View source for Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing

[[Image:426px-Krafft-Ebing.jpg|right|thumb|Richard von Krafft-Ebing with his wife Maria Luise]]
'''Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing''' (1840-1902) was a German psychiatrist, most famous for his book, ''Psychopathia Sexualis'', a study of [[Alternate sexuality|sexual deviance]] first published in in 1886.  He coined the terms ''[[sadism]]'' and ''[[masochism]]'' as medical terms.

Krafft-Ebing was born in Mannheim, Baden, Germany, educated in Prague, Austria-Hungary (presently Czech Republic), and studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg. After Krafft-Ebing graduated in medicine and finished his specialisation in psychiatry, he worked in several asylums, but he soon felt that the way those institutions operated was deceptive and he decided to become an educator. He became a professor at the universities of Strasbourg, Graz and Vienna, and also a forensic expert in Vienna.

Male [[homosexual]]ity had become a criminal offence in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the late 1800s, unlike [[lesbian]]ism, but there was also discrimination against lesbians. After interviewing many homosexuals, both as his private patients and as a forensic expert, and reading some works in favour of gay rights, Krafft-Ebing reached the conclusion that both male and female homosexuals did not suffer from mental illness or perversion as persistent popular belief held, and became interested in the study of the subject.

== External links ==
* [http://www.sex-project.com/1/index.php/topic,343.0.html  The Sex Researchers]
* [[Wikipedia:Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing|Krafft-Ebing at Wikipedia]]

[[Category:History|Krafft-Ebing, Richard Freiherr von]]
[[Category:People|Krafft-Ebing, Richard Freiherr von]]