Heinrich Kaan
Heinrich Kaan (in Russian: Генриха Каана) was a 19-century physician known for his seminal contributions to early sexology. Different sources identify him as Ruthenian [1] (an ethnic group living in what is now Belarus and Ukraine), as Russian [2] or as Hungarian[3]. These possibilities are not necessarily mutually exclusive. He was the personal physician to the Czar[4]
Psychopathia Sexualis
- Do not confuse with the later (1886) more famous same title book by Richard von Krafft-Ebbing
Kaan is primarily known for an early scientific approach to sexology i.e. a scientifically based theoretical study of sex as opposed to earlier fields of erotology - the more practical study of lovemaking.[2] He published his main work Psychopathia Sexualis in 1844 in Leipzig in Latin[5]. A direct translation of the title is Psychopathies of Sexuality. In this work he reinterpreted the Christian sexual sins as diseases of the mind.
Until then, concepts like deviation, aberration, and perversion were interpreted in a theological context as "false" religious beliefs or heresy. Kaan's groundbreaking idea was to turn them into medical concepts, to reinterpret them as mental diseases. Physicians and psychiatrists after him were quick to take up these ideas - a process which collectively is referred to as the medicalization of sin in in cultural history[1] It is also referred to as "degeneracy theory"[6]
Kaan's work was witin the "onanism literature" tradition of his time. To Kaan, masturbation was at the root of all sexual disorders, deviations and unnatural lusts as it involved extravagant fantasies. He also considered heterosexual intercourse as psychopathological, if it comprised sexual fantasies.[7] His main goal was to fight the psychopathies, above all masturbation.[8]
Michel Foucault referred to Kaan's work in his mid-19070s lectures on the discourse of the nature of normality and abnormality.[9]. Scholars have acknowledged Kaan's contributions, relative to those of Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Siegmund Freud.[10]
References
- ^ a b "Archive for Sexology". Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ a b "The Birth of Sexology". The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Inc. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexualwissenschaft
- ^ Money and Lamacz 1989:20
- ^ Kaan 1844
- ^ Money and Lamacz 1989:20
- ^ The German Wikipedia quoting Weiß 2008
- ^ Ehle 2008:8 footnote 17
- ^ Foucault et al.
- ^ Sigusch 2002
Sources
- Ehle, Evelyn (2008). Unmoral, Krankheit oder Naturphänomen? Homosexualitätskonzepte im wissenschaftlichen Sexualitätsdiskurs zwischen 1830 und 1915. GRIN Verlag. p. 24. ISBN 9783638916226.
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- Foucault, Michel (2003). Abnormal : lectures at the Collège de France, 1974-1975. Verso. p. 374. ISBN 9781859845394.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) see pp 233-234 which is not merely passing mention, Kaan's work is identified as "the first text". Kaan is mentioned at some 15 other occasions in that book
- Gutmann, Philipp (1998). Zur Reifizierung des sexuellen im 19. Jahrhundert: der Beginn einer scientia sexualis, dargestellt anhand dreier Texte von Hermann Joseph Löwenstein, Joseph Häussler und Heinrich Kaan. Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631336861.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) Note: this is a 1998 doctoral thesis that provides a historical perspective of the work of three nineteenth-century authors on sexuality (Hermann Joseph Löwenstein, 1823, Joseph Häussler, 1826, and Heinrich Kaan, 1844). The thesis provides the first full translation of the works of Lowenstein and Kaan from Latin into German - a great service as "Kaan's often quoted book" is linguistically inaccessible to many. (Text from book review in Hauser 2000:143)
- Hauser, Renate (2000). "Book Reviews - Zur Reifizierung des Sexuellen im 19. Jahrhundert. Der Beginn einer Scientia sexualis, dargestellt anhand dreier Texte von Hermann Joseph Lowenstein, Joseph Haussler und Heinrich Kaan". Medical History. 44 (1): 143.
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- Kaan, Heinrich (1844). Psychopathia sexualis. Voss. p. 124.
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- Largier, Niklaus (2007). In praise of the whip: a cultural history of arousal. Zone Books. p. 526. ISBN 9781890951658.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) only snippet views, but Kaan's work appears to be discussed over pages 435-437, and there is a verbatim quote on p 437.
- Money, John (1989). Vandalized lovemaps: paraphilic outcome of seven cases in pediatric sexology. Prometheus Books. ISBN 9780879755133.
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- Sigusch, V (2002). "Richard von Krafft-Ebing. I.Krafft-Ebing zwischen Kaan und Freud. II.Bericht über den Nachlass und Genogramm". Z Sexualforsch. 15: 211–247 und 341–354.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) (ref 29 in this publication)
- Weber, Philippe (2008). Der Trieb zum erzählen: Sexualpathologie und Homosexualität, 1852-1914. Transcript Verlag. p. 378. ISBN 9783837610192.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) see pp 51-52, in footnote 40 Kaan work has been subjected to analysis by Foucault (see below), on p 84 Kaan work is compared with Krafft-Ebing's
- Weiß, Volker (5. November 2007). Eine weibliche Seele im männlichen Körper. Archäologie einer Metapher als Kritik der medizinischen Konstruktion der Transsexualität (Dissertation). FB Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin.
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