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
“I think that another of my sexual abnormalities is attributable to
this strain of cruelty. As I shall clearly describe later, one of my
favorite games was that of an improvised doll-theatre, where I
prescribed the parts of my companions. Almost always it was a young
girl who, at the command of her papa, whom I represented, had to have
a painful operation done on her foot. The more the girl cried, the
more satisfaction I had. How I came to hit upon the foot as the
constant object of operation will be seen from the following: When a
very young boy, I happened to see my eldest sister change her
stockings. When she hastily hid her feet, my attention was attracted,
and immediately the sight of her bare feet to the ankles came to be
the ideal of my longing. Naturally, this made my sister very careful;
and thus there was occasioned a constant quarrel, which, on my part,
was kept up with all the wiles of cunning and flattery, and with even
explosions of anger, until my seventeenth year. In other respects my
sister was very indifferent. Indeed, her kiss is repugnant to me.
_Faute de mieux_, I made use of the feet of servants; masculine feet
had no effect on me. My greatest desire would have been to cut the
nails, or, _sit venia verbo_, the corns, on the beautiful foot of a
woman. My lustful dreams were concerned with these things. Indeed, I
applied myself to the study of medicine really in the expectation of
gaining an opportunity to satisfy my desires, or cure them. Thank God,
I attained the latter. After undertaking the first dissection of the
lower extremity of a female, this unhappy desire was removed from me.
I was unhappy because I was always deeply ashamed of this impulse. I
think I may spare further details concerning it, since this peculiar
enthusiasm, which even inspired me to write verses, has been
sufficiently described by others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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