Nymphomania

First published in the 18th century, Nymphomania by Dr. M. de Bienville is a seminal and controversial work in the early medical study of female sexuality. Written during the Enlightenment, this treatise sought to define, diagnose, and treat what was then termed “the furor uterinus”—a supposed disorder of uncontrolled erotic desire in women. Beneath its clinical tone, however, lies a revealing document of how medicine, morality, and gender intersected in an age when the boundaries of science and superstition often blurred.

De Bienville approaches his subject with the curiosity of a physician and the caution of a moralist, offering case histories, physiological theories, and moral reflections that illuminate the attitudes toward female passion, virtue, and mental health in 18th-century Europe. His work, though deeply rooted in its time, remains a crucial text for understanding the history of sexuality, gender, and medical thought.

At once medical, moral, and cultural, Nymphomania stands today as both a product of Enlightenment science and a mirror of its biases—a study as revealing of its author’s world as of the condition it sought to explain.

Complete edition of Dr. M. de Bienville’s pioneering medical treatise

Examines the historical pathology and perception of female desire

A key document in the history of sexuality, medicine, and gender studies

Essential for readers of medical history, psychology, and feminist scholarship