Humbert speaks of this even in a matter-of-fact way; there is nothing erotic or explicit about it. Because there are no overly sexual or erotic excerpts concerning the actual act of intercourse, Lolita is in no way merely a pornographic novel.
Sigmund Freud was a pioneer in the studies of sexual addictions, and other pioneers have studied the more specific pedophiliac sexual addictions. A sexual addiction is defined as "irresistible urges for unethical things." Freud believed the "root cause of [ . . . ] mental illness was sex." (73). According to Freud, everything that ever goes wrong in one's mind is somehow linked to sex. He also believed "deprivation of sexual pleasure automatically leads to mental illness" (74). This, in turn, may lead to a sexual addiction. .
Humbert indeed, has a pedophiliac sexual addiction. He knows this and says, "Humbert Humbert tried to be good. Really and truly, he did" (47). However, he gives into temptation many times. For example, he visits many nymphet prostitutes. He describes one such young prostitute named Monique:.
" With her brown bobbed hair, luminous gray eyes and pale skin, she looked perfectly charming. Her hips were no bigger than those of a squatting lad; in fact, I do not hesitate to say [ . . . ] that among the eighty or so grues I had had operate upon me, she was the only one that gave me a pang of genuine pleasure." (24).
However, Humbert sees Monique the next day and notices, "she seemed to have grown less juvenile, more of a woman overnight" (24) and he does not want her anymore. By saying this, Humbert proves he only has lust for little girls, and feels no attraction to adult women. Humbert does many things, mainly marrying a grown woman, to try to keep his pedophiliac sexual addiction under control. Humbert knows that society viewed pedophilia as immoral, so he decides he will marry a grown woman to keep his perversions repressed. He says he marries "to purge [myself] of [my] degrading and dangerous desires" (26).