Richard von Krafft-Ebing

Read by Ben Tucker On Fantasy We have been told that literature dealing with the imaginative and fantastic is out of favor among the intellectuals, whoever they are.

Only the real, whatever that is or may be, is admissible for treatment, and writers must confine themselves to themes well within the range of statisticians, lightning calculators, Freud and Kraft-Ebbing, the Hearst and McFadden publications, NRA, and mail-order catalogs.

Chimeras are no longer the mode, the infinite has been abolished, mystery is obsolete, and Sphinx and Medusa are toys for children.

The weird and the unearthly are outlawed, and all mundane impossibilities, which it may be are the commonplaces of the Pleiades, have been banished to some limbo of literalistic derision.

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fixation of precursory sexual aims the appearance of new intentions all the outer and inner determinations which impede or hold at a distance the attainment of the normal sexual aim such as impotence costliness of the sexual object and dangers of the sexual act will conceivably strengthen the inclination to linger at the preparatory acts and to form them into new sexual aims which may take the place of the normal on closer investigation it is always seen that the ostensibly most peculiar of these new intentions have already been indicated in the normal sexual act touching and looking at least a certain amount of touching is indispensable for a person in order to attain the normal sexual aim it is also generally known that the touching of the skin of the sexual object causes much pleasure and produces a supply of new excitement hence the lingering of the touching can hardly be considered a perversion if the sexual act is proceeded with the same holds true in the end with looking which is analogous to touching the manner in which the libidinous excitement is frequently awakened is by the optical impression and selection takes account of this circumstance if this teleological mode of thinking be permitted by making the sexual object a thing of beauty the covering of the body which keeps abreast with civilization serves to arouse sexual inquisitiveness which always strives to restore for itself the sexual object by uncovering the hidden parts this can be turned into the artistic sublimation if the interest is turned from the genitals to the form of the body the tendency to linger at this intermediary sexual aim of the sexually accentuated looking is found to a certain degree in most normals indeed it gives them the possibility of directing a certain amount of their libido to a higher artistic aim on the other hand the fondness for looking becomes a perversion a when it limits itself entirely to the genitals b when it becomes connected with the overcoming of loathing voyeurs and onlookers at the functions of excretion and c when instead of preparing for the normal sexual aim it suppresses it the latter if i may draw conclusions from a single analysis is in a most pronounced way true of exhibitionists who expose their genitals so as in turn to bring to view the genitals of others in the perversion which consists in striving to look and be looked at we are confronted with a very remarkable character which will occupy us even more intensively in the following aberration the sexual aim is here present in twofold formation in an active and a passive form the force which is opposed to the peeping mania and through which it is eventually abolished is shame like the former loathing sadism and masochism the desire to cause pain to the sexual object and its opposite the most frequent and most significant of all perversions was designated in its two forms by von kraft ebing was designated in its two forms by v kraft ebing as sadism or the active form and masochism or the passive form other authors prefer the narrower term algolagnia which emphasizes the pleasure in pain and cruelty whereas the terms selected by v krafft-ebing place the pleasure secured in all kinds of humility and submission in the foreground the roots of active algalagnia sadism can be readily demonstrable in the normal the sexuality of most men shows a taint of aggression it is a propensity to subdue the biological significance of which lies in the necessity of overcoming the resistance of the sexual object by actions other than mere courting sadism would then correspond to an aggressive component of the sexual impulse which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement.

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One would thus be forced to the assumption, which, if I am not mistaken, is quite generally adopted, that the accumulation of sexual substance produces and maintains the sexual tension.

The pressure of these products on the walls of their receptacles acts as an excitant on the spinal centre, the state of which is then perceived by the higher centres, which then produce in consciousness the familiar feeling of tension.

if the excitation of erogenous zones increases the sexual tension it can only be due to the fact that the erogenous zones are connected with these centres by previously formed anatomical connections they increase there the tone of the excitation and with sufficient sexual tension they set in motion the sexual act and with insufficient tension they merely stimulate a production of the sexual substance the weakness of the theory which one finds adopted for example in von krafft-ebing's description of the sexual process lies in the fact that it has been formed for the sexual activity of the mature man and pays too little heed to three kinds of relations which should also have been elucidated we refer to the relations as found in the child in the woman and in the castrated male in none of the three cases can we speak of an accumulation of sexual products in the same sense as in the man which naturally renders difficult the general application of this scheme still it may be admitted without any further ado that ways can be found to justify the subordination of even these cases nevertheless one should be cautious about burdening the factor of accumulation of sexual products with actions which it seems incapable of supporting over-estimation of the internal genitals that sexual excitement can be independent to a considerable extent of the production of sexual substance seems to be shown by observations on castrated males in whom the libido sometimes escapes the injury caused by the operation although the opposite behavior which is really the motive for the operation is usually the rule it is therefore not at all surprising as c rieger puts it that the loss of the male germ glands in maturer age should exert no new influence on the psychic life of the individual the germ glands are really not the sexuality and the experience with castrated males only verifies what we had long before learned from the removal of the ovaries namely that it is impossible to do away with the sexual character by removing the germ glands To be sure, castration performed at a tender age, before puberty, comes nearer to this aim, but it would seem in this case that besides the loss of the sexual glands, we must also consider the inhibition of development and other factors which are connected with that loss.

Chemical theories the truth remains however that we are unable to give any information about the nature of the sexual excitement for the reason that we do not know with what organ or organs sexuality is connected since we have seen that the sexual glands have been overestimated in this significance since surprising discoveries have taught us the important role of the thyroid gland in sexuality we may assume that the knowledge of the essential factors of sexuality are still withheld from us one who feels the need of filling up the large gap in our knowledge with a preliminary assumption may formulate for himself the following theory based on the active substances found in the thyroid Through the appropriate excitement of erogenous zones, as well as through other conditions under which sexual excitement originates, a material which is universally distributed in the organism becomes disintegrated, the decomposing products of which supply a specific stimulus to the organs of reproduction or to the spinal center connected with them.

Mark on Lynch Law.

They were talking Lynch Law in Professor Kraft-Ebbing's library in Vienna, some horrible nightmare that had come in the latest cable.

And as a matter of course, Clemens was asked his opinion as an American and observer of human nature.

"Lynch Law means mob lawlessness, doesn't it?" he drawled.

There must be a considerable library on the subject.

Every new author thrashing the old straw a tenth time and adding mystery trimmings of his own.

I always promised myself to submit my theories on Swift and his harem at a first-class insanity shop, but I forgot to ask Kraft-Ebbing in Vienna, and now I let Virchow pass.

I was going to say something obvious, but Mark stopped me.