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
all inclination for men, and feels attracted by women exclusively.
It must be mentioned, however, that, though L. has a decided
inclination for the female sex, he presents an abnormal phenomenon.
The essential thing in woman that excites him is the sight of her
beautiful hands; L. is by far more impressed when he touches a
beautiful female hand than he would be were he to see its possessor in
a state of complete nudity. The extent to which L.’s preference for
beautiful female hands goes is shown by the following incident:—
L. knew a beautiful young lady possessed of every charm, but her hands
were quite large and not beautifully formed, and often they were not
as clean as L. could wish. For this reason it was not only impossible
for L. to conceive a deeper interest in the lady, but he was not able
even to touch her. L. believes that there is nothing more disgusting
to him than dirty finger-nails; this alone would make it impossible
for him to touch a woman who in all other respects was most beautiful.
L. formerly, as a substitute for coitus, had the puella perform
genital manipulation with her hand until ejaculation took place.
To the question as to what there was about a woman’s hand that
attracted him in particular, whether he saw in it a symbol of power,
and whether it gave him pleasure to be directly humiliated by a woman,
the patient answered that only the _beautiful form_ of the hand
charmed him; that it afforded him no gratification to be humiliated by
a woman; and that he had never had any thought to regard the hand as
the symbol or instrument of a woman’s power. The preference for the
hand is still so great that the patient has greater pleasure when his
genitals are touched by it than when he performs coitus in vaginam.
Yet, the patient prefers to perform the latter, because it seems to
him to be natural, while the former seems abnormal. The touch of a
beautiful female hand on his body immediately causes him to have
erection; he thinks that kissing and other contacts do not exert
nearly so strong an influence. It is only of late years that the
patient has performed coitus frequently, but it has always been very
difficult for him to determine to do it. Too, in coitus, he did not
find the complete satisfaction he sought. However, when he finds
himself near a woman whom he would like to possess, sometimes, at mere
sight of her, his sexual excitement becomes so intense that
ejaculation results. L. says expressly that during this he does not
intentionally touch or press his genitals; ejaculation under such
circumstances affords him much more pleasure than he experiences in
actual coitus.[91]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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