Psychopathia Sexualis by LoPiccolo Joseph von Krafft-Ebing Richard

Author:LoPiccolo, Joseph, von Krafft-Ebing, Richard
Language: nld
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2011-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

IV. Degree: Delusion of Sexual Change.

A final possible stage in this disease-process is the delusion of a transformation of sex. It arises from sexual neurasthenia that has developed into general depression, resulting in a mental disease,—paranoia.

The following cases show the development of the interesting neuropsychological process to its height:—

CASE 131. K., aged thirty-six, male, single, servant, received at the clinic on 26th February, 1889, typical case of persecutory delusion, resulting from neurasthenia, with olfactory hallucinations, sensations, etc.

He came of a predisposed family. Several brothers and sisters were psychopathic. Patient had a hydrocephalic skull, depressed in the region of the right fontanelle; eyes neuropathic. He had always been very sensual; began to masturbate at nineteen; had coitus at twenty-three; begat three illegitimate children. He gave up further sexual intercourse on account of fear of begetting more children, and of being unable to provide for them. Abstinence proved very painful to him. He also gave up masturbation, and was then troubled with pollutions. A year and a half ago he became sexually neurasthenic, had diurnal pollutions, became thereafter ill and miserable, and, after a time, generally neurasthenic, finally developing paranoia.

A year ago he began to have paraesthetic sensations,—as if there were a great coil in the place of his genitals; and then he felt that his scrotum and penis were gone, and that his genitals were changed into those of a female.

He felt the growth of his breasts; that his hair was that of a woman; and that feminine garments were on his body. He thought himself a woman. The people in the street gave utterance to corresponding remarks: “Look at the woman! The old blowhard!” In a half-dreamy state, he had the feeling as if he played the part of a woman in coitus with a man, which caused him the most lively feelings of pleasure. During his stay at the clinic, a remission of the paranoia occurred, and, at the same time, a marked improvement of the neurasthenia. Then the feelings and ideas due to a developing sexual change disappeared.

A more advanced case of eviration, on the way to a delusion of sexual change is the following:—

CASE 132. Franz St., aged thirty-three; schoolteacher, single; probably of tainted family; always neuropathic, emotional, timid, intolerant of alcohol; began to masturbate at eighteen. At thirty there were manifestations of neurasthenia (pollutions with consequent fatigue, soon beginning to occur during the day; pain in the region of the sacral plexus, etc.). Gradually, spinal irritation, pressure in the head, and cerebral neurasthenia were added. Since the beginning of 1885 the patient had given up coitus, in which he no longer experienced pleasurable feeling. He masturbated frequently.

In 1888 he began to have delusions of suspicion. He noticed that he was avoided, and that he had unpleasant odours about him (olfactory hallucinations). In this way he explained the altered attitude of people, and their sneezing, coughing, etc.

He could smell corpses and foul urine. He recognized the cause of his bad smells in inward pollutions. He recognized these in a feeling he had as if a fluid flowed up from the symphysis towards the breasts.

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