ENTRIES:
A-D E-I J-M N-Q R-T U-Z
CONTRIBUTORS | BOOKLIST | LINKS | HELP
| the deviants' dictionary Sourcesheet Updated 3 July 1997 |
| Deviant Personalities G-M |
| INTRO | FRAMES | INDEX
ENTRIES: A-D E-I J-M N-Q R-T U-Z
CONTRIBUTORS | BOOKLIST | LINKS | HELP |
Thomas Edward Lawrence ("T.E." or "Ned") aka John Hume Ross, later T.E. Shaw, often called "Lawrence of Arabia", was born in 1888 and died in a motorcycle accident in England in 1935. As a British military officer instrumental in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, he created another front in the war against Axis powers. Intelligent, introspective, and literary, he was immortalized by the media during and after his lifetime, most majestically in the 1962 David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia.
In his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence describes an incident at the town of Dera'a in which he was captured (though apparently not recognized) by the Turks. He claims to have repulsed an officer's homosexual advances, and is then tortured. Later, in a letter to friend Charlotte (Mrs. George Bernard) Shaw, Lawrence admitted, 'For fear of being hurt, or rather to earn five minutes respite from a pain which drove me mad, I gave away the only possession we are born into the world with -- our bodily integrity'. This incident apparently had deep and long-lasting effects.
In 1967, The Sunday Times of London reported that from 1923 to 1935, Lawrence employed a young serviceman to administer extreme floggings, sometimes with a witness. Both the beater and witness were gulled by Lawrence's fiction that the beatings were demanded by a severe uncle from whom Lawrence had stolen money. Biographer John E. Mack suggests, 'The traumatic intensity of the experience [at Dera'a], with its overwhelming of psychic defenses, led to the permanent welding for Lawrence of sexual pleasure and pain, so that he was plagued not only by the memory of the incident, but by the continuous desire for its repetition' (1976: 438). In a typical psychopathological pattern, the pain and pleasure led to guilt, which made him punish himself; but the punishment combined both pain and pleaure, leading to more guilt; and the cycle began again.
Mack is careful to distinguish pathology and eroticism: 'The practice of flagellation by individuals for erotic pleasure is commonplace,... [and] with rare exceptions, is not severe. Rarer still is the self-determined use of flagellation for personal penance -- Lawrence's disorder." (ibid: 427) Mack emphasizes that for Lawrence "the humiliation of self is as important an aspect of the penance as the physical pain" (436) and that on a conscious level the punishment was not erotic (438). On the other hand, Mack admits (433) that the beating resulted in orgasm.
Lawrence admitted that he never had intercourse with a woman, and it seems likely he had no other relationships that were both sexually and personally intimate. The question which is not addressed by any of Lawrence's biographers, of course, is whether his life might have been less conflicted and happier if he lived in an era when SM was a viable outlet for love and intimacy. If he could have worn a black bandana in his rear right pocket, might he have found the freedom to accept his masochism as a healthy outlet for his internal pain?
Dirk adds: Lawrence's war exploits and his role in the Middle East are controversial, as is Lean's film, which has recently attracted further controversy over the authorship of the script. In the film, Lawrence's sadomasochism is hinted at long before the Dera'a incident: in an early scene which no SMer will forget, he performs his 'trick' of putting out matches with his bare hands. One of his subordinates, Corporal Potter, attempts to copy him, and yelps in pain. 'It damn well hurts!' he says. 'Certainly it hurts,' responds Lawrence. 'Well, what's the trick, then?' demands Potter. 'The trick, William Potter,' drawls Lawrence, 'is not minding that it hurts' . For more on the film, consult the Internet Movie Database.
Biographies:
The best is Mack 1976; others are: