Psychopathia Sexualis

1886

Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902)

The terms sadism, indicating the enjoyment of sexual violence, and masochism, or the enjoyment of having violence inflicted on oneself for pleasure, were popularized by German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. He was writing at a time when there was concern that the great achievements of German Kultur were being lost to degeneration, which he took to mean the inheritable consequences of immoral behavior. Nor was he alone, as many of his fellow psychiatrists and physicians were warning of the same evil. In this they were anticipating the eugenics of the early twentieth century.

Most worrisome, Krafft-Ebing believed, were the sexual pathologies that seemed to be occurring with increasing frequency. He set himself to the task of cataloging and classifying these pathologies, and he illustrated them with extremely vivid examples so that they would serve as a warning and deterrent to all who read them. It may well have been that they had the opposite effect; that is, they served to excite the male imagination about illicit sexual behavior.

In more than two hundred case studies, Krafft-Ebing explained the origins and course of sexual pathologies. He divided the abnormalities into broad categories, which included excessive desire, inadequate sexual desire, and misdirected sexual desire; it was in this latter grouping that he placed homosexuality and bisexuality. What was unique about his writing on homosexuality was the emphasis on its biological origins.

After the first edition of Psychopathia Sexualis was published in 1886, Krafft-Ebing began receiving letters from individuals who were not patients in an asylum; rather, they wrote because they learned from the book that they were not the only sadists or masochists. In this way, one could argue that Krafft-Ebing’s classification of sexual pathologies helped create modern sexual identities. His case histories made such behaviors appear to be part of the natural world rather than mere vices.

SEE ALSO The Kinsey Reports (1948–1953), Human Sexual Response (1966), Sexual Fluidity (2008)

Unusual sexual practices were common, though often hidden, when Krafft-Ebing coined sadism and masochism in his book.