Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct: A medico-legal studyKrafft-Ebing, R. von (Richard)
Science
Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to contrary sexual instinct: A medico-legal study
Krafft-Ebing, R. von (Richard)
Paraphilias
Occasionally it happens that he has one of the girls stand on his
breast; and the others then turn her around until his skin is torn and
bleeding from the turning of the heels of her shoes. Frequently one of
the girls has to stand on him in such a way that one shoe is over the
eyes, with its heel pressing on one eye, while the other rests across
his neck. In this position he endures the pressure of a person
weighing about one hundred and fifty pounds for four or five minutes.
_The author speaks of dozens of similar cases that are known to him._
Hammond presumes, with reason, that this man had become impotent for
intercourse with women; that, in this strange procedure, he found an
equivalent for coitus; and that, when the heels drew blood, he had
pleasant sexual feelings, accompanied by ejaculation.
The ten cases of masochism thus far described, and the numerous
analogous cases mentioned by those who report them, form a counterpart
to the previously described group “_c_” of sadism. Just as in sadism men
excite and satisfy themselves by maltreating women, so in masochism the
same effect is sought in the passive reception of similar abuse. But
group “_a_” of the sadists,—that of lust-murder,—strange as it may seem,
is not without its counterpart in masochism. In its extreme
consequences, masochism must lead to the desire to be killed by a person
of the opposite sex, in the same way that sadism has its acme in active
lust-murder. But the instinct of self-preservation opposes such a
result; so that the extreme is not actually carried out. When, however,
the whole structure of masochistic ideas is purely psychical, in the
imagination of such individuals, even the extreme may be reached; as the
following case shows:—
Case 54. A middle-aged man, married and the father of a family, who
has always led a normal vita sexualis, but who says he comes of a very
nervous family, makes the following communication: In his early youth
he was powerfully excited sexually at the sight of a woman
slaughtering an animal with a knife. From that time, for many years,
he had reveled in the lustfully-colored idea of being stabbed and cut
and even killed by women with knives. Later, after the beginning of
normal sexual intercourse, these ideas lost completely their perverse
stimulus for him.
This case should be compared with the statements made under Case 44,
according to which men find sexual pleasure in being lightly pricked
with knives in the hands of women, who, at the same time, threaten them
with death.
Such fancies, perhaps, give the key to an understanding of the following
strange case, for which I am indebted to a communication from Dr.
Körber, of Rankau:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account