Introduction - What is sexual behavior?

History of the Term 7

Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), a psychiatrist in Austria, published his influential study „Psychopathia Sexualis“ (Sexual Sickness of the Mind) in 1886. In it, he described many cases of unconventional sexual behavior as signs of mental illness. He also introduced psychiatric names for some of these behaviors, such as “sadism”, “masochism”, and “erotic pedophilia”.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the “sexuality“ of females and males with its manifold manifestations had become an object of scientific research. Indeed, people began to see "sex" everywhere. At the same time, however, they also found themselves with a greatly reduced vocabulary for the sensual or erotic. The fantastic variety of medieval English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German words for sex organs, body functions, and lovemaking had gradually been replaced by some embarrassed euphemisms and a small number of incomprehensible Greek and Latin terms. The rich vernacular was suppressed as "vulgar" and "dirty".
By the time Krafft-Ebing published his study “Psychopathia Sexualis” in his native German, the “acceptable” language had become so impoverished and the public had become so sensitive that one could no longer talk openly about the subject of “sex”. Not only the title of the book itself, but also many explicit passages were written in Latin so that ordinary readers could not understand them and perhaps take offense.