Such masochistic
exhibitionism seems, however, to be rare.
While the manifestations of exhibitionism are substantially the same in
all cases, there are many degrees and varieties of the condition. We may
find among exhibitionists, as Garnier remarks, dementia, states of
unconsciousness, epilepsy, general paralysis, alcoholism, but the most
typical cases, he adds, if not indeed the cases to which the term properly
belongs, are those in which it is an impulsive obsession. Krafft-Ebing[60]
divides exhibitionists into four clinical groups: (1) acquired states of
mental weakness, with cerebral or spinal disease clouding consciousness
and at the same time causing impotence; (2) epileptics, in whom the act is
an abnormal organic impulse performed in a state of imperfect
consciousness; (3) a somewhat allied group of neurasthenic cases; (4)
periodical impulsive cases with deep hereditary taint. This classification
is not altogether satisfactory. Garnier's classification, placing the
group of obsessional cases in the foreground and leaving the other more
vaguely defined groups in the background, is probably better. I am
inclined to consider that most of the cases fall into one or other of two
mixed groups.
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