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
“The mammary region, though small, swells out perceptibly. The abdomen
is feminine in form; the feet are placed like a woman’s, and the
calves, etc., are feminine; and it is the same with arms and hands. I
can wear ladies’ hose, and gloves, 7½ to 7¾ in size. I also wear a
corset without annoyance. My weight varies between 168 and 184 pounds.
Urine without albumen or sugar, but it contains an excess of uric
acid. But if there is not too much uric acid in it, it is clear, and
almost as clear as water after any excitement. Bowels usually regular;
but should they not be, then come all the symptoms of female
obstipation. Sleep is poor,—for weeks at a time only two or three
hours long. Appetite quite good; but, on the whole, my stomach will
not bear more than that of a strong woman, and reacts to irritating
food with cutaneous eruption and burning in the urethra. The skin is
white, and, for the most part, feels quite smooth; there has been
unbearable cutaneous itching for the last two years; but during the
last few weeks it has diminished, and is now present only in the
popliteal spaces and on the scrotum.
“Tendency to perspire. Perspiration was previously as good as wanting,
but now there are all the odious peculiarities of the female
perspiration, particularly about the lower part of the body; so that I
have to keep myself cleaner than a woman. (I perfume my handkerchief,
and use perfumed soap and _eau-de-Cologne_.)
“_General Feeling_: I feel like a woman in a man’s form; and even
though I often am sensible of the man’s form, yet it is always in a
feminine sense. Thus, for example, I feel the penis as clitoris; the
urethra as urethra and vaginal orifice, which always feels a little
wet, even when it is actually dry; the scrotum as labia majora; in
short, I always feel the vulva. And all that that means one alone can
know who feels or has felt so. But the skin all over my body feels
feminine; it receives all impressions, whether of touch, of warmth, or
whether unfriendly, as feminine, and I have the sensations of a woman.
I cannot go with bare hands, as both heat and cold trouble me. When
the time is past when we men are permitted to carry sun-umbrellas, I
have to endure great sensitiveness of the skin of my face, until
sun-umbrellas can again be used. On awaking in the morning, I am
confused for a few moments, as if I were seeking for myself; then the
imperative feeling of being a woman awakens. I feel the sense of the
vulva (that one is there), and always greet the day with a soft or
loud sigh; for I have fear again of the play that must be carried on
throughout the day. I had to learn everything anew; the
knife—apparatus, everything—has felt different for the last three
years; and with the change of muscular sense I had to learn everything
over again. I have been successful, and only the use of the saw and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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