Oosterhuis, Harry (Author)
Medical History
Volume: 56, no. 2
Issue: 2
Pages: 133-155
Edition Details: First article in a special issue on “Sexology, Medical Ethics and Occultism: Albert Moll in Context”
Language: English
The modern notion of sexuality took shape at the end of the nineteenth century, especially in the works of Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Albert Moll. This modernisation of sexuality was closely linked to the recognition of sexual diversity, as it was articulated in the medical--psychiatric understanding of what, at that time, was labelled as perversion. From around 1870, psychiatrists shifted the focus from immoral acts, a temporary deviation of the norm, to an innate morbid condition. In the late nineteenth century, several psychiatrists, collecting and publishing more and more case histories, classified and explained the wide range of deviant sexual behaviours they traced. The emergence of medical sexology meant that perversions could be diagnosed and discussed. Against this background both Krafft-Ebing and Moll articulated a new perspective, not only on perversion, but also on sexuality in general. Krafft-Ebing initiated and Moll elaborated a shift from a psychiatric perspective in which deviant sexuality was explained as a derived, episodic and more or less singular symptom of a more fundamental mental disorder, to a consideration of perversion as an integral part of a more general, autonomous and continuous sexual instinct. Before Sigmund Freud and others had expressed similar views, it was primarily through the writings of Krafft-Ebing and Moll that a new understanding of human sexuality emerged.
...MoreDescription Contents:
Article Sauerteig, Lutz D. H. (2012) Loss of Innocence: Albert Moll, Sigmund Freud and the Invention of Childhood Sexuality around 1900. Medical History (pp. 156-183).
Article Sigusch, Volkmar (2012) The Sexologist Albert Moll---between Sigmund Freud and Magnus Hirschfeld. Medical History (pp. 184-200).
Article Conn, Matthew (2012) Sexual Science and Sexual Forensics in 1920s Germany: Albert Moll as (S)Expert. Medical History (pp. 201-216).
Article Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2012) “God's Ethicist”: Albert Moll and His Medical Ethics in Theory and Practice. Medical History (pp. 217-236).
Article Bryant, Thomas (2012) Sexological Deliberation and Social Engineering: Albert Moll and the Sterilisation Debate in Late Imperial and Weimar Germany. Medical History (pp. 237-254).
Article Sommer, Andreas (2012) Policing Epistemic Deviance: Albert von Schrenck-Notzing and Albert Moll. Medical History (pp. 255-276).
Article Wolffram, Heather (2012) “Trick,” “Manipulation,” and “Farce”: Albert Moll's Critique of Occultism. Medical History (pp. 277-295).
Article Pranghofer, Sebastian (2012) Albert Moll Sources and Bibliography. Medical History (pp. 296-306).
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