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:
?e???? and f???a . The term appears to have originated from
Krafft-Ebing's 1886 work
Psychopathia Sexualis.
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.
Encyclopedia
Necrophilia, also called
thanatophilia and
necrolagnia, is a
paraphilia characterized by a sexual attraction to corpses. The word is artificially derived from Ancient Greek:
?e???? and f???a . The term appears to have originated from
Krafft-Ebing's 1886 work
Psychopathia Sexualis.
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.
Social, legal and psychological views on necrophilia
Cause and prevalance
Virtually no research has been conducted regarding the prevalance of necrophilic attraction among humans. Klaf and Brown commented that, although rarely described, necrophilic fantasies may occur more often than is generally supposed.
Rosman and Resnick theorized that either of the following situations could be antecedents to necrophilia :
- The necrophile develops poor self-esteem, perhaps due in part to a significant loss;
- He is very fearful of rejection by women and he desires a sexual object who is incapable of rejecting him; and/or
- 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 .
Minor modern researches conducted in
England have shown that some necrophiles tend to choose a dead partner after failing to create romantic attachments with the living.
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
Necrophilia in psychoanalysis-Erich Fromm
For psychologist/philosopher
Erich Fromm, necrophilia is a character orientation which is not necessarily sexual. It is expressed in an attraction to that which is dead or totally controlled. At the extreme, it results in hatred of life and destructiveness.
For Fromm, necrophilia is the opposite of biophilia. Unlike Freud's death instinct, it is not biologically determined but results in upbringing. Fromm believed that the lack of love in the western society and the attraction to mechanistic control leads to necrophilia. Expressions of necrophilia are modern weapon systems, idolotry of technology, and the treatment of people as things in bureaucracy.
For further information, see Fromm's,
The Heart of Man and
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness,
Necrophilia in history
Herodotus writes 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.e Herodotus there are many variants of his tale, commonly one in which a lecherous monk has intercourse with the body of a young woman to whom it has been entrusted for a prayer vigil. Such tales often end with the deceased coming to life and a marriage is then arranged; it still exist in modern times in the form of urban legends.
Notable necrophiles
Carl Tanzler
Carl Tanzler was a
radiologist in
Key West, Florida who developed a morbid obsession for Elena Milagro Hoyos . She was one of his patients, and she died from
tuberculosis in 1931. With her parents' permission, Tanzler had an above ground
mausoleum built for her, so she wouldn't decompose underground. He visited the tomb almost every night, but in 1933, his obsession apparently overcame him, as he took Hoyos' corpse 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 replaced the skin with wax and plaster of paris, and bought copius amounts of perfume, often several times a month. Tanzler also allegedly inserted a vaginal tube into Hoyos' corpse for intercourse. In 1940, one of Hoyos's surviving sisters became suspicious due to omnipresent rumors of Tanzler's necrophilia, and eventually confronted Tanzler at his home. She entered Tanzler's house and found Elena's corpse lying in his bed in an elegant dress, almost fully decomposed. Tanzler was later arrested and charged with "wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization," but he was ultimately released, as the statute of limitations on the crime had expired.
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 serial killer
Dennis Rader provided a rare public glimpse into the workings of such a controlling mind.
Attempted Necrophilia
On September 15, 2006 a judge dismissed charges of attempted sexual assault against three men accused of trying to dig up a woman's body to have sex with the corpse, noting that Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia. Twins Nicholas and Alexander Grunke, 20, and Dustin Radke, 20, were arrested after an alleged attempt to dig up the body of 20-year-old Laura Tennessen who was killed Aug. 27 in a motorcycle crash. Officials said a caller reported suspicious activity in the cemetery Sept. 2, and deputies found someone had dug down to her vault. Radke told police that the three had stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way to the cemetery to buy condoms. Authorities said the three were not acquainted with Tennessen but had seen an obituary with her photo.
Among animals
Necrophilia is not unknown in animals, with a number of confirmed observations. Kees Moeliker allegedly 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 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
necrophilia in the mallard duck.
Legal status
Legality in the United States
As of May, 2006, there is no federal legislation specifically barring sex with a corpse. Multiple states have their own laws:
- Alabama - Class C felony under
- Alaska - Class A misdemeanour under
- Arkansas - Class D felony under
- California - Illegal, up to 8 years in prison
- Colorado - Class 2 misdemeanour under
- Delaware - Class A misdemeanour under
- Florida-- Second degree felony under chapter 872.06
- Georgia - Felony, up to 10 years in prison under
- Hawaii - Misdemeanour under
References
See also
- Necrophilia in popular culture
External links
