Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual Identity

by Harry Oosterhuis

Psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) played a key role in the construction of the modern concept of sexuality. As the author of the famous Psychopathia sexualis , he named and classified virtually all nonprocreative sexualities, synthesizing knowledge on sadism, masochism, fetishism, homosexuality, and exhibitionism. His influence on the study of sexuality cannot be overstated, but it is often misunderstood. In the wake of Michel Foucault's influential sexual histories, Krafft-Ebing is often maligned as a contributor to the repressed Victorian construction of sexual deviancy.

But in this powerful new cultural history Harry Oosterhuis invites us to reconsider the quality and extent of Krafft-Ebing's influence. Revisiting the case studies on which Krafft-Ebing based his findings, and thus drawing on the voices of his patients and informants, Oosterhuis finds that Krafft-Ebing was not the harsh judge of perversions that we think he was. He argues that Krafft-Ebing had a deep appreciation of the psyche, and that his work reveals an attempt to separate sexual deviancies from ideas of immorality. In the tradition of Freud, then, Krafft-Ebing should stand not as a villain, but as a contributor to more modern notions of sexual identity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sexuality, History Of Science

304 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual Identities (2000), Oosterhuis analyzes the development of psychiatry and modern sexual identities in the nineteenth century. Oosterhuis focuses on Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s work. Krafft-Ebing, a German psychiatrist and sexologist, who predates Freudian psychoanalytic thought, holds a reputation as a “harsh Victorian judge of weird sexual perversions” who contributed to the heteronormative imperialism of sexuality (p. 8-9). Yet, as Oosterhuis points out, these analyses of Krafft-Ebing have been incomplete, inaccurate, and judge his work based on current, modern standards. Indeed, historians have failed to consider all of Krafft-Ebing’s published works, the role he played in developing psychiatry, the medical and institutional context in which he worked, and the large collection of case histories he composed over his career. As such, Oosterhuis looks to right this wrong by providing a more in-depth analysis of Krafft-Ebing, the institutional and social context he worked within, and the work he performed. In doing so Oosterhuis argues that Krafft-Ebing’s work was critical in the historical construction of the “modern concept of sexuality” (p. 9).

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

oosterhuis is a bit of an essentialist when it comes to homosexuality, but you have to give him credit for bringing krafft-ebing into style. excellent biography of the man, but his readings of the case histories leave something to be desired.

[Ryō Nagafuji · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very well written account of Krafft-Ebing, but unfortunately didn't include much on his works that I was looking for, unfortunately.