This landmark study of sexual mania, deviation and perversity is presented in a new, modern translation highlighting the cases chosen by KrafftEbing to appear in the 12th and final edition of the book, the culmination of his life’s work. An essential reference for those interested in the development of medical and psychiatric diagnosis of sexual derangement, Psychopathia Sexualis is also a fascinating document for those drawn to the darker side of human sexuality and behaviour. Cases range from Jack the Ripper to the most obscure and extreme instances of perversion known to 19th century psychiatrists and criminologists.
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Richard von KrafftEbing (1840-1902), the German/Austrian psychiatrist, wrote Psychopathia Sexualis in 1886. It remains wellknown for its coinages of the terms sadism and masochism.
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Case 1. Erotic delirium J. Ren, always given to indulgence in sensuality and sexual pleasures, but always with regard for decorum, had shown, since his seventy-sixth year, a progressive loss of intelligence and increasing perversion of his moral sense. Previously bright and outwardly moral, he now wasted his property in concourse with prostitutes, frequented brothels only, asked every woman on the street to marry him or allow coitus, and thus became publicly so obnoxious that it was necessary to place him in an asylum. There the sexual excitement increased to a veritable satyriasis, which lasted until he died. He masturbated continuously, even before others; took delight only in obscene ideas; thought the men about him were women, and followed them with indecent proposals. Case 2. Erotic delirium Mr. X., aged eighty, of high social standing, born of a family with hereditary taint. He was always very sensual and a cynic, of uncontrollable temper, and, according to his own confession, as a young man preferred masturbation to coitus. However, he never showed signs of sexual perversion, and kept mistresses, raising a child by one. At the age of forty-eight he married, out of inclination, and begat six children, and never gave his wife cause for complaint. I could obtain but an incomplete history of his family. It was certain that his brother was suspected of homosexuality, and that a nephew became insane as a result of excessive masturbation. The patient's temper, always peculiar and quick, had for years been growing more violent. He had become exceedingly suspicious, and slight opposition to his wishes induced attacks of anger which turned at times into actual raving, when he would raise his hand even against his wife. For a year there had been unmistakable signs of incipient senile dementia. The patient had become forgetful, localised past events incorrectly, and had false ideas of time. For fourteen months it was noticed that he manifested affection for certain male servants, especially for a gardener's boy. Otherwise rude and overbearing to servants, he surfeited his favourite with favours and presents, and commanded his family and his house officials to treat the boy with the greatest respect. The aged patient awaited the hour of rendezvous in true sexual excitement. He sent his family away, that he might be with his favourite undisturbed, and remained shut up with him for hours. And when the doors were opened again, he was found lying...
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
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This review is from: Psychopathia Sexualis: The Case Histories (Paperback)
I was surprised that this edition of Krafft Ebing's classic work on bizarre sex had no reader reviews. I wanted to assure anyone who stumbled on this page that this book should be in the library of anyone interested in the human animal. Krafft Ebing doesn't really come up with any convincing theories as to why an action which is intended to propagate the species should evolve into such bizarre, nonreproductive practices (although in all fairness there probably aren't any universally accepted theories even now.) Poor Krafft Ebing spent years of his life trying to "help" homosexuals, masochists, sadists, fetishists,etc. etc., develop into "normal" people, but with very little success. It is worth noting that even though most of his patients came to him voluntarily hoping to be to be changed, his success rate was not very impressive-something to think about when one hears Evangelicals demanding that homosexuality be declared a disorder and who claim to be able to cure it. Of his case histories, my personal favorite has to be the man who could only achieve an erection by concentrating on the image of a male servant wearing highly polished patent leather boots-only highly polished patent leather would do. One's mind boggles at the process which must have occurred in this patient's skull to lead him from the biological urge to reproduce the species,which after all is what sex is for, into a fetish which made reproduction a very unlikely event. Modern psychology has more or less thrown up its hands and said, "They must be born that way." That's probably as good a theory as any, but since people "born that way" would fail to reproduce,why haven't these practices died out? If natural selection operates as advertised, one would think that fetishism and homosexualality would have disappeared by now. At any rate, Krafft Ebing's nonjudgemental view of his patients is a refreshing change from the brutal,sometimes savage outlook of most of his contemporaries. Like so many other basic works in abnormal psychology,this is an often unintentionally hilarious account of humanity's most interesting activity.
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