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
Ulrichs (“Kritische Pfeile,” p. 2, 1880) declares that, on an average,
there is one person affected with contrary sexual instinct to every two
hundred mature men, or to every eight hundred of the population; and
that the percentage among the Magyars and South Slavs is still
greater,—statements which may be regarded as untrustworthy. The subject
of one of my cases knows personally, at his home (13,000 inhabitants),
fourteen urnings. He further declares that he is acquainted with at
least eighty in a city of 60,000 inhabitants. It is to be presumed that
this man, otherwise worthy of belief, makes no distinction between the
congenital and the acquired anomaly.
1. _Psychical Hermaphroditism._[112]—The characteristic mark of this
degree of inversion of the sexual instinct is that, by the side of the
pronounced sexual instinct and desire for the same sex, a desire toward
the opposite sex is present; but the latter is much weaker and is
manifested episodically only, while the homo-sexuality is primary, and,
in time and intensity, forms the most striking feature of the vita
sexualis.
The hetero-sexual instinct may be but rudimentary, manifesting itself
simply in unconscious (dream) life; or (episodically, at least) it may
be powerfully exhibited.
The sexual instinct toward the opposite sex may be strengthened by the
exercise of will and self-control; by moral treatment, and possibly by
hypnotic suggestion; by improvement of the constitution and the removal
of neuroses (neurasthenia); but especially by abstinence from
masturbation. However, there is always the danger that homo-sexual
feelings, in that they are the most powerful, may become permanent, and
lead to enduring and exclusive contrary sexual instinct. This is
especially to be feared as a result of the influences of masturbation
(just as in acquired inversion of the sexual instinct) and its
neurasthenia and consequent exacerbations; and, further, it is to be
found as a consequence of unfavorable experiences in sexual intercourse
with persons of the opposite sex (defective feeling of pleasure in
coitus, failure in coitus on account of weakness of erection and
premature ejaculation, infection). On the other hand, it is possible
that æsthetic and ethical sympathy with persons of the opposite sex may
favor the development of hetero-sexual desires. Thus it happens that the
individual, according to the predominance of favorable or unfavorable
influences, experiences now hetero-sexual, now homo-sexual, feeling.
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