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1886:
Krafft-Ebing Diagnoses Degenerates
| In
1886, Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) published the
first edition of Psychopathia Sexualis. In
the book, he borrowed from Karl Ulrichs' Urning
theory and taught that homosexuals have inborn
effeminate characteristics. Karl
Ulrichs believed that same-sex desire is natural and
healthy, but Krafft-Ebing combined Urning theory with B.
A. Morel's theory of disease and concluded that most
homosexuals have a mental illness caused by degenerate
heredity.
While Krafft-Ebing pitied
these unfortunate congenital
|
Richard von Kraft- Ebing
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| effeminates,
he sputtered with moral revulsion when he described
"cultivated pederasts," men who he believed were
born "normal" but turned to homosexual liasons
for "perverted" sexual thrills.
Krafft-Ebing's degeneracy
theory was influential until the beginning of the 20th
Century when Sigmund Freud's very different view became
dominant.
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Photo Credits: "Richard
von Krafft-Ebing" is reproduced courtesy of the Archiv und Bibliothek
des Schwulen Museums. Berlin. The photo originally appeared in
Magnus Hirschfeld, 1930, Geschlechtskunde auf Grunddreissingjährur
Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeit, Stuttgart: Julius Püttman,
Verlagsbuchhandlung.
© 1998
Andrew Wikholm
All Rights Reserved
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