理查德·克拉夫特·埃宾

理查德·冯·克拉夫特-埃宾（德语：Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing，1840年8月4日—1902年12月22日），德裔奥地利精神病学家，性学研究的创始人之一。冯·克拉夫特-埃宾于1886年发表的著作《性精神病态》，被誉为性科学的开创性著作。

生平

1840年，理查德·冯·克拉夫特-埃宾生于德意志巴登大公国曼海姆的贵族家庭，早年进入海德堡大学学习医学，此后前往瑞士苏黎世大学，师从威廉·葛利辛格，专攻精神分析学。毕业后，冯·克拉夫特-埃宾在巴登巴登担任精神科医生。普法战争期间，从军为军医。1872年，由斯特拉斯堡大学聘为精神病学教授，随即调往奥地利格拉茨大学。1902年，在奥地利格拉茨病逝。

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work Psychopathia Sexualis (1886).

Life and work

Background and education

Richard von Krafft-Ebing was born as the eldest of five children to Friedrich Karl Konrad Christoph von Krafft-Ebing, a high-ranking official in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

His mother Klara Antonia Carolina was a daughter of the renowned Heidelberg legal scholar and defense attorney Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier. His paternal lineage was ennobled in the year 1770 by Empress Maria Theresia and elevated to the Baronial status in 1805 by Emperor Franz II (as Franz I, Emperor of Austria).

Due to his father's professional relocation, the family moved initially to various locations in Baden and eventually to Heidelberg. In Heidelberg, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, after passing his university entrance exam at the University of Heidelberg, where his grandfather taught law, turned to the study of medicine. He passed the state examination in 1863 "summa cum laude" with his work on "Sensory Delusions" and earned his Doctorate in Medicine. During his studies, he became a member of Burschenschaft Frankonia Heidelberg in the winter semester of 1858/59.

Early medical career

Recovery from a bout of typhoid led him to spend a summer in Zürich, where he became acquainted with Wilhelm Griesinger's brain anatomical studies. He observed practices in Vienna, Prague, and Berlin.

In the subsequent years from 1864 to 1868, he worked as an assistant at the Baden mental hospital Illenau—chiefly under Christian Roller and Karl Hergt—gaining practical experience in the extensive field of treating and caring for the mentally ill and those suffering from neurological disorders. Since that time, he maintained a lifelong friendship with his colleague Heinrich Schüle (1840–1916), who later became the director of this institution (from 1890).

In 1868, von Krafft-Ebing set up his own practice as a neurologist in Baden-Baden. At the beginning of his career, he looked after his younger, severely ill brother Friedrich for several months. After losing the battle for his brother's life, who was just 24, a restorative and art-focused journey, coupled with visits to psychiatric and neurological institutions, took him several weeks through southern Europe. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71), he first served as a field doctor with the rank of captain in the Baden Division and was then transferred as a hospital doctor to the Fortress Rastatt. His observations, especially regarding patients suffering from typhus, were compiled in a special treatise. After the end of the war, he was put in charge of the electrotherapeutic station in Baden-Baden, mainly for the neurological follow-up treatment of wounded soldiers.

Professor of psychiatry in Strasbourg and Graz

Already boasting an impressive number of scientific publications, von Krafft-Ebing was eager to pursue an academic career. After a trial lecture in Leipzig under the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Wunderlich, a decision on his habilitation was expected soon. However, on 13 May 1872, von Krafft-Ebing was able to inaugurate his psychiatric clinic in Strasbourg.

After a one-year stint at the newly established Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Strasbourg—the university clinic consisted of two beds in a room for men, another two-bed room for women, and two rooms for clinic management—the now 32-year-old university professor had to tolerate these limitations only for a short time.

Through the mediation of his teacher Roller, he was appointed in 1873 as the director of the newly established Styrian State Asylum Feldhof near Graz, and simultaneously awarded the Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Graz.

The following year, his wife Maria Luise Kißling (1846–1903), who was originally from Baden-Baden, joined him there.