Isidor Isaak Sadger (29 October 1867 – 21 December 1942), born in

Neu Sandez Neu! is a German krautrock band. Neu or NEU may also refer to: Education * National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam * National Education Union, a British teaching trade union * Near East University, Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus * New Era Unive ...

, Galicia, was a

forensic Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...

medical doctor and

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. A leader in the early development of

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

, he began his career as a neurological specialist and, in 1894, began publishing a series of articles on

psychophysiology Psychophysiology (from Greek , ''psȳkhē'', "breath, life, soul"; , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia'') is the branch of psychology that is concerned with the physiological bases of psychological processes. While psychophysiolog ...

. He studied with

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

from 1895 to 1904 with a concentration in

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 ...

and

fetishism A fetish is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent non-material value, or powers, to an object. Talismans and amulet ...

and coined the term ''Sadomasochismus'' (

sadomasochism Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

) in 1913. He also coined the term "Narcissmus" (

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 September 1942, he was deported to the

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

, where he died.

Work

Sadger published "Fragment der Psychoanalyse eines Homosexuellen" in the ''Jahrbuch für sexuellen Zwischenstufen'' in 1908. It described his analysis of a melancholy Danish count who was homosexual. The analysis lasted for only thirteen days before being terminated by the patient, whose sexual orientation was not changed. Later in 1908, Sadger published "Ist die konträre Sexualempfindung heilbar?", which assessed the value of psychoanalysis as a treatment for "contrary sexual feeling", in the ''Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft''. He answered the question of whether it could be cured in patients who were moral and determined "''mit einem runden Ja!''" ("''with a definitive Yes!''"). Sadger believed that it was not enough to establish a spurious kind of heterosexual functioning or "''masturbatio per vaginam''", wanting instead to change a patient's "''Sexualideal''", the internal image of his sexual object. Freud stated in a note in his revised 1910 edition of “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” that his conclusions about homosexuality were partly based on information obtained from Sadger. Sadger's main work, ''Die Lehre von den Geschlechtsverwirrugen ..auf psychoanalytischer Grundlage'' was published in 1921. Although he supported a hereditarian degeneracy theory, Sadger usually argued that homosexuality was due to accidental family events, but for unclear reasons he frequently reported family histories of sexual inversion. Sadger followed Freud's idea that gay men unconsciously desire to castrate their fathers by rendering their male partners flaccid through

orgasm Orgasm (from Greek , ; "excitement, swelling"), sexual climax, or simply climax, is the sudden release of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, characterized by intense sexual pleasure resulting in rhythmic, involu ...

so that they can magically incorporate their

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...

and finally obtain access to the mother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadger, Isidor Isaak 1867 births 1942 deaths Austrian Jews Austrian sexologists Psychoanalysts from Vienna Jewish psychoanalysts Freudians Austrian people who died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto People from Nowy Sącz Members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society Physicians from Austria-Hungary