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
“In character I am kind and compassionate; and, though I have much to
suffer with my anomaly, I am not unhappy because I love young men, but
because the satisfaction of such love is considered improper, and
because I cannot gratify it without restraint. I cannot regard male
love as a vice, though I can well understand why it is considered
vicious. But, since this love is regarded as criminal, in gratifying
it I am in harmony with myself, but not with our age of the world;
and, therefore, I must, necessarily, be somewhat depressed; the more,
since I have a frank character that hates a lie. The pain of having
always to hide it all in myself has induced me to confess my anomaly
to a few friends, of whose silence and appreciation I am confident.
Nevertheless, my situation often seems sad. On account of the
difficulty of gratification and the general abhorrence of male love, I
am often a little proud that I have such anomalous feelings. Of
course, I shall never marry. This does not seem any misfortune, even
though I love family life, and have thus far lived only with my
parents. I live in the hope that later I shall have a lover; I must
have one; without one, the future seems dark and barren, and all the
ambitions usually cherished—honor, position, etc.—seem empty and
unattractive. If I should not have this hope fulfilled, I know I shall
be unable to long devote myself to my business with pleasure, and I
shall soon be in a condition to sacrifice everything to obtain male
love. I no longer have any moral scruples on account of my anomalous
inclination; I have, in fact, never been troubled because I felt
attracted to boys. I am much more inclined to judge morality and
immorality in accordance with my feelings than in accordance with
fixed principles; for I have always been given to skepticism, and have
never yet studied out a fixed belief for myself. As yet, only what
injures others seems to me to be evil and immoral, and that that I
would not have inflicted on myself; and, in this direction, I may say
that I try to infringe on the rights of others as little as possible,
and that I am capable of great indignation at injustice inflicted on
another. But, why love of men should be something immoral, I cannot
understand; purposeless activity of the sexual instinct (if the
immoral is to be seen in all that is useless and unnatural) is also
found in intercourse with prostitutes, and even in marriage where
means to prevent conception are used; and it seems to me that the
sexual intercourse of men must be placed on the same level with all
sexual congress that has not procreation as an end. But that only
sexual gratification that has this purpose is moral, seems to me to be
questionable. Certainly, sexual satisfaction that is not directed to
procreation is not contrary to nature; and, whether it has not other
purposes unknown to us, is uncertain; and, even if it were
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account