“If all women thought like this…” The fine line between “Old Maid” and “Nymphomania” II

Part II: Sexuality and Marriage

by Steff Kunz (Universität Heidelberg, Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin, Forschungsprojekt “Zwischen Unsichtbarkeit, Repression und lesbischer Emanzipation – Frauenliebende* Frauen im deutschen Südwesten 1945 bis 1980er Jahre”)

In the previous part of this text, I provided an initial insight into the patient files from the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Heidelberg, covering the period between 1925 and 1939. In particular, I explored the situation of single female patients and the search for reasons behind their “deviation” from the social norm of marriage and ideals of femininity. In this second part, I would like to focus on the topic of sexuality, as it is directly linked to marriage.

Sexuality Yes, But the Measure is Crucial
Sexual intercourse within marriage was not only treated as an important aspect for the public interest of birth rates but also for the personal experience of the women themselves. In the files, the maintenance of the social norm of marriage is strongly linked to the practice of “functioning” (hetero) sexuality. Sexuality is rarely addressed directly in the files, but at the same time, it appears implicitly as an evaluation criterion regarding the mental and physical health of the patients. There are repeated references to the fact that sexuality was “enquired about” but hardly ever discussed in detail.

“Her husband had always been faithful to her. No particular desire for sexual intercourse from her, but no refusal either.”¹ Or from the admission interview with the husband of a female patient: “Unresponsive towards relatives. Not changed sexually. Nothing to learn of a previous episode.”² Unfortunately, the corresponding questions are not noted, so it remains unclear whether such information was given in response or on the patient’s own initiative. However, these quotes show that sexuality played an important role in psychiatric contact.

…Not Too Little and Certainly Not With Themselves
The supposed complete absence of sexual intercourse in a woman’s life could not only be interpreted as “stubborn” or “peculiar” behavior but was also associated with her state of health. For example, one patient reported that when she could not sleep, she suffered from a “sexual urge” and then masturbated; she had never had intercourse with men and intended to remain single. The doctor treating her wrote:

“The therapeutic endeavor is to clear things up and correct her views on drive and marriage […].”³

This link is also made very clear in the following quote. In the file itself, there is at least no written conversation about sexuality; the patient is single and is referred from the orthopedic clinic:

“Won’t stay there at any price. Rants about the ‘deceit’ of the admitting doctor. Type of the majestic, aging spinster; stubborn […] In addition, there is the loneliness, the sexual dissatisfaction with strong affectivity, the constant fight against the sexual […]. Has a somewhat spinsterish, rigid listlessness, but is restrained and polite. […] In our opinion, this is not a psychosis in the proper sense, but the pathological reaction of an […] ‘old maid’ to the still diverse and quite numerous complaints […].”⁴

“Healthy” sexuality should therefore only be experienced by the woman through sexual intercourse with her husband, which would also bring with it a certain psychological stability. If she had no interest in sexuality or a relationship with a man, therapeutic efforts were made to correct this.⁵ It is not clear from the files whether this was also one of the reasons why unmarried women came to the clinic. During their stay, however, it became an issue.

…But Not Too Much
The situation is different when the boundaries are crossed in the other direction. Here it is clear that there is often a connection between the stay in the clinic and sexually “deviant” behavior. Sexual contact outside or before marriage could also lead to further institutionalization in a psychiatric context, at least in cases where sexual deviance is generally assumed.

Going dancing “too often” or “hanging around” was considered a danger to public morality, offensive, sexually libidinous, or nymphomaniac. The following quote comes from the file of a 19-year-old domestic worker who had already been sterilized and attracted the negative attention of both her guardian and her employer due to her changing relationships with men, among other things: “Brought by the guardian and his brother because there was a danger of neglect and a threat to public safety and morality. […] It seems very risky to release the libidinous girl into freedom.”⁶ From a letter from the employer at the time: “It soon became apparent that she was very man-crazy, almost nymphomaniacal. She confided to my wife, who warned her, that she was sterilized and that nothing could happen to her.”⁷

In addition to its other functions, psychiatry was therefore a place where not only the psychiatric needs of female patients were treated, but also where socially deviant behavior of women was “corrected” or sanctioned.⁸ However, the maintenance of prescribed gender roles was not left to psychiatry alone, nor would I say that this was its primary purpose. However, the files offer an insight into the relevance of this aspect and in many ways shed light on how narrowly the boundaries of femininity could be drawn.

However, the compulsion towards normative femininity, and in this context towards heterosexual “moderate” sexual intercourse, is not detached from other social factors here either. For example, class affiliation often reflected whether female patients were able to argue with the staff in terms of language and content. Whether they came from a “morally burdened” or middle-class household was also significant. The ability and willingness to integrate into the everyday life of psychiatry and (especially in the Heidelberg institution) work therapy was also important. The extent to which the initial impressions of the assessments of deviations from the image of femininity in psychiatry described here in brief were specific to this period remains to be shown in a comparative study.

The first part of the article can be found here.

The initial German version of the text can be found here.

1.  Universitätsarchiv Heidelberg (UAH): Bestand Patientenakten der Psychiatrischen Klinik der Universität Heidelberg, L-III-Frauen 39/328. [↩]
2. UAH: Bestand Patientenakten der Psychiatrischen Klinik der Universität Heidelberg, L-III-Frauen 39/330. [↩]
3. UAH: Bestand Patientenakten der Psychiatrischen Klinik der Universität Heidelberg, L-III-Frauen 34/147. [↩]
4. UAH: Bestand Patientenakten der Psychiatrischen Klinik der Universität Heidelberg, L-III-Frauen 25/66. [↩]
5. „Die medizinhistorische Literaturanalyse lässt darauf schließen, dass innerhalb des Rahmens der moralischen oder psychischen Kur während der „Erfindungsphase“ der Psychiatrie um 1800 die Idee einer heilsamen Sexualität in Form des Beischlafs prinzipiell vorhanden war, auf älteren medizinischen Traditionen beruhend und in teilweise ironischer Wendung. Im institutionellen Anstaltskontext der folgenden Jahrzehnte war therapeutischer Sex aber niemals praktikabel.“ Maria Heidegger, „„zur Erregung eines angenehmen Lebensgefühls“ (J. C. Reil). Therapeutische Konzepte von Sexualität in der frühen Psychiatrie“, in: Virus 1 (2019), S. 127–148, hier: S. 146. [↩]
6. UAH: Bestand Patientenakten der Psychiatrischen Klinik der Universität Heidelberg, L-III-Frauen 37/52. [↩]
7. Ibd. [↩]
8. „Als nymphomanisch galten damit alle Frauen, deren sexuelle Handlungen sich entweder nicht mehr auf Männer bezogen oder zumindest nicht mehr dem einzelnen Mann zugute kamen und die sich somit der männlichen Kontrolle entzogen. Um eine derartige weibliche Sexualität zu verhindern, wurde wiederum operiert […].“ Schmersahl, Katrin: Medizin und Geschlecht: Zur Konstruktion der Kategorie Geschlecht im medizinischen Diskurs des 19. Jahrhunderts, Opladen 1998, S. 206. [↩]

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