Psychopathia sexualis with special reference to contrary sexual instinct: a medico-legal study / by R. von Krafft-Ebing; translation of the 7th German edition by Charles Gilbert Chaddock.

  • Krafft-Ebing, R. von (Richard), 1840-1902.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Psychopathia sexualis with special reference to contrary sexual instinct: a medico-legal study / by R. von Krafft-Ebing; translation of the 7th German edition by Charles Gilbert Chaddock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    8. Incest. (Austrian Statutes, § 132 ; Abridgment, § 189 ; German Statutes, § 174.) The preservation of the moral purity of family life is a product of civilization;1 and feelings of intense displeasure arise in an ethically intact man at thought of lustful feeling toward a member of the same family. Only great sensuality and defective ideas of laws and morals can lead to incest. Both conditions may, in tainted families, be operative. Drinking and a state of intoxication in men; weak-minded- ness which does not allow the development of the feeling of shame, and which, under certain circumstances, is associated with eroticism in females,—these facilitate the occurrence of incestuous acts. External conditions which facilitate their occurrence are due to defective separation of the sexes among the lower classes. As a decidedly pathological phenomenon, the author has found incest in states of congenital and acquired mental weak- ness, and infrequently in cases of epilepsy and paranoia. In many of the cases, probably a majority, it is not pos- sible, however, to find a pathological basis for the act which so deeply wounds not only the tie of blood, but also the feeling of a civilized people. But in many of the cases reported in litera- ture, to the honor of humanity, the presumption of a psychopathic basis is possible. In the Feldtmann case (Marc-Ideler, vol. i, p. 18), where ^ father constantly made immoral attacks on his adult daughter, and finalty killed her, the unnatural father was weak-minded ar d, besides, probably subject to periodical mental disease. In another case of incest between father and daughter (loc. cit., p. 247), the latter, at least, was weak-minded. Lom- broso (Archiv. di Psichiatria, viii, p. 519) reports the case of a peasant, aged 42, who practiced incest with his daughters, aged, respectively, 22, 19, and 11; he even forced the youngest to prostitute herself, and then visited her in a brothel. The medico-legal examination showed predis- position, intellectual and moral imbecility, and alcoholism. There was no mental examination in the case reported by Schiir- meyer (Deutsche Zeitschr. fur Staatsarzneikunde, xxii, H. 1), in which a 1 Vide Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, chap. xiv. McMillan & Co., 1891.
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