Paul Adolf Näcke (born 23 January 1851

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

– died 18 August 1913

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig (district), Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C prisoner-of-war camp, POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situa ...

) was a German

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

. Näcke is known for his writings on homosexuality, and coining the term

narcissism Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism, named after the Greek mythological figure ''Narcissus'', has evolv ...

in 1899 to describe someone who treated his body as a sexual object.

Career

He received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in 1873 in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

, titled (English title translated): "About

intestinal perforation Gastrointestinal perforation, also known as gastrointestinal rupture, is a hole in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract is composed of hollow digestive organs leading from the mouth to the anus. Symptoms of gastroi ...

and typhoid abdominalis". He worked in various Parisian hospitals; later he took an interest in

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

. In 1912 he became the director of the psychiatric hospital at

Colditz Castle Colditz Castle (or ''Schloss Colditz'' in German) is a Renaissance architecture, Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the States of Germany, state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns o ...

. Näcke, along with Hans Gross, a professor of criminology, founded the archive of criminal anthropology and

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

in 1898.Galassi, Silviana (2004). Criminology in the German Empire. History of a Broken Verschafissenschaftlichung (p. 164), Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner-Verlag In 1884 Näcke wrote the first

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

on women's crime in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He suggested a "sensible emancipation of women", which was groundbreaking for the time, but did not mean equal rights. Näcke is considered a strong opponent of

positive criminology Positive criminology is based on the perspective that integration and positive life influences that help individuals develop personally and socially will lead to a reduced risk of criminal behavior and better recovery of offenders. Integration wor ...

, that was founded by

Cesare Lombroso Cesare Lombroso ( , ; ; born Ezechia Marco Lombroso; 6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909) was an Italian eugenicist, criminologist, phrenologist, physician, and founder of the Italian school of criminology. He is considered the founder of m ...

. Näcke described Lombroso's work as marked by "arbitrariness, exaggerations, ndjumping to conclusions" According to Näcke, criminals are the product of external influences, and not only biological influences as thought by Lombroso. This does not mean that Näcke disapproved of a biological basis for crime altogether. His argument is that every human being is a "latent criminal". Näcke was one of the first advocates of the sterilization of "degenerate criminals" and "degenerates" in general. He saw it as a public duty to make "degenerates" infertile. By 1900, he published a work entitled ''The castration of certain classes of degenerates as an effective way of social protection'' (title translated) Näcke wrote on the subject of a Jewish character, which was described only in vague and general features, and considered that character as a reason for crimes committed by Jews. Näcke stated his position in 1899: "the State has the holy duty to intervene... and to prevent through legislation the increase of the degenerated elements. Such an intervention would aim at the removal of a big cancer in our national body". He asserted that only

castration Castration is any action, surgery, surgical, chemical substance, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical cas ...

could guarantee that this task was fulfilled both effectively and in the "easiest, cheapest way". In 1912, Näcke wrote against the then common diagnosis of "

moral insanity Moral insanity referred to a type of mental disorder consisting of abnormal emotions and behaviours in the apparent absence of intellectual impairments, delusions, or hallucinations. It was an accepted diagnosis in Europe and America through the s ...

". He developed the idea that

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

should not be regarded as a

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

, but as an innate natural property. He described

male menstruation Jewish male menstruation is the belief that Jewish males experience menstrual periods, or periodic bleeding. This belief was popular among Christians across Europe throughout the late medieval and early modern period, including in Great Britain ...

as clear evidence of a continuum between male and female sexuality.Näcke, Paul (1899). The sexual perversities in the asylum. Vienna Clinical Review, No. 27-30.

Personal life

Paul Näcke was born in 1851, the son of a German father and a French mother. Näcke is said to have mastered seven languages. Näcke was married since 1886 and had several children. Throughout his life he suffered from a

neurasthenia Neurasthenia ( and () 'weak') is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist Georg ...

, also known as Effort syndrome. Näcke died on 18 August 1913 of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

due to

atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis, characterized by development of abnormalities called lesions in walls of arteries. This is a chronic inflammatory disease involving many different cell types and is driven by eleva ...

Bibliography

*''Crime and madness in the woman'', 1894 *''On Criminal Psychology'', 1896 *''Literature report. Criminal anthropology and prison science / journal for criminal science'', 1897 *''Criminal Anthropology'' / Annual Report for Neurology and Psychiatry, 1898 *''Castration in Certain Classes of Degenerates as an Effective Social Protection'' / Archive for Criminal Anthropology and criminology, 1900 *''The accommodation of mentally ill criminals'', 1902 *''About so-called "Moral Insanity"'', 1902 * Émile Zola. ''His relationship to crime anthropology and sociology /'' Archive for Criminal Anthropology and criminology, 1903 *''Are the signs of degeneration really worthless?'' Quarterly Journal of Judicial Medicine and Public Sanitation, 1905 *''On the alleged degeneration of Romanesque peoples'', 1906 *''About family murder by mental patients'', 1908 *''Classification of Homosexuals'' / General Journal of Psychiatry, 1908 *''About Homosexuality in Albania'', 1908 *''The brain surface of paralytic'', 1909 *''The Diagnosis of Homosexuality'', 1909 *''On the Shakespeare Bacon Question'', 1910 *''Warning about the sudden adoption of sadism and masochism'' / Archive for Criminal Anthropology and criminology, 1911 *''Auto-Sadism and Suicide'' / Archive for Criminal Anthropology and criminology 1911

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nacke, Paul German psychiatrists German sexologists 1851 births 1913 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire