Karl von Krafft-Ebing

“ Even in his changed form, even when he can no longer recall the masculine sexual feeling, he would not wish to be forced to feel like a woman. He still knows very well that, before, he did not constantly feel sexually; that he was merely a human being uninfluenced by sex. Now, suddenly, he has to regard his former individuality as a mask, and constantly feel like a woman, only having a change when, every four weeks, he has his periodical sickness, and in the intervals his insatiable female desire. If he could but awake without immediately being forced to feel like a woman! ”

“ He can only find amelioration of his misery when he can put on some bit of female attire or finery, an under-garment, etc.; for he dare not go about as a woman. To be compelled to fulfill all the duties of a calling with the feeling of being a woman costumed as a man, and to see no end of it, is no trifle. Religion alone saves from a great lapse; but it does not prevent the pain when temptation affects the man who feels as a woman ”

“ My ideal would be to be associated with a number like myself; but I should be satisfied if I could have unrestrained intercourse with one lover. I could easily dispense with women, if I had regular male satisfaction; but I think that at long intervals I should embrace a woman for the sake of variety, as my nature is absolutely hermaphroditic in a psycho-sexual sense (women I can only desire sensually, but I can love and sensually desire young men) . If there were marriage between men, I think I should not avoid a life-long union; while marriage with a woman seems to me something impossible. ”

“ He said that the love of urnings was a passionate, inner fire. According to his statement, in Naples the effeminelli lived in a quarter together, just as in Paris the grisettes live with their lovers. They sacrifice themselves for their lovers, and care for the household, just as the grisettes do. On the other hand, an urning repels an urning, “just as one prostitute does another—that is the curse.” ”

“ The female sex he does not exactly abhor; he could even bring himself to marry a woman who could have an attraction for him, by means of similarity in artistic tastes, if he could but be freed from conjugal duties, which were unpleasant to him, and the performance of which made him tired and weak. He denied having had sexual intercourse with men, but his blushing and embarrassment, and, still more, an occurrence in N., where the patient, some time before, provoked a scandal by attempting to have sexual intercourse with youths, gave him the lie. ”

“ He asserts that he is a passionate hunter and rider, and that he has never had any inclination for feminine pursuits. In the society of ladies he has always been reserved; dancing always tired him. He had never had any interest in a lady of high social position. As for women, only the buxom peasant girls, such as are the models of painters in Rome, had interested him. He had, however, never felt any sexual interest in such representatives of the female sex. In the theatre and circus only male performers had excited his interest ”

“ Nothing else in a woman could excite him; the thought of coitus filled him with horror. Men did not interest him in any way. At the age of eighteen he opened a general store, and, among other things handled ladies’ shoes. He was excited sexually by fitting shoes for his female patrons, or by manipulating shoes that they had worn. One day, while doing this, he had an epileptic attack, and, soon after, another, while practicing onanism in his customary way. ”

“ Only women’s feet—no other part of them—interested him. The thought of sexual intercourse with women excited his disgust. He had never attempted coitus. After his twelfth year he had no interest in the feet of male individuals. The style of covering of the female foot is indifferent to him; it is only necessary that the person seem to be sympathetic. The thought of enjoying the feet of prostitutes was disgusting to him. For years he had been in love with his sister’s feet. If he could but obtain her shoes, the sight of them powerfully excited his sensuality. ”

“ There is no moral defect. The intelligence is a little below the average. Careful education and aristocratic manners are apparent. The exquisite neuropathic eye betrays the nervous constitution. The patient is not a complete and hopeless urning. He has hetero-sexual feelings, but his sensual inclinations toward the opposite sex are manifested weakly and infrequently. When nineteen, he was first taken to a brothel by friends. He experienced no horror feminæ, had efficient erections, and some pleasure in coitus, but not the instinctive delight he experienced while embracing men. ”

“ She had passionately loved and kissed some of her female friends, and she would have given up her life for them. Her greatest delight would have been to have constantly lived with such a friend and absolutely possessed her.
In this she felt toward the beloved girl like a man. Even as a little child, she had an inclination only for the play of boys, and she loved to hear shooting and military music, was always much excited by them, and would gladly have gone as a soldier. The chase and war have been her ideals. In the theatre only feminine performers interested her. ”

“ During the time of observation he is neither insane nor mentally weakened. He behaves himself very well, and expresses great regret for his sexual crimes. About himself he states that, though no drinker, he occasionally has an impulse to drink. Soon after beginning, congestion of the head, vertigo, restlessness, anxiety, and oppression come on. He then passes into a dreamy state. An irresistible impulse now forces him to expose himself; and he then experiences a feeling of relief and breathes more easily. When he has once exposed himself, he knows nothing more of what he does. ”

“ Men of his own position, wearing never so fine boots, were absolutely indifferent to him.
With reference to his sexual inclinations, the patient is still uncertain whether he feels more inclination toward the opposite sex or toward his own sex. He is inclined to think that originally he had more inclination for women, but that this sympathy was, in any case, very weak. He states with certainty that the sight of a naked man made no impression on him, and that the sight of male genitals was even repugnant to him. ”

“ A handsome face is a pleasant supplement, inflaming my sensual desire, but in no respect an essential. The requisite remains: vir inferiore corporis parte robusta et bene formosa, turgidis femoribus durisque natibus, while the upper portion of the body may be slim. Corpulence disgusts me. A sensual mouth with pretty teeth affects me more intensely; and if the person has also a membrum pulchrum magnum et æqualiter formatum, all my demands—the most far-reaching—are fulfilled. ”

“ If he can assume the rôle of a female at a masquerade, it is his greatest delight. He seeks to please his lover, so to speak, by studiously trying to represent what pleases the female-loving man in the opposite sex,—sweetness, sympathy, taste for æsthetics, poetry, etc. Efforts to approach the female appearance in gait, attitude, and style of dress are frequently seen.
The female urning, even when a little girl, presents the reverse. Her favorite place is the play-ground of boys. She seeks to rival them in their games. The girl will have nothing to do with dolls ”

“ The vita sexualis of these urnings, mutatis mutandis, is entirely like that in normal hetero-sexual love; but, since it is the exact opposite of the natural feeling, it becomes a caricature, and this the more, since these individuals, at the same time, as a rule, are subject to hyperæsthesia sexualis, and, therefore, their love for their own sex is emotional and passionate.
The urning loves and deifies the male object of his affections, just as a man idealizes the woman he loves. He is capable of the greatest sacrifice for him, and experiences the pangs of unfortunate, often unrequited, love ”

“ In the latter case, the impulse to union is quite as powerful as in the former, and they strengthen each other in the same way. G. further relates that his dreams, when they were erotic, never had women, but only men, for their subjects. Male-love was the only kind that could satisfy him. He considered it disgusting for one human being to be prodding about in the abdomen of another with his penis, since he had heard that in this disgusting fashion coitus was usually carried out. He had never had the curiosity to inform himself concerning the female genitals ”

“ He has never had any impulse to satisfy himself with persons of his own sex. Some years ago, when he first tried to embrace a man lovingly, he had powerful erection and became greatly excited; but he was able to control himself and to repel his lover. Thereafter he always avoided such attempts. It was only seldom that he became powerfully excited sexually, and even then he was not driven to satisfy himself. He was never given to onanism. During the establishment of puberty, the patient had frequent dreams with pollutions, but these were not induced by erotic fancies of any kind. ”

“ She always has a lively interest in beautiful women and girls, and is powerfully excited at sight of them. Her longing had always been to kiss and embrace such dear creatures. She had never dreamed of a man, but only of girls. Her delight had been to revel in the sight of them. Separation from such female friends had always made her desperate.
The patient, whose appearance is perfectly feminine and very respectable, states that she has never felt herself in any particular rôle with her friends, not even in dreams. Female pelvis; large mammæ; no sign of beard. ”

“ Her only wish is to live always with this female friend.
The patient states, however, that twice in her life men have made an impression on her. She thinks that if she had been really sought, there would have been a marriage; for she is very fond of family life and children. If a man wished to possess her, it would be necessary for him to win her; she herself would prefer to win a female friend. She thinks woman is more beautiful and ideal than man. ”

“ Since the early death of his wife, he had gratified his great sexual desire in temporary love-affairs, having always had an aversion for prostitutes and brothels. The impulse to frottage had suddenly seized him, two years before, while he happened to be in church. Though he was conscious that it was wrong, he could not help yielding to it immediately. Since then he had been excitable to the posteriora of females, and had been actually impelled to seek opportunity for frottage. The only thing on women that excited him was the tournure ”

“ Sexual intercourse with the opposite sex is, in itself, possible. At any rate, in cases of this degree, no horror sexus alterius exists. Here is a fertile field for the application of medical and moral therapeutics (v. infra) . The differential diagnosis from acquired contrary sexual instinct may present difficulties; for in such cases, as long as the vestiges of a normal sexual instinct are not absolutely lost, the actual symptoms are the same (v. infra) . In the first degree, the sexual satisfaction of homo-sexual impulses consists in passive and mutual onanism and coitus inter femora. ”

“ For in every disease there is a means of cure or amelioration; but no power in the world can take from an urning his perverse natural constitution. Even suggestion, which has been used with so much apparent success, cannot induce any enduring change in the mental life of an urning. In us, effect is mistaken for cause. We are considered diseased, because in time the majority of us really become ill. I am almost convinced that two-thirds of us, in later life, when we really live so long, have a mental defect of one kind or another ”

“ But, even on my marriage-night, I felt that I was only a woman in man’s form; sub femina locum meum esse mihi visum est. On the whole, we lived contented and happy, and for two years were childless. After a difficult pregnancy, during which I was in mortal fear of death, the first boy was born in a difficult labor,—a boy on whom a melancholy nature still hangs; who is still of melancholy disposition. Then came a second, who is very quiet; a third, full of peculiarities; a fourth, a fifth; and all have predisposition to neurasthenia. ”

“ All cross-questioning with reference to a perversion of sexual feeling toward men Dr. S. answered repeatedly in the negative, to repeated examination, and that without contradiction or any thought of the answers. Even when, in order to trap him, he is told that the proof of a perverse sexual instinct would be of avail in the trial, he sticks to his statements. One gains the important impression that S. has not the slightest knowledge of the facts of male-love. Thus it is learned that his lascivious dreams have never been about men; that he is interested only in female nudity ”

“ She says she has always been indifferent toward men. In fact, she avoided balls. Female statues pleased her. Her greatest happiness was to think of marriage with a beloved woman. She was not aware of her sexual peculiarity until marriage, and the thing had remained inexplicable to her. Patient did her marital duty, and bore three children, two of whom were subject to convulsions. She lived pleasantly with her husband, but she esteemed him only for his moral qualities. She gladly avoided coitus. “I should have preferred intercourse with a woman.” ”