Preceding Freud's Three Contributions to the Theory of Sexby more than twenty years, Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualispioneered the psychological study of sexual behavior. This classic nineteenth-century work on sexual aberration addressed such previously taboo subjects as bestiality, cunnilingus and fellatio, fetishism, incest, masochism, masturbation, nymphomania, and sadism, making it the first serious attempt to catalog and define such "deviations." This painstakingly researched scientific study employed comprehensive case studies to open the investigation and analysis of unexplored sexual topics: the importance of clitoral orgasm and female sexual pleasure, consideration of the mental states of sexual offenders in judging their actions, and the first scientific discussion of homosexuality.

For almost one hundred years, Psychopathia Sexualisstood as the world's most informative volume on the subject of sexual deviation. Arguably the most important precursor to Freud in the study of human sexuality, Krafft-Ebing introduced ideas and concepts that greatly influenced the works of Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson, who have been hailed in succeeding years as groundbreaking and innovative. In his own time Krafft-Ebing was both praised and damned for this volume, the notoriety of which overshadowed his many advances in numerous areas of psychiatry and neurology. Some psychiatrists denounced the work as an immoral apology for perversion and deviance, while others recognized the immense service the author had done for an unjustly neglected area of study. Intended as a scientific reference book, Psychopathia Sexualissparked a furor in its time, and the twelve editions of the book that were published before the author's death attest to the interest of those outside the psychiatric profession.

Featuring a new introduction by Joseph LoPiccolo, distinguished scholar and leader in the field of sex therapy, Arcade's reissue of the only complete and authoritative English translation of this landmark work, long unavailable, will allow the modern reader to fully appreciate the prescience of its author's insights and the influence and continuing relevance this once scandalous book holds in the study of sexuality. Although sometimes dated by the beliefs and state of knowledge of the time it was written, Psychopathia Sexualisis essential (and immensely entertaining) as one of the most important documents in humankind's modern effort to understand itself.