Study provides insight into odd sexual kinks
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 1, 2001 9:00 p.m.
BOOK INFORMATION Â
Title: Psychopathia Sexualis
Author: Richard von Krafft-Ebing
Publisher: Bloat books
Price: $19.95
Pages: 683
By Michael Rosen-Molina
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
With a name like “Psychopathia Sexualis,” it has to
be interesting.
Originally written in 1886 by Richard von Krafft-Ebing,
“Psychopathia Sexualis” was a ground-breaking study in
the science of sexual pathology. Influencing writers and
philosophers, as well as Krafft-Ebing’s fellow psychiatrists
(a young Sigmund Freud studied with the author at the University of
Vienna), the book still has a far reaching impact on the
development of modern sexual perception.
Perhaps nothing else so clearly reveals the influence of
“Psychopathia Sexualis” as the fact that people still
use Krafft-Ebing’s language to describe sexual practices
today ““ “sadism,” “masochism” and
“fetishism” are all terms made popular by this
book.
Modern readers, though, will probably not read it as a
psychology textbook.
“Psychopathia Sexualis” is a book that no longer
serves its original intention. A victim of changing social mores,
it is difficult to work up Krafft-Ebing’s level of indignant
ire over romantic practices now considered harmless kinks rather
than pathological perversions. An entire section devoted to foot
and shoe fetishism will surely draw more giggles than gasps as the
author lays out, in clinical detail, the preferences of his many
case studies.
No one could accuse Krafft-Ebing of drawing sweeping conclusions
from inadequate data. At 683 pages, the author includes extensive
documentation of sadism, masochism, fetishism and nymphomania,
among other diversions.
“Psychopathia Sexualis” is a useful tool for looking
back at the psychiatry of a bygone era. It’s especially
amusing to see Krafft-Ebing invent flowery language to dance around
the seedy behavior of some of his more unusual patients.
Exhibitionism receives short shrift, probably due to the
author’s disgust at the practice.
The book was originally written as a medical document rather
than for popular consumption, meaning that Krafft-Ebing uses a very
dry, exacting prose style. Even the most sensational sexual
practices are drained of all their lurid charm under
Krafft-Ebing’s pen. Even with his restrained presentation,
however, the strangeness of the material is enough to hold
readers’ interest.
The book frequently betrays its age with its archaic language.
Many patients comes from “tainted” families, an odd
term, left unexplained but presumably referring to some hereditary
failing. Although the nature vs. nurture debate still rages today
in regards to sexual preference, the idea of congenital
predisposition has been rejected in many of the desires that
Krafft-Ebing describes.
“Psychopathia Sexualis” opens with a short anecdote
that sets the tone for the entire book.
In case 229, a man in a provincial town was caught having
intercourse with a chicken. Apparently, area chickens had been
dying and the culprit had been “wanted” for quite some
time. Brought before the court, the man was questioned as to why he
preferred chickens to his own species. The suspect complained that
he could only derive pleasure from intercourse with chickens
because his genitals were extremely small. Krafft-Ebing
matter-of-factly notes that a medical examination proved his claim
true, and concludes that, otherwise, the man was in good mental
health.
Such bizarre cases, however, constitute only a fraction of the
incidents listed in “Psychopathia Sexualis." Most space is
devoted to more vanilla pursuits, like nostril fetishism.
Krafft-Ebing’s other patients display interest in shoes,
handkerchiefs, fur, velvet, eyes or hands. The majority of fetishes
documented fall into the realm of the feet and the early attention
that psychologists paid to this subgenre may explain why it’s
so well known today, in contrast to its more esoteric counterparts.
In one case of hand fetishism, the author seems almost disappointed
to find that the patient was indifferent to feet.
Case 101 describes a “hair despoiler,” a hair
fetishist who went so far as to take a pair of scissors to the
braids of women he met in the street. Another fetishist imagined
fantastic “hair adventures,” but Krafft-Ebing does not
describe what these might be. The reader is left to speculate what
constitutes a hair adventure.
Although most of Krafft-Ebing’s cases have lost their
shock value, the sheer volume of of the book makes it a worthwhile
and informative read. All else aside, “Psychopathia
Sexualis” remains a telling testament to the diversity of the
human sexual experience.
