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
“12. The final resignation to my fate, for which I have nothing to
thank but positive religion; without it I should have long ago
committed suicide.
“To be a man and to be compelled to feel that chaque femme est futuée
ou elle désire d’être, is hardly to be endured.”
The foregoing autobiography, scientifically so important, was
accompanied by the following no less interesting letter:—
“SIR: I must next beg your indulgence for troubling you with my
communication. I lost all control, and thought of myself only as a
monster before which I myself shuddered. Then your work gave me
courage again; and I determined to go to the bottom of the matter, and
examine my past life, let the result be what it might. It seemed a
duty of gratitude to you to tell you the result of my recollection and
observation, since I had not seen any description by you of an
analogous case; and, finally, I also thought it might perhaps interest
you to learn, from the pen of a physician, how such a worthless human,
or masculine, being thinks and feels under the weight of the
imperative idea of being a woman.
“It is not perfect; but I no longer have the strength to reflect more
upon it, and have no desire to go into the matter more deeply. Much is
repeated; but I beg you to remember that any mask may be allowed to
fall off, particularly when it is not voluntarily worn, but enforced.
“After reading your work, I hope that, if I fulfill my duties as
physician, citizen, father, and husband, I may still count myself
among human beings who do not deserve merely to be despised.
“Finally, I wished to lay the result of my recollection and reflection
before you, in order to show that one thinking and feeling like a
woman can still be a physician. I consider it a great injustice to
debar woman from Medicine. A woman, through her feeling, gets on the
track of many ailments which, in spite of all skill in diagnosis,
remain obscure to a man; at least, in the diseases of women and
children. If I could have my way, I should have every physician live
the life of a woman for three months; then he would have a better
understanding and more consideration in matters affecting the half of
humanity from which he comes; then he would learn to value the
greatness of women, and appreciate the difficulty of their lot.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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