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
At the consultation the patient gave the impression of a very
neuropathic, tainted person. The neuropathic expression of the eyes
cannot be described. Appearance entirely feminine. With the exception
of a very narrow, arched palate, there was no skeletal abnormality.
With difficulty the patient could be brought to give the details of
her sexual abnormality. She complained that she had married without
knowing what marriage between men and women was. She loved her husband
dearly for his mental qualities, but marital intercourse was a pain to
her; she did it unwillingly, without ever finding any satisfaction in
it. Post actum, all day long she was weary and exhausted. Since the
abortion and the interdiction of sexual intercourse by the physicians,
she had been better; but she thought of the future with horror. She
esteemed her husband, and loved him mentally; but she would do
anything for him, if he would but avoid her sexually in the future.
She hoped to have sensual feeling for him in time. When he played the
violin, she seemed to feel the beginning of an inclination for him
that was something more than friendship; but it was only transitory,
and she could get no assurance for the future in it. Her greatest
happiness was in correspondence with her former lover. She felt that
this was wrong, but she could not give it up; for to do so made her
miserable.
It is remarkable that the anomaly may be long limited to mere perversion
of the sexual instinct, and that the impulse to perverse indulgence may
make its appearance after some accidental cause,—_e.g._, seduction, or
some neurosis. Such cases might easily be mistaken for acquired contrary
sexual instinct (_v. supra_), if, with reference to the sexual feeling,
they should not be demonstrated by the history to be original and
congenital.
Case 118. Mrs. C., aged 32, wife of an official, a large, not uncomely
woman, feminine in appearance, comes of a neuropathic and emotional
mother. A brother was psychopathic, and died of drink. Patient was
always peculiar, obstinate, silent, quick-tempered, and eccentric. The
brothers and sisters are excitable people. Pulmonary phthisis has been
frequent in her family. When only a girl of thirteen, with signs of
great sexual excitement, she attracted attention by enthusiastic love
for a female friend of her own age. Her education was strict, though
the patient secretly read many novels, and wrote innumerable poems.
She married at eighteen to free herself from unpleasant circumstances
at home.
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