The Psychology of Casanova

Casanova's claim to fame nowadays lies in his voluminous and exceptionally frank Memoirs. These are of interest in the first place, as Ellis points out, because “they constitute an important psychological document as the full and veracious presentation of a certain human type in its most complete development,” the human animal at his rankest and most cunning. In the second place they are of interest as a story of adventure, apart from their truth. Finally, they give an unequalled picture of private life in the eighteenth century. This picture is inestimably enhanced by the innumerable contacts which Casanova enjoyed with the greatest men and women of his time, both the most famous and the most notorious, in every sphere of life in both Europe and the Orient. The accuracy of the Memoirs, as a matter of fact, has been assailed at many points, but as Casanova's biographer, Guy Endore, observes, they may be even more revealing of the true Casanova than a close record of his life would be.

Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) was born in Venice, the son of an actor and actress. He was the oldest of six children,-the parentage of not a few of whom, including Casanova himself, is still in dispute. There was a marked tendency toward abnormality in his family. One brother was feebleminded and consequently a ne'er-do-well. Another was impotent, a fact which did not prevent him from marrying. Casanova himself was considered an idiot up until the age of eight years. In his Memoirs he states that he is unable to recall anything before his eighth year, fourth month. Before that time he was subject to prolonged nasal hemorrhages, and continually kept his mouth open, giving his face a very stupid appearance. He was not expected to live very long.

When he was eight, however, certain changes took place in him, probably glandular in nature, whch resulted in a spontaneous cure. A rapid physical and mental growth followed, so that he subsequently had no cause to complain of defect in either respe