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Hi,
I've almost finished reading Iwan Bloch's, The Sexual Life of Our Time (1908). Bloch (1872-1922) was a German psychiatrist and dermatologist and is regarded as being the first sexologist. I was hoping to pick up a few tips from this book, but alas...
In Chapter XXI (p.574) of his book, titled Algolagnia (Sadism and Masochism), Bloch had this to say:
"1. Sadistic bodily injuries and "Lust-Murder." - The main types of this category are the "girl stabbers" and the "lust-murderers," who simply for the purpose of producing sexual excitement, or when already under the influence of such excitement, inflict on women more or less severe injuries with a knife or other murderous instrument. The actual intention to kill is present only in very rare cases. The lust-murder is, as a rule, only a murder as a sequel of a sexual act committed by force, the murder being done from fear of discovery, etc.; thus the murder has not in these cases anything to do with the sexual act. In other cases we have what appears to be a lust-murder in which death has resulted, contrary to the wish of the offender, from a sadistic bodily injury. Killing from a purely sexual motive is a very rare occurrence, of which, however, some very widely known cases are on record - like those of Andreas Bickel, Menesclou, Alton, Gruyo, Verzini, and "Jack the Ripper," the Whitechapel murderer. (Regarding the Whitechapel murders, see E. C. Spitza, "The Whitechapel Murders: their Medico-Legal and Historical Aspects," published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, December, 1888".
Has anyone read Spitza's contribution to the above mentioned journal?
Regards,
Sean.
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