The Eberbach Asylum and the Practice(s) of Nymphomania in Germany, 1815-1849

Abstract

This article is a case study of rural, lower-class female patients diagnosed with (or displaying symptoms of) nymphomania at one of Germany's first modern insane asylums, Eberbach. It seeks to uncover the social dynamics behind the translation of female behavior into medical constructions of pathological genitals, and how that sexual pathology came to be coded in both class and gender terms. It examines nymphomaniacal behavior as communicative and strategic acts within the power dynamics of the asylum, showing how nymphomania was produced in and through the struggles between doctors and patients over a range of issues: power, identity, freedom, and survival.