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
In very early youth—in fact, when he was eight or nine years old—L.
had the desire to lick his teacher’s boots like a dog. L. thinks it
possible that this thought was excited in him by his once seeing a dog
actually do this, but he cannot state this with certainty; and it
seems much more certain to the patient that the first ideas of this
kind came in a waking state, not in dreams.
From his tenth to his fourteenth year he constantly sought to touch
the shoes of his fellow-pupils, and also those of little girls; but
for this purpose he always chose boys who had wealthy and prominent
parents. One of these, the son of a rich landed proprietor, had
riding-boots; in the boy’s absence L. took these in his hands, struck
himself with them, and pressed them against his face. L. did the same
thing with the elegant boots of an officer of dragoons.
After the beginning of puberty the desire was transferred exclusively
to the boots of females. Thus, while skating, the patient’s attention
was entirely occupied with putting on and taking off skates for
ladies; but he always chose only such women as were rich and prominent
socially, wearing elegant boots. In the street and everywhere L.
constantly looked for elegant boots. His love for them went so far
that he often put in his purse, and even in his mouth, the sand and
mud that bore their imprints. As a boy of fourteen L. visited
brothels; and he often visited a _café chantant_ solely to excite
himself with the sight of elegant boots (low shoes were less
attractive). In his school-books and on the walls of closets, L. drew
boots. In the theatre he saw nothing but the shoes of the ladies. For
hours at a time, in the street and on board steam-boats, L. would run
after ladies wearing elegant boots; and he thought with delight of how
he might get a chance to touch the boots. This peculiar love for boots
remains unchanged. _The thought to have himself trod upon by ladies in
their boots, or to kiss the boots, gives L. the most intense sensual
delight._ Before shoe-stores he will stand and stand, merely to look
at the boots. He is particularly excited by their elegance.
The patient prefers high-buttoned or laced boots with high heels; but
less elegant boots, even with low heels, also excite him, if their
wearer is a wealthy, distinguished, and proud lady.
At the age of twenty L. attempted coitus; but, “in spite of the
greatest efforts,” as he believes, he was not successful. During the
attempt the patient had no thought of shoes; on the contrary, he had
first sought to excite himself sexually with shoes, and he asserts
that too great excitement was to blame for his want of success in
coitus. Up to this time, being thirty-one years old, he has attempted
coitus only four or five times, and always in vain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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