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A man of twenty-three came into analysis for exhibitionism. When he exhibited himself, usually to little girls, he had no erection and experienced no sexual satisfaction. He sometimes felt that he was trying to arouse feelings of awe in girls. At other times, he was trying 'to convince somebody of something', he did not quite know what. During analysis, it became clear that he suffered
less from fear of castration than from the conviction that castration had already befallen him. He believed that his circumcision in infancy had injured his penis, which he considered of inferior quality. However, when he exhibited it he felt that it was 'something powerful'. He could 'frighten people with it, awe them, perhaps harm them'. He wanted to prove his worth and power in spite of the inadequacy of his penis.
This patient's exhibitionism was an attempted act of restitution. The castrated man becomes potent by arousing awe and fear. The perversion is close to the expedient normal attitude and to psychosis. As in the normal man, it leads naturally to some achievement in the outside world (an active, although not useful one), and like the psychosis it tears the ego away from reality (the existence of the normal penis is denied, castration is accepted). This is 'succeeded by an active phase of reconstruction', and an attempt 'to make good the damage done, and re-establish the relation to reality'.