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casspro's review against another edition
4.0
Borrowed from my dad's collection of psychology books. Very intriguing and delves deep into the recesses of human sexuality
finocchio's review
1.0
Someone gave me this book and I'm a bibliophile.
Wow, this book was a trail-blazer, so I'm told. It really take the medical model and merges with the zeitgeist of the upper class Victorian era. I'm surprised they didn't hang Oscar Wilde if this was the intellectual's guide to sexual "perversion".
Masturbation is for the weak or the feeble minded. Homosexuality is a result of masturbation...
Wow, this book was a trail-blazer, so I'm told. It really take the medical model and merges with the zeitgeist of the upper class Victorian era. I'm surprised they didn't hang Oscar Wilde if this was the intellectual's guide to sexual "perversion".
Masturbation is for the weak or the feeble minded. Homosexuality is a result of masturbation...
callipsofacto's review against another edition
3.0
This book is quite dry, as it is just an assembly of old case studies. But I found it an amusing window through time at the taboos and mores of its day. In particular, the persistent assumption of the terrible, sanity-rending consequences of onanism (masturbation) that features at least partially in almost every case.
dr_ju's review against another edition
3.0
"Life is a never-ceasing duel between the animal instinct and morality"
…but what is morality? It is subjected to society's norm, accepted openly by the majority. Some tried finding a "centre of morality" in human brain and localized it in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Even though some aspects of morality has changed a lot in the last 100 years (women's rights, animal rights, racism) some remained the same; in psychiatric field homosexuality, masturbation, sado-masochism, fetishes are still viewed as pathological sexual deviations because they are not according to the general population norm.
What it was most surprizing for me was the fact that in 1880 the medical community had some astonishing knowledge about human nervous system (inhibitory tracts, brain mapping) and yet gynecomastia was still believed to be the sign of a neuro-developmental inherited pathology.
The stories try to make an impact and the author masks the gruesome and vulgarities under the shade of Latin medical language, but these cases seem to be rather observational and interpretative than evidence based, despite the fact that some they are too ridiculous to be considered to be fictional.
For those who declare that hypersexuality and deviations are specific to this modern age, an age of depravation, this is the proof that humanity had always had in its closet something to hide under the label of taboo.
Today the taboo label peels off, the norm is changing, some "deviations" are accepted (like homosexuality, SM) but the question is how much is society going to accept? Flagellation doesn't hurt the ones that request it, but should we trust their sanity? (Speaking about flagellation in a religious context I have this quote "The cause of religious insanity is often to be found in sexual aberration").
Let's just hope some of them like paedophilia and rape will never get accepted in this ever changing norm and human morality.
"From (sensual) love arises that warmth of fancy which alone can inspire the creative mind, and the fire of sensual feeling kindles and preserves the glow and fervour of art." But "Purely sensual love is never true and lasting".
…but what is morality? It is subjected to society's norm, accepted openly by the majority. Some tried finding a "centre of morality" in human brain and localized it in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Even though some aspects of morality has changed a lot in the last 100 years (women's rights, animal rights, racism) some remained the same; in psychiatric field homosexuality, masturbation, sado-masochism, fetishes are still viewed as pathological sexual deviations because they are not according to the general population norm.
What it was most surprizing for me was the fact that in 1880 the medical community had some astonishing knowledge about human nervous system (inhibitory tracts, brain mapping) and yet gynecomastia was still believed to be the sign of a neuro-developmental inherited pathology.
The stories try to make an impact and the author masks the gruesome and vulgarities under the shade of Latin medical language, but these cases seem to be rather observational and interpretative than evidence based, despite the fact that some they are too ridiculous to be considered to be fictional.
For those who declare that hypersexuality and deviations are specific to this modern age, an age of depravation, this is the proof that humanity had always had in its closet something to hide under the label of taboo.
Today the taboo label peels off, the norm is changing, some "deviations" are accepted (like homosexuality, SM) but the question is how much is society going to accept? Flagellation doesn't hurt the ones that request it, but should we trust their sanity? (Speaking about flagellation in a religious context I have this quote "The cause of religious insanity is often to be found in sexual aberration").
Let's just hope some of them like paedophilia and rape will never get accepted in this ever changing norm and human morality.
"From (sensual) love arises that warmth of fancy which alone can inspire the creative mind, and the fire of sensual feeling kindles and preserves the glow and fervour of art." But "Purely sensual love is never true and lasting".
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