Originally published in 1886, Psychopathia Sexualis was a groundbreaking look at the immense varieties of human sexual behavior. Based upon case studies compiled by psychiatrist
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, the book is well known for coining such terms as sadism, masochism, and fetish. Among the other psychosexual proclivities described in the Psychopathia
Sexualis are necrophilia, pederasty, coprophilia, bestiality, transvestism, and exhibitionism.
This new, modern translation highlights the 238 case histories chosen by Krafft-Ebing to appear in his final edition of the book. These cases range from Sergeant Bertrand and Jack the Ripper
to the most obscure and extreme instances of perversion known to nineteenth-century psychiatrists and criminologists. An essential reference for those interested in the development of medical
and psychiatric diagnosis of sexual derangement, Psychopathia Sexualis, in this new edition also features a lengthy introduction by Terence Sellers, a former dominatrix and
psychologist in New York.
