication. It is impossible to establish a rule for normal sex conduct for a person whose sex is not known. So-called normal persons will find it difficult to establish rules of normal sex conduct for cryptorchids, or for members of the female sex whose genital systems remain infantile into and through adult life. Cryptorchids and females of infantile sexuality are incapable of understanding even an approach to normality in well-sexed individuals. Another problem arises in both males and females castrated before puberty and still another problem is that of persons of both sexes castrated after puberty.
The mental castrate, and a norm of conduct for such castrate, must be studied from a point of view entirely different from that applying to individuals who are healthy in body and mind.
At present little is known - and but little is guessed - as to means of preventing the cryptorchid because cryptorchidism is due to a developmental defect. It may be that in time supplying special substances to the pregnant woman will serve to prevent cryptorchidism in males and infantile sexuality in females.
Accidental and pathological castrates, doubtless, there will ever be.
When, and if, castration can improve the human race, then legal castration may be justified.
Forced castration has no place in an intelligent society.
Ignorance is no excuse, yet, speaking paradoxically, it is the only shadow of an excuse for mental castration - the castration complex.
Many valuable books are not available to the general public. Much valuable information is withheld from the public. This is not because members of scientific professions will it so, but because of economic, and other factors. As yet the general public has not reached a point of technical education which would permit of ready comprehension of numerous works of science circulated to members of the scientific professions only.
In books such as the present one historical facts and other valuable data are presented in such a non-technical manner that all who are capable of reading may understand. Books of this kind present no economic problem to persons interested in availing themselves of adding to their accomplishments through a University in Print.
Many books are available to the scientific professions only. The public is denied these books by a set of so-called humans who are worse social misfits than many persons confined in asylums for the insane. The name of this genus is censor.
The censor, often no more than a psychopathic misfit, seeks to tell you and you and you what you may read, what shows you may see - and almost what you may or may not think. Thoughts are governed to such a great extent by what we see and read.
Recently the censors banned a motion picture because the leading lady wore a costume which showed a faint line of cleavage at the upper margin of her breasts. Yet, the press in general, and that widely circulated weekly, The Pathfinder, gave considerable space to editorial comment and pulled no punches. Censors have never stopped mothers so inclined from hauling out ample breasts, sometimes with a pseudo-gesture at shielding, and feeding their babies wherever the babies voiced hunger. And why should not a mother feed her child by any accepted and feasible method when the nature of the infant causes it to cry for nourishment? Shall the showy eating places of the country be remodeled with an eye to bathroom seclusion?
This seeming digression has a purpose. The purpose is to direct attention toward various sources which serve, like the priestcraft of old (and even modern) times, to keep people in ignorance. Today you may be whole of body. Tomorrow you may lose an eye, an arm, a leg, your teeth, or your testicles, or your ovaries. You have no difficulty in learning how persons overcome, to an extent, at least, the loss of an eye, an arm, a leg, or the teeth. But should you become a castrate - you will be fortunate that you chanced to find this book - a book giving but brief facts - yet notwithstanding, facts. You will have an insight which may help you to solve or find a solution - insofar as a solution is to be had.
Medical treatment of castrates is not as yet all that is hoped for by earnest medical scientists. A philosophy of helpfulness must be spread among members of the medical profession. Unfortunately for this profession and for the vast clientele of the profession, bias is as rife as it is among members of a jury.
Medicine, for centuries in the hands of the priesthood, made some great advances - backward. Even after medicine was taken out of the direct hands of the priesthood it remained for a long dark period under the dominance of the priesthood. Had not a daring queen of England permitted the administration of chloroform by her physician to ease the pains of childbirth, anesthesia might have remained unused until the present day. The priesthood - the clergy - cried down the use of anesthesia as the "work of the devil" until a "divine" queen, who could do no wrong, gave the lie to the devil and enjoyed a painless childbirth.
As rapidly as medical men free themselves of priestly biases, greater knowledge and greater blessings are becoming the property of every man, woman and child.
While various biases and mass ignorance remain with us we shall continue to see here and there our pitiful fellow creature, the mental castrates - persons made afraid of marriage - afraid of sexual relations as a healthy procedure with the opposite sex by an ignorant mother and equally ignorant and negligent father.
Through ignorance fathers and mothers give their children a castration complex. And such parent, fathers especially, have winked at friends and spoken of their sons: "He's not the man with the ladies his father was at the same age."
Other equally ignorant men have winked back with "I see what you mean."
The female castrated in middle life needs more help, perhaps, than any other castrated person. The male castrated in middle life is often compensated to a great extent through hormone production and by the powers inherent in the prostate gland. Man's emotions at this time are fairly stable. Woman's emotions are less stable. She is likely to suffer greater personality disturbances if she has had an unsatisfactory sex life. But a small number of women who experience satisfactory sex lives ever become castrates. One of the reasons is that their sexual systems remain healthier.
Various medical measures including material therapeutic agents may be made to be of value to males and females who suffer castration.
Thorough knowledge and assistance in developing the reasoning faculties can be invaluable in adjusting the personality to the end that the effects of castration in both the male and the female be, to as great an extent as possible, compensated.
[And thus concludes this 1947 pamphlet on castration and eunuchs. I find it interesting what has, and has not, changed in the half century since its publication. I find interesting Dr. Cauldwell's thought that anyone, male or female, who wants to be castrated should be able easily to find a surgeon willing to perform the operation. (chapter 4) He personally disapproves of castration on demand, but accepts that some will desire it and ought to be able of obtain it. I plan to follow up on Judge Frank P. Collier, who sentenced sex offenders to castration in the 1930s and 40s. I find it interesting that the first men he sentenced to judicial castration were the sons of WEALTHY families convicted of sex with under-age girls.
[The booklet is clearly written for a general audience. Most of the chapters use vocabulary and sentence structure such that a normal elementary school graduate of the time should have had no trouble reading them. Only a couple of chapters are written at the high school reading level. This was clearly not written for specialists. I would be interested in the thoughts of others on this booklet, in its historical and social context. -JA]