Sexology

Plan Intro: Case 114 ‘X’ shoe fetishist 1) sex as a category 2) science of sex 3) Karl Heinrich Ulrichs 4) ‘discovery’ of homosexuality 5) Richard von Krafft-Ebing 6) importance of sexologists?

Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902)

The sexologists Some of the publications of some of the main sexologists

Iwan Bloch (1872–1922) The sex researcher, Bloch. Note the presentation as a man of science.

Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) ‘Sex penetrates the whole person; a man’s sexual constitution is part of his general constitution. There is considerable truth in the dictum: “A man is what his sex is”.’ Sex, he wrote in 1897, is ‘the central problem of life’.

Magnus Hirschfeld (1886–1935)

Magnus Hirschfeld (1886–1935) A clip from a 1919 film of Hirschfeld lecturing.

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895): sexual categories ‘Urnings’ 1. Men 2. Women 3. Urnings (male homosexuals) a) Mannlings (manly-active male homosexuals) b) Intermediaries c) Weiblings (effeminate-passive male homosexuals) 4. Urningins (lesbians - he did not bother to sub-categorise) 5. Uranodionings (male bisexuals) a) Conjunctive (‘sensual love in a double direction’) b) Disjunctive (‘a romantic gentle love for young men’) 6. Uranodioningins (female bisexuals - note the lack of sub categories) 7. Hermaphrodites  

Psychopathia sexualis (1886 etc.) One of the many editions of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s book. This is the cover of a 1998 version.

Richard von Krafft-Ebing 1900: ‘I am not the only “step-child of nature” ... your work has opened my eyes. It made the world and myself not appear in the gray light of disdain any longer, and reassuring and rehabilitating, it inspired my confidence.’ Or another in 1890: ‘Your book ... brought me much comfort. It contains passages that I might have written myself; they seem to be unconsciously taken from my own life - My heart has been considerably lightened since I learned from your book of your benevolent interest in our disreputable class. It was the first time that I met someone who showed me that we are not entirely bad as we are usually portrayed. Anyway, I feel a great burden has been lifted from me.’ Letters to Krafft-Ebing

The end Presumably a spoof, but one never knows …