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 can no longer do without male love; without it I should always be
out of harmony with myself. My ideal would be to be associated with a
number like myself; but I should be satisfied if I could have
unrestrained intercourse with one lover. I could easily dispense with
women, if I had regular male satisfaction; but I think that at long
intervals I should embrace a woman for the sake of variety, as my
nature is absolutely hermaphroditic in a psycho-sexual sense (women I
can only desire sensually, but I can love and sensually desire young
men). If there were marriage between men, I think I should not avoid a
life-long union; while marriage with a woman seems to me something
impossible. For, in the first place, though the woman charmed me, the
charm would soon be lost in regular intercourse, and then all sexual
indulgence, if not impossible, would certainly be devoid of pleasure
for me; and, in the second place, true love for the wife would be
wanting—the attraction that I feel with young men I love, and which
makes the intercourse that is not simply sensual seem desirable to me.
The constant association with a youth physically pleasing and in
mental harmony with me, and who could understand all my feelings and
share my intellectual opinions and desires, would, it seems to me, be
the greatest happiness.
“The young men who please me must be between eighteen and
twenty-eight. As I have grown older, the limit of age in those
pleasing to me has increased; otherwise, I am pleased with the most
various forms. The principal _rôle_, if not the exclusive one, is
played by the face. Blondes excite me more than dark persons; they
must have no beard, but merely a small moustache that is not too
thick, or none at all. As for the rest, the only thing I can say is,
that certain kinds of faces please me. Faces with large, straight
noses are excluded, as are also pale cheeks; but there are exceptions.
I regard soldiers with favor, and many please me when in uniform who
do not affect me when in civil dress. Just as in women certain
ordinary articles of dress (like light-colored jackets) please me, so
the military costume attracts me. To go to dance-halls—usually
beer-halls—where there are many soldiers, and mix with the crowd of
soldiers and boys that please me, and try to get a kiss and
embrace,—this mingling with them would, of course, be an excitant only
of sensuality; intellectually and socially, everything common in
speech and conduct is repugnant to me.
“With young men of higher position, my sensual desire is less
prominent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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