A Dark Science:: Women, Sexuality, and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century

Translated here for the first time is a series of shocking and profoundly influential texts from 19th-century German psychiatric literature. Though almost completely unknown to modern readers, these writings have cast a long, devastating shadow over 20th-century attitudes toward women and children.

Seminal and often brutal, these articles delve into perceived sexual "lies" and "fantasies" of children, documenting cruel treatments for masturbation, hysteria, and vaginismus. They also explore ...