Abstract
In these seven case studies, the men wrote for the good of science to inscribe their accounts within the scientific record. They did not seek to dispute Krafft-Ebing’s theories but neither do their accounts provide any collateral evidence of degeneration. These were men who probably trusted Krafft-Ebing to take their accounts seriously.
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Notes
- 1.
This is a biblical reference. Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce Joseph, and when he resisted, she accused him of rape resulting in his imprisonment (Genesis 39: 5–20).
- 2.
This is the first use of the word ‘homosexual’ in Krafft-Ebing’s works. The author is referencing Gustav Jäger’s Die Entdeckung der Seele, which included a section on the homosexual written by Karl Maria Kertbeny.
- 3.
It should be mentioned that I am not interested in reciprocal manustupration (so-called mutual masturbation). I would rather imitate the position and movement of a man during coitus.
- 4.
The word used here is ‘vernünftig’. According to Ulrichs, this word was used as a euphemism for urning/homosexual. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Memnon, Abtheilung II. Schleiz: C. Hübscher’sche Buchhandlung, 1868. Translated by Michael Lombardi-Nash as ‘Book Seven: Memnon II’ in The Riddle of ‘Man-Manly’ Love: The Pioneering Work on Male Homosexuality, vol. 2 (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1994), 494n21; Letter 151 in Douglas Pretsell, The Correspondence of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Karl Heinrich, 1846–1894 (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 195.
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Pretsell, D. (2023). For the Good of Science. In: Queer Voices in the Works of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, 1883–1901. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17331-8_5
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