Papers of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, 1863-1991. The papers largely comprise clinical case histories which Krafft-Ebing amassed during his professional career with a view to working on them in retirement. In the event he died very shortly after retiring from practice and resigning his chair of Psychiatry at Vienna. As a result, the case histories remained in an undigested state, and more resemble the raw research materials that they in fact are than an ordered series of cases, although some have been arranged into thematic bundles (neurasthenia, hysteria, mania, dementia etc). Some two-thirds of the histories are in Krafft-Ebing's hand, the remainder written by assistants or other clinicians; many were evidently extracted from hospital case records. There are many subsidiary documents among them, such as referral letters, statistical abstracts and letters and reports from patients themselves, often prompted by reading Psychopathia sexualis. There is also a bundle of patient cards from Kraft-Ebing's sanatorium at Mariagrün, Graz, 1886-92. Many of Krafft-Ebing's manuscript notes are associated with case histories. Others are organised thematically (neurasthenia, hypnosis, electrotherapy etc), or are extracts from works by other specialists.
Likewise the correspondence in the collection often relates to particular recorded cases, but there are separate groups of letters to and from family, friends, colleagues, publishers and university officials: these include some 43 letters by Krafft-Ebing to his grandfather, Anton Mittermaier, a lawyer, 1864-66, and photocopies of letters to his parents written from Italy, 1869-70. There is also a file of letters from members of the German Imperial family. The collection includes a large quantity of printed material, mainly off-prints of articles by Krafft-Ebing and others in the professional and specialist literature, as well as monographs. Many of the former especially are difficult to find in library collections in the English-speaking world. There are also press cuttings, mainly relating to Krafft-Ebing and his work, apparently collected by his son, Hans, after his death. In addition there are several groups of personal/family items, including carte de visite photographs of colleagues, diplomas and certificates, and other personalia.
