A Dark Science:

Women, Sexuality, and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Catharine A. MacKinnon

• Publisher: Histria Academic
• Year: 2013
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781611875782
• Subtopic: Women in History
• Index: History

Translated here for the first time is a series of shocking and profoundly influential texts from 19th-century German psychiatric literature. Though almost completely unknown to modern readers, these writings have cast a long, devastating shadow over 20th-century attitudes toward women and children.

Seminal and often brutal, these articles delve into perceived sexual "lies" and "fantasies" of children, documenting cruel treatments for masturbation, hysteria, and vaginismus. They also explore disturbing incidents involving allegations of fabricated sexual abuse attributed to "prematurely perverted" children. The ideas presented here still resonate, having taken a terrible toll on the intellectual foundations of modern psychiatry.

Collected and translated by Jeffrey Masson, these nine articles expose a critical, dark point in the history of psychology. They reveal how ignorance and deeply ingrained negative attitudes towards women and child sexuality created a flawed science whose legacy modern psychiatrists still grapple with.

While by no means an "easy read," this collection is essential for understanding the historical roots of certain psychiatric beliefs and the ongoing struggle to overcome damaging perspectives.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• A Dark Science
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• Dr. Jasinski of Lemberg: Sudden Death of a Girl About Thirteen Years Old as a Result of Intense Emotion
• Paul Flechsig: On the Gynecological Treatment of Hysteria
• Demetrius Alexandra Zambaco: Masturbation and Psychological Problems in Two Little Girls
• Auguste Motet: False Testimony Given by Children before Courts of Justice
• Alfred Fournier: Simulation of Sexual Attacks on Young Children
• Gustav Braun: The Amputation of the Clitoris and Labia Minora: A Contribution to the Treatment of Vaginismus
• James Israel: Contribution to a Discussion of the Value of Castration in Hysterical Women
• Alfred Hegar: On the Sham Castration Performed by Dr. Israel
• Baron Alfred Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing: The Alleged Sexual Abuse by Dr. K. of a Child under Hypnosis
• Afterword
• Notes
• Bibliography