R. von (Richard) Krafft-Ebing

Born in Mannheim in 1840, Richard von Krafft-Ebing studied medicine and built his career as a psychiatrist, teacher, and expert in forensic psychiatry. He held university posts in Strasbourg, Graz, and Vienna, and became known for writing on mental illness, criminal psychology, and the relationship between medicine and the law.

He is remembered above all for Psychopathia Sexualis, first published in 1886. The book gathered case material and classifications of sexual behavior into a medical framework and had a major impact on how sexuality was discussed by doctors, courts, and the wider public. It is also closely associated with early clinical use of terms such as sadism and masochism.

Krafft-Ebing died in 1902, but his name remains central to the history of psychiatry and sexology. Today he is often read both as a pioneering recorder of human sexual behavior and as a figure whose work reflects the moral and scientific limits of his era.