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Introduction
Three factors converged to produce kleptomania in the 19th century: (1) An emergent consumer culture incited cultural anxieties about material and sensual indulgence. (2) The rise of the department store offered women new opportunities for public leisure, unsettling the gender order. (3) The medical establishment, dominated by men, insisted that women's minds became unhinged when their reproductive and sexual organs were neglected or indulged. -
Swiss physician André Mathey introduces diagnosis of “klopemania”
"Klopemania" was characterized by an irresistible impulse to steal objects of trivial value; a sense of exhilaration and relief triggered by the acts of theft; higher incidence in women, particularly affluent ones. (Fullerton, 202).
Image: Shoplifter detected, from an original picture by Mr. John Collett, 1787. Yale University Library. -
Shoplifting is no longer considered a capital offense in England
Between 1699 and 1823, shoplifting was a crime punishable by death in England, though lesser sentences were generally handed down by the 1800s. -
French physicians C.C. Marc and Etienne Esquirol attribute kleptomania to "a lesion of the will"
By the 1830s, psychiatrists (or alienists, as they were then called) began appearing in court to attest to criminal's "kleptomania." A mid-19th century poem comically portrays the disparate treatment that thieving ladies and poor women receive in British court. -
Kleptomania is defined as a form of hysteria tied to women's sexuality and reproductive function.
In 1845, Esquirol attributed kleptomania to “hysteria, epilepsy, menstruation, stupidity, and masturbation” (Fullerton, 204). -
Concerns about Shoplifting and Kleptomania Rise in the U.S.
This illustration, titled “A Female Shoplifter,” appeared in Lights and Shadows of New York Life, by James D. McCabe Jr., in 1872. It reflects a growing preoccupation with shoplifting and kleptomania in the United States beginning in the 1870s. -
"A Kleptomaniacal Epidemic"
A Boston Daily Globe article dated March 10, 1873 is titled, "KLEPTOMANIA.: Singular Prevalence of the Disease in Chicago --Unaccountable Particulars--Many Respectable Ladies Caught Daily in Pilfering From the Open Stores." The article describes a "kleptomanical epidemic" which "seems to have prevailed in Chicago for the past few weeks." -
Emile Zola describes "department store atmospherics" in "Au Bonheur des Dames" (Ladies Delight)
Zola's 1883 novel centers on Au Bonheaur des Dames, an opulent Parisian department store. In setting the scene, Zola describes a department store display of lace so enticing that “the temptation was acute, it gave rise to an insane wave of desire which unhinged every woman” (quoted in Fullerton, 204). Image: Manuscript page from Zola's novel. Bibliotheque nationale de France. -
"Acute Kleptomania," LA Times.
The article's subtitle is "Peculiarities of Wealthy Persons Who Persistently Pilfer." It describes "a portly, well-dressed lady, perhaps fifty years of age...was known to be a kleptomaniac." When she stole a silk dress pattern, "the shop people had no desire to prosecute. The lady had not taken the goods with the intention of stealing them. She was simply attacked by the strange mania. She had no cause to steal. Her husband is well off, and can pay for anything she wants." -
Mark Melford, "Kleptomania – a Farcical Comedy in Three Acts"
Melford's play, "Kleptomania - A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts," reflects the increasing public awareness of kleptomania. Sensational by nature and restricted to affluent women, kleptomania could be used to satirize the upper class. -
Ella Castle, Notorious Kleptomaniac
While touring London with her husband and 10-year-old son, Ella Castle, wife of a wealthy San Francisco merchant, was charged with stealing several department store items and brought to court. Her lawyers requested leniency on the grounds that she was a kleptomaniac, but she was convicted and sentenced to three months imprisonment. The US Home Office intervened and her case became an international sensation. -
"She is intensely neurotic."
Following Mrs. Castle's sentencing on Nov. 6, 1896, Dr. W. C. Grigg appealed to the U.S. Home Office to arrange for her release: "She is intensely neurotic. The condition of things—a disease of the upper portion of the uterus—is a very common accompaniment of various forms of mania in women, such as melancholia, religious mania, nymphomania, and I have seen it in several cases of kleptomania. It is invariably coupled with much mental disturbance." -
Mr. and Mrs. Castle Return from Abroad
Reporters greeted the ship on which the Castles returned from England. Mrs. Castle descended the plank veiled and leaning on the arm of a nurse. Having undergone an extensive psychiatric evaluation in England, she was whisked off to Philadelphia to undergo more psychiatric and gynecological evaluation. -
Ella Castle undergoes uterine surgery
Dr. Lewis W. Steinbach of the Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital performed surgery to cure Ella Castle's kleptomania: "[T]he patient was anesthetized with ether… The uterus was curetted and then the trachelorrhaphy* performed by denudation of the cicatricial tissue and suturing with silkworm gut." The surgery left Castle in a great deal of pain, and "subsequent to the operation [she] complained of discomfort to a greater extent than is usual.”
*trachelorrhaphy = surgical repair of the cervix -
S. Weir Mitchell examines Ella Castle
Upon returning from England, Mr. Castle took his wife to Philadelphia to be examined by S. Weir Mitchell, who wrote: "[V]ery positive and long-neglected uterine and rectal disease had much to do with the disorder of mind from which she has suffered, and which is apt to be associated with hysterical conditions.” He added, “I think her hysterical, weak, and unbalanced, but not criminal." -
The term "department store kleptomaniac" is commonly used in the United States and Europe
As this piece from the Dec. 22, 1901 edition of the Washington Post attests, "unconscious shoplifters," or kleptomaniacs, posed "the most serious problem" for department store proprietors. -
"Mamie, Don’t You Feel Ashamie," music by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards
This tune irreverently portrays kleptomania. The song begins, "Mamie was a kleptomamie, kleptomamiac." With "disposition shady," she was "a perfect lady." A later verse begins: Mamie took a satchel, now she has the grip*
She took a case of whiskey, then she took a trip
When in Court next morning Mamie took her place
She has a judge who never drank, so he threw out the case.
She took a line of street cars, never took them back.
They can never catch her, she didn’t leave a track. *grip = flu -
Edwin S. Porter, "The Kleptomaniac" (Edison film)
In 1905, filmmaker Edwin S. Porter released a 10-minute film highlighting the class prejudice that enables a wealthy woman to steal department store merchandise without penalty because she is a kleptomaniac, while a poor woman who steals groceries for her starving children is deemed a thief and thrown in jail. Porter's film exemplifies growing skepticism of kleptomania as a real illness. -
Conclusion
In the U.S., popular and medical discussion of kleptomania peaked in the 1880s and 1890s - precisely when large department stores were heralding a new ethic of consumption and affording affluent women novel forms of public leisure. This confluence of events resulted in two "epidemics": first, an actual increase in shoplifting; and second, an "epidemic of signification" around the term "kleptomania" and associated ambivalence regarding women's changing social and cultural roles. -