Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called
thanatophilia and
necrolagnia, is a
paraphilia characterized by a
sexual attraction to
corpses. The word is artificially derived from Ancient Greek:
νεκρός (
nekros; "corpse," or "dead") and φιλία (
philia; "love"). The term appears
[ "НЕКРОФИЛИЯ КАК СТРУКТУРА СОЗНАНИЯ", 2002.] to have originated from
Krafft-Ebing's 1886 work
Psychopathia Sexualis.
[Krafft-Ebing, Richard von (1886). Psychopathia Sexualis. English translation: ISBN 155970425X.]Figuratively, the term "necrophilia" describes an inordinate desire to control another person, usually in the context of a
romantic or interpersonal relationship; the accusation is that the person is so interpersonally controlling as to be better-suited to relationships with nonresponsive people.
Cause and prevalance
Virtually no research has been conducted regarding the prevalance of necrophilic attraction among humans. Klaf and Brown
[Klaf, Franklin S., and Brown, William (1958). "Necrophilia: Brief Review and Case Report," the Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 29(143), 645-652. "Inhibited forms of necrophilia and necrophilic fantasies may occur more commonly then is generally realized."] (1958) commented that, although rarely described, necrophilic fantasies may occur more often than is generally supposed.
Rosman and Resnick
[Rosman, Jonathan P., and Resnick, Phillip J. (1989). "Sexual attraction to corpses: a psychiatric review of necrophilia," Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 17, 153-163.] (1989) theorized that either of the following situations could be antecedents to necrophilia (pp. 161):#The necrophile develops poor self-esteem, perhaps due in part to a significant loss; #:(a) He (usually male) is very fearful of rejection by women and he desires a sexual object who is incapable of rejecting him; and/or #:(b) He is fearful of the dead, and transforms his fear of the dead"by means of reaction formation"into a desire for the dead.#He develops an exciting fantasy of sex with a corpse, sometimes after exposure to a corpse.The authors also reported that, of their sample of 'necrophiliacs,' 68% were motivated by a desire for an unresisting and unrejecting partner; 21% by a want for reunion with a lost partner; 15% by sexual attraction to corpses; 15% by a desire for comfort or to overcome feelings of isolation; and 12% by a desire to remedy low self-esteem by expressing power over a corpse (pp. 159). (It could be surmised that only the 15% motivated by an attraction to corpses were true necrophiliacs.)
Consensuality issue
Although obtaining consent is not usually considered a prerequisite for activity with non-living material, sexual activity with a human corpse is
taboo and frequently labelled 'abuse,' based on the presumption that the person would not have consented to the act while alive, and that it would thus constitute a profound and disturbing disrespect for their remains to be treated in a way other than their wishes. In rare cases, however, necrophilic acts can be consensual: for example, in the
Armin Meiwes case, the victim gave his consent to the mutilation and death inflicted upon him.
Although virtually all human
societies condemn sexual activity with the dead as a form of symbolic disrespect, several groups, individuals, and publications have pushed for the legalization of necrophilic acts. "The NecroErotic," for example, argues that "necrophiliacs have as much right to engage in their
orgasmic release of choice as do 'normal' couples," and that "all '
rights' cease the moment a person draws their last breath."
[Pirog, John. "Necrophilic Principles," The NecroErotic. Accessed May, 2006.]Necrophilia in neo-psychoanalysis
In the analytic social psychology of
Erich Fromm, necrophilia is a character orientation which shows an increasing tendency toward
destructiveness. Used in a non-sexual sense, Erich Fromm understood necrophilia as an everyday behavior which is not an expression of a biologically fixated death instinct, but the consequence of a life without being really alive.
For Erich Fromm, necrophilia is the opposite of
biophilia. The lack of love in the western society leads to necrophilia. Symbols of the necrophile are facades made of concrete and steel, modern weapon systems, the idolatry of the technology of the megamachine (
technophilia), the wasting of resources in
consumerism and the treatment of people as things in
bureaucratism.
Herodotus writes
[Herodotus (c. 440 BC). The Histories, Book II, 89: :"The wives of men of rank when they die are not given at once to be embalmed, nor such women as are very beautiful or of greater regard than others, but on the third or fourth day after their death (and not before) they are delivered to the embalmers. They do so about this matter in order that the embalmers may not abuse their women, for they say that one of them was taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman lately dead, and his fellow-craftsman gave information."] in
The Histories that, to discourage intercourse with a corpse, Ancient Egyptians left deceased beautiful women to decay for "three or four days" before giving them to the
embalmers.
[Brill, Abraham A. (1941). "Necrophilia," Journal of Criminal Psychopathology, 2(4), 433-443.]Carl Tanzler
Carl Tanzler was a radiologist in
Key West, Florida who developed a morbid obsession for Elena Milagro Hoyos (1910-1931). She was one of his patients, and she died from
tuberculosis in 1931 at the hospital. With her parents' permission he had an above ground
mausoleum built for her, so she wouldn't decompose underground. He visited the tomb every night and by 1933 he had taken the body home with him and kept it in his bed. He restored her body as best he could and kept a full wardrobe to dress her. As her body decomposed, he created a mask to fit over her face and bought numerous boxes of perfume, often several times a month. He allegedly also inserted a vaginal tube into his deceased wife for intercourse. A family member (believed to be Elena's sister) noticed Tanzler with the perfume boxes and instantly became suspicious. She entered the house and found Elena's corpse lying on the bed in an elegant dress, almost fully decomposed.
Serial killers
Necrophilia has also been a motive for some
serial killers, including murderers
Ed Gein,
Richard Chase,
Winston Moseley,
John Reginald Halliday Christie,
Bruno Lüdke,
Jerry Brudos,
Ted Bundy, and
Jeffrey Dahmer, who ate his victims after killing them; the technical term for this particular variant activity is
necrophagia. Several other
murderers have described drawing sexual excitement from killing, as well, such as
Karla Faye Tucker, who claimed to have an
orgasm with each swing of the
axe she used to kill
Jerry Lynn Dean. The guilty-plea testimony provided by the recently captured (
2005) serial killer
Dennis Rader provided a rare public glimpse into the workings of such a controlling mind.
|
Necrophilic activity is not limited to humans. |
Necrophilia is not unknown in animals, with a number of confirmed observations.
Kees Moeliker made one of these observations while he was sitting in his office at the
Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, when he heard the distinctive thud of a bird hitting the glass facade of the building. Upon inspection, he discovered a drake mallard lying dead about two meters from the building. Next to the downed bird there was a second drake mallard standing close by. As he observed the odd couple, the living drake picked at the corpse of the dead one for a few minutes and then, without provocation, it mounted the corpse and began
copulating with it. The act of necrophilia lasted for about 75 minutes, in which time, according to Moeliker, the living drake took two short breaks before resuming with copulating behavior. Moeliker surmised that at the time of the collision with the window the two mallards were engaged in a common motif in
duck behavior which is called
rape flight. "When one died the other one just went for it and didn't get any negative feedback -- well, didn't get any feedback," according to Moeliker. This is the first recorded case of
homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.
Legality in the United States
As of May, 2006, there is no federal legislation specifically barring sex with a corpse.[
1] Multiple states have their own laws:
*Alabama - Class C felony under
13A-11-13*Alaska - Class A misdemeanour under
11-61-130*Arkansas - Class D felony under
5-60-101*California - Illegal, up to 8 years in prison
*Colorado - Class 2 misdemeanour under
18-13-101*Delaware - Class A misdemeanour under
11-5-1332*Hawaii - Misdemeanour under
7*
Necrophilia in popular culture*
RNF: Table of Contents
