Editing Richard von Krafft-Ebing (section)

== Study of homosexuality ==
[[File:Ex_Libris_Dr.R.von_Krafft-Ebing.jpg|thumb|[[Art Nouveau]] [[Ex Libris (bookplate)|exlibris]] for Krafft-Ebing by [[Alfred Schrötter von Kristelli]] (circa 1900)]]
Krafft-Ebing had particular significance for the scientific study of [[homosexuality]]. He was led to this still relatively-unexplored field of work (as per his own accounts in a letter to him) by the writings of [[Karl Heinrich Ulrichs]] to whom he pretended to support his theory of the "[[Urning]]" as a quasi-third gender. In the 19th century, homosexuality was widely considered by the public and especially the churches to be an expression of immoral mindset and lifestyle, a result of seduction, sexual excess or degenerate heredity ([[decadence theory]]). It was criminalized in some countries, particularly in England and in Prussia, and punished with harsh prison sentences.

Conversely, since the introduction of the [[Code pénal]] by Napoleon, it was decriminalized in the Kingdoms of Hanover and Bavaria and other German countries. Krafft-Ebing achieved great publicity as a forensic doctor and as a psychiatrist. His research, gained through criminal cases and in psychiatry, portrayed homosexuals as hereditarily burdened perverts who were not responsible for their innate "reversal" of sexual drive and therefore were the purview not of criminal judges, but rather of the [[Neurologists]] and [[Psychiatrists]]. He thereby opened up a new patient base for treatment and research.

In ''Psychopathia sexualis'' (1886), he defined homosexuality as an innate neuropsychopathic disorder—essentially a hereditary nervous disease.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archive.org/details/psychopathiasex04krafgoog|title=Psychopathia sexualis|via=Internet Archive|date=22 April 1898 |publisher=Verlag von F. Enke }}</ref>
This diagnosis allowed him to advocate complete decriminalization of homosexuality, arguing that homosexuals were not responsible for their "malformation" and that homosexuality was not contagious. Although Krafft-Ebing was considered an authoritative figure in the field of forensic medicine at his time, this theory remained without consequences for decriminalization.