(Austrian Statutes, § 306.)
This horrible kind of sexual indulgence is so monstrous that the
presumption of a psychopathic state is, under all circumstances,
justified; and Maschka’s recommendation, that the mental condition of
the perpetrator should always be investigated, is well founded. In any
case, an abnormal and decidedly perverse sensuality is required to
overcome the natural repugnance which man has for a corpse, and permit a
feeling of pleasure to be experienced in sexual congress with a cadaver.
Unfortunately, in the majority of the cases reported, the mental
condition was not examined; so that the question whether necrophilia is
compatible with mental soundness must remain open. But any one having
knowledge of the horrible aberrations of the sexual instinct would not
venture, without further consideration, to answer the question in the
negative.