Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing" - New World

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KE held positions in psychiatry at several universities — [[University of Strasbourg]], [[University of Graz]], and [[University of Vienna]].
 
KE held positions in psychiatry at several universities — [[University of Strasbourg]], [[University of Graz]], and [[University of Vienna]].
  
He published extensively on hypnosis, criminology, and sexual behavior.
+
He has written on criminal behavior, the medical perspectives of hypnosis, aa well as on male and female sexuality and sexual behavior.
  
 
His basic psychiatry text was considered by many to be undistinguished, yet it is credited with influencing Carl Jung to choose psychiatry as a medical specialty.
 
His basic psychiatry text was considered by many to be undistinguished, yet it is credited with influencing Carl Jung to choose psychiatry as a medical specialty.
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==References==
 
==References==
 +
* Brittain, R. 1970. The sadistic murderer. ''Medicine, Science, and the Law, No. 10, pp. 198-207.
 +
* Crepault, E. and Counture, M. 1980. Men's erotic fantasies. ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', No. 9, pp. 565-581.
 
*  ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), reprinted by Bloat Books, 1999; ISBN 0-9650324-1-8
 
*  ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), reprinted by Bloat Books, 1999; ISBN 0-9650324-1-8
 
*  Oosterhuis, Harry. ''Stepchildren of Nature'' (2000), University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-63059-5
 
*  Oosterhuis, Harry. ''Stepchildren of Nature'' (2000), University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-63059-5

Revision as of 22:53, 7 August 2007


File:Krafft-Ebing.jpg
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing with his wife Marie Luise

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing[1] (August 14 1840 – December 22 1902) was an Austro-German psychiatrist. He published extensively on hypnosis, criminology, and sexual behavior. Krafft-Ebbing is famous for his book Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), a study of sexual perversity, and for his coinage of the terms sadism (after the Marquis de Sade) and masochism using the name of a writer, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.

Life

Richard Freiherr Krafft-Ebing was born in Mannheim, Baden, Germany, educated in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), and studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg.

KE held positions in psychiatry at several universities — University of Strasbourg, University of Graz, and University of Vienna.

He has written on criminal behavior, the medical perspectives of hypnosis, aa well as on male and female sexuality and sexual behavior.

His basic psychiatry text was considered by many to be undistinguished, yet it is credited with influencing Carl Jung to choose psychiatry as a medical specialty.

After graduating in medical sciences and finishing specialisation in psychiatry, Krafft-Ebing worked in several asylums. Soon he felt that the way those institutions worked deceived him and decided to become an educator. He became a professor of Psychiatry and held positions at the universities of Strasbourg, Graz, and Vienna. He was also a forensic expert at the Austrian capital. He was a popularizer of psychiatry, giving public lectures on the subject as well as theatrical demonstrations of the power of hypnotism.

Work

In his early, work Krafft-Ebing inoculated general paresis patients with syphilis. Since they did not contract the disease, they must have had it previously. In this fashion Krafft-Ebbing demonstrated the link between syphilis and general paresis prior to the serological tests such as the Wassermann used today. At the Moscow International Congress of 1897, Krafft-Ebing made popular the phrase civilization and syphilization.

Psychopathia Sexualis

Krafft-Ebing had written and published several articles on psychiatry, before publishing his book Psychopathia Sexualis ("Psychopathology of Sex"), which is his best-known work.

First published in 1866, it went through a dozen editions and many translations. KE took a purely constitutional approach. All sexual variations are based upon genetic defects, although masturbation can hasten or even produce disorders, True to the German ideas of the time, he considered anything other than marital coitus for the purpose of procreation a perversion. A male was expected to have orgasm during coitus, but not a female. KE discussed sexual perversions ranging from lust murder to fetish and masturbation with equal condemnation. His writings influenced the work of Sigmund Freud.

The book was developed in a forensic reference for doctors and judges, in high academic tone. In the introduction of the book, it was noted that the author had "deliberately chosen a scientific term for the name of the book to discourage lay readers". He also wrote sections of the book in Latin for the same purpose. Despite all these facts, the book was highly popular with lay readers: it reached twelve editions in his lifetime and was translated into many languages.

In the first edition of Psychopathia Sexualis, in 1886, Krafft-Ebing divided sexual deviance into four categories:

  • paradoxia, sexual desire at the wrong time of life, i.e. childhood or old age
  • anesthesia, insufficient desire
  • hyperesthesia, excessive desire
  • paraesthesia, sexual desire for the wrong goal or object. This included homosexuality (or "contrary sexual desire"), sexual fetishism, sadism, masochism, pederasty and so on.

Krafft-Ebing believed that the purpose of sexual desire was procreation, and any form of desire that didn't go towards that ultimate goal was a perversion. Rape, for instance, was an aberrant act, but not a perversion, since pregnancy could result.

Krafft-Ebing saw women as basically sexually passive, and recorded no female sadists or fetishists in his case studies. Behaviour that would be classified as masochism in men was categorized as "sexual bondage" in women, which was not a perversion, again because such behaviour did not interfere with procreation.

Besides all the important impacts the book had on the professionals in the field, in fact, it was the first scientific discussion of homosexuality and consideration of the mental states of sexual offenders in judging their actions. It was also one of the first books to scientifically study sexual topics such as the importance of clitoral orgasm and female sexual pleasure.

After interviewing many homosexuals, both as his private patients and as a forensic expert, and reading some works in favour of gay rights (male homosexuality had become a criminal offence in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire by that time; unlike lesbianism, but discrimination against lesbians functioned equally), Krafft-Ebing reached the conclusion that both male and female homosexuals did not suffer from mental illness or perversion (as persistent popular belief held), and became interested in the study of the subject.

Krafft-Ebing elaborated an evolutionist theory considering homosexuality as an anomalous process developed during the gestation of the embryo and fetus, evolving into a sexual inversion of the brain. Some years later, in 1901, he corrected himself in an article published in the Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, changing the term anomaly to differentiation. But his final conclusions remained forgotten for years, partly because Sigmund Freud's theories captivated the attention of those that considered homosexuality a psychological problem (the majority at the time), and partly because Krafft-Ebing had incurred some enmity from the Austrian Catholic church by associating the desire for sanctity and martyrdom with hysteria and masochism (besides denying the perversity of homosexuals).

Some years later Krafft-Ebing's theory led other specialists on mental studies to reach the same conclusion and to the study of transgenderism or transsexuality as another differentiation correctable by means of surgery, rather than by psychiatry or psychology.

Most contemporary psychiatrists no longer consider homosexual practices as pathological (as Krafft-Ebing did in his first studies): partly due to new conceptions, and partly due to Krafft-Ebing's own self-correction.

Legacy and critics

About the terms sadism and masochism He published extensively on hypnosis, criminology, and sexual behavior. Krafft-Ebing coned the term sadism (after the Marquis de Sade). He also coined the term masochism using the name of a contemporary writer, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose partially autobiographical novel Venus in Furs tells of the protagonist's desire to be whipped and enslaved by a beautiful woman.

For decades, Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis ("Psychopathology of Sex") was an authority on sexual aberration, and was one of the most influential books on human sexuality. The author was praised and condemned for the book - praised for opening up a new area of much-needed psychological study, condemned for immorality and justifying perversion.

Notes

  1. Note regarding personal names: Freiherr is a title, translated as Baron, not a first or middle name. The female forms are Freifrau and Freiin

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Brittain, R. 1970. The sadistic murderer. Medicine, Science, and the Law, No. 10, pp. 198-207.
  • Crepault, E. and Counture, M. 1980. Men's erotic fantasies. Archives of Sexual Behavior, No. 9, pp. 565-581.
  • Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), reprinted by Bloat Books, 1999; ISBN 0-9650324-1-8
  • Oosterhuis, Harry. Stepchildren of Nature (2000), University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-63059-5

Compositions

Baron von Krafft-Ebing wrote numerous books, including:
  • Die Melancholie: Eine klinische Studie, (1874);
  • Grundzüge der Kriminalpsychologie für Juristen, (Second edition) (1882);
  • Die progressive allgemeine Paralyse, (1894);
  • Nervosität und neurasthenische Zustände. (1895).
Four of his books appear in English translations by Craddock:
  • An Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism, (New York and London, 1889);
  • Psychosis Menstrualis, (1902);
  • Psychopathia Sexualis, (Twelfth edition, 1903);
  • Text Book of Insanity, (1905).

External links


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