puberty, without any knowledge of perversity of sexual feeling,
he was thrown intimately in contact with males of more advanced
years, who took various means to excite his sexual passions, the
result being that perverted sexual practices were developed,
which were continued for a number of years. He thereafter noticed
an aversion to women. At the solicitations of his family he
finally married, without any very intelligent idea as to what, if
anything, might be expected of him in the marital relation.
Absolute impotence--indeed, repugnance for association with his
wife--was the lamentable sequence. A divorce was in contemplation
when, fortunately for all parties concerned, the wife suddenly
died. Being a man of more than ordinary intelligence, this
individual, prior to seeking my aid, had sought vainly for some
remedy for his unfortunate condition. He stated that he believed
there was an element of heredity in his case, his father having
been a dipsomaniac and one brother having died insane. He
nevertheless stated it to be his opinion that, notwithstanding
the hereditary taint, he would have been perfectly normal from a
sexual standpoint had it not been for acquired impressions at or
about the period of puberty. This man presented a typically
neurotic type of _physique_, complained of being intensely
nervous, was prematurely gray, of only fair stature, and had an
uncontrollable nystagmus, which, he said, had existed for some
fifteen years. As might be expected, treatment in this case was
of no avail. I began the use of hypnotic suggestion at the hands
of an expert professional hypnotist. The patient, being called
out of the State, finally gave up treatment, and I have no means
of knowing what his present condition is.


CASE II.--A lady patient of mine who happened to be an actress,
and consequently a woman of the world, brought to me for an
opinion some correspondence which had passed between her younger
brother and a man living in another State, with whom he was on
quite intimate terms. In one of these letters various flying
trips to Chicago for the purpose of meeting the lad, who, by the
way, was only 17 years of age, were alluded to. It transpired
also, as evidenced by the letters, that on several occasions the
young lad had been taken on trips in Pullman cars by his friend,
who was a prominent railroad official. The character of the
correspondence was such as the average healthy man would address
to a woman with whom he was enamored. It seemed that the author
of the correspondence had applied to his boy affinity the name
Cinderella, and the protestations of passionate affection that
were made toward Cinderella certainly would have satisfied the
most exacting woman. The young lad subsequently made a confession
to me, and I put myself in correspondence with his male friend,
with the result that he called upon me and I obtained a full
history of the case. The method of indulgence in this case was
the usual one of oral masturbation, in which the lad was the
passive party. I was unable to obtain any definite data regarding
the family history of the elder individual in this case, but
understand that there was a taint of insanity in his family. He
himself was a robust, fine-looking man, above middle age, who was
well educated and very intelligent, as he necessarily must have
been, because of the prominent position he held with an important
railway company. I will state, as a matter of interest, that the
lad in this case, who is now 23 years of age, has recently
consulted me for _impotentia coeundi_, manifesting a frigidity
for women, and, from the young man's statements, I am convinced
that he is well on the road to confirmed sexual perversion.

An interesting point in this connection is that the young man's
sister, the actress already alluded to, has recently had an
attack of acute mania.

I have had other unpublished cases that might be of interest, but
these two are somewhat classical, and typify to a greater or less
degree the majority of other cases. I will, however, mention one
other case, occurring in a woman.


CASE III.--A married woman 40 years of age. Has been deserted by
her husband because of her perverted sexuality. Neurotic history
on both sides of the family, and several cases of insanity on
mother's side. In this case affinity for the same sex and
perverted desire for the opposite sex existed, a combination by
no means infrequent. Hypnotic suggestion tried, but without
success. Cause was evidently suggestion and example on the part
of another female pervert with whom she associated before her
marriage. Marriage was late, at age of 35. In all these cases
there was an element of what may be called suggestion, but it was
really much more than this; it was probably in each case active
seduction by an elder person of a predisposed younger person. It
will be observed that in each case there was, at the least, an
organic neurotic basis for suggestion and seduction to work on. I
cannot regard these cases as entitled to modify our attitude
toward suggestion.


MASTURBATION.--Moreau believed that masturbation was a cause of sexual
inversion, and Krafft-Ebing looked upon it as leading to all sorts of
sexual perversions; the same opinion was currently repeated by many
writers. It is not now accepted. Moll emphatically rejected the idea that
masturbation can be the cause of inversion; Naecke repeatedly denies that
masturbation, any more than seduction, can ever produce true inversion;
Hirschfeld attaches to it no etiological significance. Many years ago I
gave special attention to this point and reached a similar conclusion.
That masturbation, especially at an early age, may sometimes enfeeble the
sexual activities, and aid the manifestations of inversion, I certainly
believe. But beyond this there is little in the history of my male cases
to indicate masturbation as a cause of inversion. It is true that 44 out
of 51 admit that they have practised masturbation,--at all events,
occasionally, or at some period in their lives,--and it is possible that
this proportion is larger than that found among normal people. Even if so,
however, it is not difficult to account for, bearing in mind the fact that
the homosexual person has not the same opportunities as has the
heterosexual person to gratify his instincts, and that masturbation may
sometimes legitimately appear to him as the lesser of two evils.[191] Not
only has masturbation been practised at no period in at least 7 of the
cases (for concerning several I have no information), but in several
others it was never practised until long after the homosexual instinct had
appeared, in 1 case not till the age of 40, and then only occasionally. In
at least 8 it was only practised at puberty; in at least 8, however, it
began before the age of puberty; at least 9 left off before about the age
of 20. Unfortunately, as yet, we have little definite evidence as to the
prevalence and extent of masturbation among normal individuals.

Among the women masturbation is found in at least 5 cases out of 7. In 1
case there was no masturbation until comparatively late in life, and then
only at rare intervals and under exceptional circumstances. In another
case, some years after the homosexual attraction had been experienced, it
was practised, though not in excess, from the age of puberty for about
four years, and then abandoned; during these years the physical sexual
feelings were more imperative than they were afterward felt to be. In 2
cases masturbation was learned spontaneously soon after puberty, and in 1
of these practised in excess before the manifestations of inversion became
definite. In all cases the subjects are emphatic in asserting that this
practice neither led to, nor was caused by, the homosexual attraction,
which they regard as a much higher feeling, and it must be added that the
occasional practice of masturbation is very far from rare among fairly
normal women.[192]

While this is so, I am certainly inclined to believe that an early and
excessive indulgence in masturbation, though not an adequate cause, is a
favoring condition for the development of inversion, and that this is
especially so in women. The sexual precocity indicated by early and
excessive masturbation doubtless sometimes reveals an organism already
predisposed to homosexuality. But, apart from this, when masturbation
arises spontaneously at an early age on a purely physical basis it seems
to tend to produce a divorce between the physical and the psychic aspects
of sexual love. The sexual manifestations are all diverted into this
physical direction, and the child is ignorant that such phenomena are
normally allied to love; then, when a more spiritual attraction appears
with adolescent development, this divorce is perpetuated. Instead of the
physical and psychic feelings appearing together when the age for sexual
attraction comes, the physical feelings are prematurely twisted from their
natural end, and it becomes abnormally easy for a person of the same sex
to step in and take the place rightfully belonging to a person of the
opposite sex. This has certainly seemed to me the course of events in some
cases I have observed.


ATTITUDE TOWARD THE OPPOSITE SEX.--In 17 cases (of whom 5 are married and
others purposing to marry) there is sexual attraction to both sexes, a
condition formerly called psycho-sexual hermaphroditism, but now more
usually bisexuality. In such cases, although there is pleasure and
satisfaction in relationships with both sexes, there is usually a greater
degree of satisfaction in connection with one sex. Most of the bisexual
prefer their own sex. It is curiously rare to find a person, whether man
or woman, who by choice exercises relationships with both sexes and
prefers the opposite sex. This would seem to indicate that the bisexual
may really be inverts.

In any case bisexuality merges imperceptibly into simple inversion. In at
least 16 of 52 cases of simple inversion in men there has been connection
with women, in some instances only once or twice, in others during several
years, but it was always with an effort, or from a sense of duty and
anxiety to be normal; they never experienced any real pleasure in the act,
or sense of satisfaction after it. Four of these cases are married, but
martial relationships usually ceased after a few years. At least four
others were attracted to women when younger, but are not now; another once
felt sexually attracted to a boyish woman, but never made any attempt to
obtain any relationships with her; 3 or 4 others, again, have tried to
have connection with women, but failed. The largest proportion of my cases
have never had any sexual intimacy with the opposite sex,[193] and some of
these experience what, in the case of the male invert, is sometimes
called _horror feminae_. But, while woman as an object of sexual desire is
in such cases disgusting to them, and it is usually difficult for a
genuine invert to have connection with a woman except by setting up images
of his own sex, for the most part inverts are capable of genuine
friendships, irrespective of sex.

It is, perhaps, not difficult to account for the horror--much stronger
than that normally felt toward a person of the same sex--with which the
invert often regards the sexual organs of persons of the opposite sex. It
cannot be said that the sexual organs of either sex under the influence of
sexual excitement are esthetically pleasing; they only become emotionally
desirable through the parallel excitement of the beholder. When the
absence of parallel excitement is accompanied in the beholder by the sense
of unfamiliarity as in childhood, or by a neurotic hypersensitiveness, the
conditions are present for the production of intense _horror feminae_ or
_horror masculis_, as the case may be. It is possible that, as Otto Rank
argues in his interesting study, "Die Naktheit im Sage und Dichtung," this
horror of the sexual organs of the opposite sex, to some extent felt even
by normal people, is embodied in the Melusine type of legend.[194]


EROTIC DREAMS.--Our dreams follow, as a general rule, the impulses that
stir our waking psychic life. The normal man or woman in sexual vigor
dreams of loving a person of the opposite sex; the inverted man dreams of
loving a man, the inverted woman of loving a woman.[195] Dreams thus have
a certain value in diagnosis, more especially since there is less
unwillingness to confess to a perverted dream than to a perverted action.

Ulrichs first referred to the significance of the dreams of inverts. At a
later period Moll pointed out that they have some value in diagnosis when
we are not sure how far the inverted tendency is radical. Then Naecke
repeatedly emphasized the importance of dreams as constituting, he
believed, the most delicate test we possess in the diagnosis of
homosexuality;[196] this was an exaggerated view which failed to take into
account the various influences which may deflect dreams. Hirschfeld has
made the most extensive investigation on this point, and found that among
100 inverts 87 had exclusively homosexual dreams, while most of the rest
had no dreams at all.[197] Among my cases, only 4 definitely state that
there are no erotic dreams, while 31 acknowledge that the dreams are
concerned more or less with persons of the same sex. Of these, at least 16
assert or imply that their dreams are exclusively of the same sex. Two,
though apparently inverted congenitally, have had erotic dreams of women,
in one case more frequently than of men; these two exceptions have no
apparent explanation. Another appears to have sexual dreams of a nightmare
character in which women appear. In another case there were always at
first dreams of women, but this subject had sometimes had connection with
prostitutes, and is not absolutely indifferent to women, while another,
whose dreams remain heterosexual, had in early life some attraction to
girls. In the cases of distinct bisexuality there is no unanimity; 2 dream
of their own sex, 2 dream of both sexes, 1 usually dreams of the opposite
sex, and 1 man, while dreaming of both, dislikes those dreams in which
women figure. In at least 3 cases dreams of a sexual character began at
the age of 8 or earlier.

The phenomena presented by erotic dreams, alike in normal and
abnormal persons, are somewhat complex, and dreams are by no
means a sure guide to the dreamer's real sexual attitude. The
fluctuations of dream imagery may be illustrated by the
experiences of one of my subjects who thus indirectly summarises
his own experiences: "When he was quite a child, he used to be
haunted by gross and grotesque dreams of naked adult men, which
must have been erotic. At the age of puberty he dreamed in two
ways, but always about males. One species of vision was highly
idealistic; a radiant and lovely young man's face with floating
hair appeared to him on a background of dim shadows. The other
was obscene, being generally the sight of a groom's or carter's
genitals in a state of violent erection. He never dreamed
erotically or sentimentally about women; but when the dream was
frightful, the terror-making personage was invariably female. In
ordinary dreams, women of his family or acquaintance played a
trivial part. At the age of 24, having determined to conquer his
homosexual passions, he married, found no difficulty in
cohabiting with his wife, and begat several children, although he
took but little passionate delight in the sexual act. He still
continued to dream exclusively of men, for several years; and the
obscene visions became more frequent than the idealistic.
Gradually, coarse and uninteresting erotic dreams of women began
to haunt his mind in sleep. A curious particular regarding the
new type of vision was that he never dreamed of whole females,
only of their sexual parts, seen in a blur; and the seminal
emissions which attended the mental pictures left a feeling of
fatigue and disgust. In course of time, his wife and he agreed to
live separately so far as sexual relations are concerned. He then
indulged his passion for males, and wholly lost those rudimentary
female dreams which had been developed during the period of
nuptial cohabitation."

Not only is it possible for the genuine invert to be trained into
heterosexual erotic dreams, but homosexual dreams may
occasionally be experienced by persons who are, and always have
been, exclusively heterosexual. I could bring forward much
evidence on this point. (Cf. "Auto-erotism" in vol. i of these
_Studies_.) Both men and women who have always been of pronounced
heterosexual tendency, without a trace of inversion, are liable
to rare homosexual dreams, not necessarily involving orgasm or
even definite sexual excitement, and sometimes accompanied by a
feeling of repugnance. As an example I may present a dream (which
had no known origin) of an exclusively heterosexual lady aged 42;
she dreamed she was in bed with another woman, unknown to her,
and lying on her own stomach, while with her right hand stretched
out she was feeling the other's sexual parts. She could
distinctly perceive the clitoris, vagina, etc.; she felt a sort
of disgust with herself for what she was doing, but continued
until she awoke; she then found herself lying on her stomach as
in the dream and at first thought she must have been touching
herself, but realized that this could not have been the case.
(Niceforo, who believes that inversion may develop out of
masturbation, considers that dreams of masturbation by
association of ideas may take on an inverted character [_Le
Psicopatie Sessuale_, 1897, pp. 35, 69]; this, however, must be
rare, and will not account for most of the dreams in question.)

Naecke and Colin Scott, some years ago, independently referred to
cases in which normal persons were liable to homosexual dreams,
and Fere (_Revue de Medecine_, Dec., 1898) referred to a man who
had a horror of women, but appeared only to manifest
homosexuality in his dreams. Naecke (_Archiv fuer
Kriminal-Anthropologie_, 1907, Heft I, 2) calls dreams which
represent a reaction of opposition to the dreamer's ordinary life
"contrast dreams." Hirschfeld, who accepts Naecke's "contrast
dreams" in relation to homosexuality, considers that they
indicate a latent bisexuality. We may admit this is so, in the
same sense in which a complementary color image called up by
another color indicates the possibility of perceiving that color.
In most cases, however, it seems to me that homosexual dreams in
normal persons may be simply explained as due to the ordinary
confusion and transition of dream imagery. (See Ellis, _The World
of Dreams_, especially ch. ii.)

_Methods of Sexual Relationship_.--The exact mode in which an inverted
instinct finds satisfaction is frequently of importance from the
medico-legal standpoint;[198] from a psychological standpoint it is of
minor significance, being chiefly of interest as showing the degree to
which the individual has departed from the instinctive feelings of his
normal fellow-beings.

Taking 57 inverted men of whom I have definite knowledge, I find that 12,
restrained by moral or other considerations, have never had any physical
relationship with their own sex. In some 22 cases the sexual relationship
rarely goes beyond close physical contact and fondling, or at most mutual
masturbation and intercrural intercourse. In 10 or 11 cases _fellatio_
(oral excitation)--frequently in addition to some form of mutual
masturbation, and usually, though not always, as the active agency--is the
form preferred. In 14 cases, actual _pedicatio_[199]--usually active, not
passive--has been exercised. In these cases, however, _pedicatio_ is by no
means always the habitual or even the preferred method of gratification.
It seems to be the preferred method in about 7 cases. Several who have
never experienced it, including some who have never practised any form of
physical relationship, state that they feel no objection to _pedicatio_;
some have this feeling in regard to active, others in regard to passive,
_pedicatio_. The proportion of inverts who practise or have at some time
experienced _pedicatio_ thus revealed (nearly 25 per cent.) is large; in
Germany Hirschfeld finds it to be only 8 per cent., and Merzbach only 6. I
believe, however, that a wider induction from a larger number of English
and American cases would yield a proportion much nearer to that found in
Germany.[200]


PSEUDOSEXUAL ATTRACTION.--It is sometimes supposed that in homosexual
relationships one person is always active, physically and emotionally, the
other passive. Between men, at all events, this is very frequently not the
case, and the invert cannot tell if he feels like a man or like a woman.
Thus, one writes:--

"In bed with my friend I feel as he feels, and he feels as I
feel. The result is masturbation, and nothing more or desire for
more on my part. I get it over, too, as soon as possible, in
order to come to the best--sleeping arms round each other, or
talking so."

It remains true, however, that there may usually be traced what it is
possible to call pseudosexual attraction, by which I mean a tendency for
the invert to be attracted toward persons unlike himself, so that in his
sexual relationships there is a certain semblance of sexual opposition.
Numa Praetorius considers that in homosexuality the attraction of
opposites--the attraction for soldiers and other primitive vigorous
types--plays a greater part than among normal lovers.[201] This
pseudosexual attraction is, however, as Hirschfeld points out,[202] and as
we see by the Histories here presented, by no means invariable.

M.N. writes: "To me it appears that the female element must, of
necessity, exist in the body that desires the male, and that
nature keeps her law in the spirit, though she breaks it in the
form. The rest is all a matter of individual temperament and
environment. The female nature of the invert, hampered though it
is by its disguise of flesh, is still able to exert an
extraordinary influence, and calls insistently upon the male.
This influence seems called into action most violently in the
presence of males possessed of strong sexual magnetism of their
own. Such men are generally more or less conscious of the
influence, and the result is either a vague appreciation, which
will make the male wonder why he gets on so well with the invert,
or else the influence will be realized to be something
incongruous and unnatural, and will be resented accordingly.
Sometimes, indeed, the reciprocated feeling (circumstance and
opportunity permitting) will prove strong enough to induce sexual
relations. Reason will then generally overpower instinct, and the
feeling, aroused unaware, will probably be changed into
repulsion. Further, the influence reacts in the same way on
women, who, particularly if they are strongly sexual, experience
involuntary sensations of dislike or antagonism on association
with inverts. There is, however, one terrible reality for the
invert to face, no matter how much he may wish to avoid it and
seek to deceive himself. There exists for him an almost absolute
lack of any genuine satisfaction either in the way of the
affections or desires. His whole life is passed in vainly seeking
and desiring the male, the antithesis of his nature, and in
consorting with inverts he must perforce be content with the male
in form only, the shadow without the substance. Indeed, one
invert necessarily regards another as being of the same undesired
female sex as himself, and for this reason it will be found that,
while friendships between inverts frequently exist (and these are
characteristically feminine, unstable, and liable to betrayal),
love-attachments are less common, and when they occur must
naturally be based upon considerable self-deception. Venal
gratifications are always, of course, as possible as they are
unsatisfactory, and here perhaps some of the peculiarities of
taste accompanying inversion may admit of elucidation. In
considering the peculiar predilection shown by inverts for youths
of inferior social position, for the wearers of uniforms, and for
extreme physical development and virility not necessarily
accompanied by intellectuality, regard must be had to the
probable conduct of women placed in a position of complete
irresponsibility combined with absolute freedom of action and
every opportunity for promiscuity. It seems to me that the
importance of recognizing the underlying female element in
inversion cannot be too strongly insisted upon."

"The majority" [of inverts], writes "Z," "differ in no detail of
their outward appearance, their _physique_, or their dress from
normal men. They are athletic, masculine in habit, frank in
manner, passing through society year after year without arousing
a suspicion of their inner temperament; were it not so, society
would long ago have had its eyes opened to the amount of
perverted sexuality it harbors." These lines were written, not in
opposition to the more subtle distinctions pointed out above, but
in refutation of the vulgar error which confuses the typical
invert with the painted and petticoated creatures who appear in
police-courts from time to time, and whose portraits are
presented by Lombroso, Legludic, etc. On another occasion the
same writer remarked, while expressing general agreement with the
idea of a pseudosexual attraction: "The _liaison_ is by no means
always sought and begun by the person who is abnormally
constituted. I mean that I can cite cases of decided males who
have made up to inverts, and have found their happiness in the
reciprocated passion. One pronounced male of this sort, again,
once said to me, 'men are so much more affectionate than women.'
[Precisely the same words were used by one of my subjects.] Also,
the _liaison_ springs up now and then quite accidentally through
juxtaposition, when it is difficult to say whether either at the
outset had an inverted tendency of any marked quality. In these
cases the sexual relation seems to come on as a heightening of
comradely affection, and is found to be pleasurable--sometimes, I
think, discovered to be safe as well as satisfying. On the other
hand, so far as I know, it is extremely rare to observe a
permanent _liaison_ between two pronounced inverts."

The tendency to pseudosexual attraction in the homosexual would
thus seem to involve a preference for normal persons. How far
this is the case it seems difficult to state positively. Usually,
one may say, an invert falls in love (exactly as in the case of a
normal person) without any intellectual calculation as to the
temperamental ability to return the affection which the object of
his love may possess. Naturally, however, there cannot be any
adequate return of the affection in the absence of an actual or
latent homosexual disposition. On this point an American
correspondent (H.C.), with a wide knowledge of inversion in many
lands, writes: "One of your correspondents declares that inverts
long for sexual relations with normal men rather than with one
another. If this be true, I have never once found it exemplified
in all my wide experience of inverts; and I have submitted his
assertion to more than 50. These have replied invariably that
unless a man is himself homosexual, nearly all the pleasure of
_fellatio_ is absent. The fact is, the majority of inverts flock
together not from exigency, but from choice. The mere sexual act
is, if anything, far less the sole object between inverts than it
is between normal men and women. Why should the invert sigh for
intercourse with normal men, where mutual confidences and
sympathies and love would be out of the question? Personally, I
decline to commit _fellatio_ with a man who is given to women;
the thought of it is repugnant to me. And this is the attitude
with every invert I have questioned. The nearest approach to
confirmation of your correspondent's theory has been when an
extremely feminine invert here and there has admitted the wish
that a certain normal man _were_ inverted. Indeed, the
temperamental gamut of inversion is itself broad enough to
embrace the most widely divergent ideals. As my furthest-reaching
demands attain fruition in the gentle and pretty boy, so his own
robuster affinity resides in me. If inverts were actually women,
then indeed the normal male would be their ideal. But inverts are
not women. Inverts are males capable of passionate friendship,
and their ideal is the male who will give them passionate
friendship in return."

In at least 24, probably many more, of my male cases there is a marked
contrast, and in a still larger number a less-marked contrast, between the
subject and the individuals he is attracted to; either he is of somewhat
feminine and sensitive nature, and admires more simple and virile natures,
or he is fairly vigorous and admires boys who are often of lower social
class. Inverted women also are attracted to more clinging feminine
persons.[203] A sexual attraction for boys is, no doubt, as Moll points
out, that form of inversion which comes nearest to normal sexuality, for
the subject of it usually approaches nearer to the average man in physical
and mental disposition. The reason of this is obvious: boys resemble
women, and therefore it requires a less profound organic twist to become
sexually attracted to them. Anyone who has watched private theatricals in
boys' schools will have observed how easy it is for boys to personate
women successfully, and it is well known that until the middle of the
seventeenth century women's parts on the stage were always taken by boys,
whether or not with injury to their own or other people's morals.[204] It
is also worthy of note that in Greece, where homosexuality flourished so
extensively, and apparently with so little accompaniment of neurotic
degeneration, it was often held that only boys under 18 should be loved;
so that the love of boys merged into love of women. About 18 of my cases
are most strongly attracted to youths,--preferably of about the age of 18
to 20,--and they are, for the most part, among the more normal and healthy
of the cases. A preference for older men, or else a considerable degree of
indifference to age alone, is more common, and perhaps indicates a deeper
degree of perversion.

Putting aside the age of the object desired, it must be said that there is
a distinctly general, though not universal, tendency for sexual inverts to
approach the feminine type, either in psychic disposition or physical
constitution, or both.[205] I cannot say how far this is explained by the
irritable nervous system and delicate health which are so often associated
with inversion, though this is certainly an important factor. Although the
invert himself may stoutly affirm his masculinity, and although this
femininity may not be very obvious, its wide prevalence may be asserted
with considerable assurance, and by no means only among the small minority
of inverts who take an exclusively passive role, though in these it is
usually most marked. In this I am confirmed by Q., who writes: "In all, or
certainly almost all, the cases of congenital male inverts (excluding
psycho-sexual hermaphrodites) that I know there has been a remarkable
sensitiveness and delicacy of sentiment, sympathy, and an intuitive habit
of mind, such as we generally associate with the feminine sex, even though
the body might be quite masculine in its form and habit."[206] When,
however, a distinguished invert said to Moll: "We are all women; that we
do not deny," he put the matter in too extreme a form. The feminine traits
of the homosexual are not usually of a conspicuous character. "I believe
that inverts of plainly feminine nature are rare exceptions," wrote
Naecke:[207] and that statement may be accepted even by those who emphasize
the prevalence of feminine traits among inverts.

In inverted women some degree of masculinity or boyishness is equally
prevalent, and it is not usually found in the women to whom they are
attracted. Even in inversion the need for a certain sexual opposition--the
longing for something which the lover himself does not possess--still
prevails. It expresses itself sometimes in an attraction between persons
of different race and color. I am told that in American prisons for women
Lesbian relationships are specially frequent between white and black
women.[208] A similar affinity is found among the Arabs, says Kocher; and
if an Arab woman has a Lesbian friend the latter is usually European. In
Cochin China, too, according to Lorion, while the Chinese are chiefly
active pederasts, the Annamites are chiefly passive.

It must, however, be remembered that, in normal love, homogamy, the
attraction of the like, prevails over heterogamy, the attraction of the
unlike, which is chiefly confined to those features which belong to the
sphere of the secondary sexual characters;[209] the same appears to be
true in inversion, and the homosexual are probably, on the whole, more
attracted by the traits which they seem to themselves to possess than by
those which are foreign to themselves.[210]


PHYSICAL ABNORMALITIES.--The circumstances under which many of my cases
were investigated often made information under this head difficult to
obtain, or to verify. In at least 4 cases the penis is very large, while
in at least 3 it is small and undeveloped, with small and flabby testes.
It seems probable that variations in these two directions are both common,
but it is doubtful whether they possess as much significance as the
tendency to infantilism of the sexual organs in inverted women seems to
possess. Hirschfeld considers that the genital organs of inverts resemble
those of normal people. He finds, however, that phimosis is rather
common.[211]

More significant, perhaps, than specifically genital peculiarities are the
deviations found in the general conformation of the body.[212] In at
least 2 cases there are well-developed breasts, in 1 the breasts swelling
and becoming red.[213] In 1 case there are "menstrual" phenomena, physical
and psychic, recurring every four weeks. In several cases the hips are
broad and the arms rounded, while some are skillful in throwing a ball.
One was born with a double squint. At least 2 were 7 months' children. In
the previous chapter I have referred to the tendency to hypertrichosis and
occasionally oligotrichosis among inverted women; among the men it is the
latter condition which seems more common, and in several cases the bodies
are hairless, or with but scanty hair. A few are left-handed, though not
perhaps an abnormal proportion.[214] The sexual characters of the
handwriting are in some cases clearly inverted, the men writing a feminine
hand and the women a masculine hand.[215] A high feminine voice is
sometimes found.[216]

A marked characteristic of many inverts, though one not easy of precise
definition, is their youthfulness of appearance, and frequently child-like
faces, equally in both sexes. This has often been remarked,[217] and is
pronounced among many of my subjects.

The frequent inability of male inverts to whistle was first pointed out by
Ulrichs, and Hirschfeld has found it in 23 per cent. Many of my cases
confess to this inability, while some of the women inverts can whistle
admirably. Although this inability of male inverts is only found among a
minority, I am quite satisfied that it is well marked among a considerable
minority. One of my correspondents, M.N., writes to me: "With regard to
the general inability of inverts to whistle (I am not able to do so
myself), their fondness for green (my favorite color), their feminine
caligraphy, skill at female occupations, etc., these all seem to me but
indications of the one principle. To go still farther and include trivial
things, few inverts even smoke in the same manner and with the same
enjoyment as a man; they have seldom the male facility at games, cannot
throw at a mark with precision, or even spit!"

Nearly all these peculiarities indicate a minor degree of nervous
disturbance and lead to modification, as my correspondent points out, in a
feminine direction. It is scarcely necessary to add that they by no means
necessarily imply inversion. Shelley, for instance, was unable to whistle,
though he never gave an indication of inversion; but he was a person of
somewhat abnormal and feminine organization, and he illustrates the
tendency of these apparently very insignificant functional anomalies to be
correlated with other and more important psychic anomalies.

The greater part of these various anatomical peculiarities and functional
anomalies point, more or less clearly, to the prevalence among inverts of
a tendency to infantilism, combined with feminism in men and masculinism
in women.[218] This tendency is denied by Hirschfeld, but it is often
well indicated among the subjects whose histories I have been able to
present, and is indeed suggested by Hirschfeld's own elaborate results; so
that it can scarcely be passed over. I regard it as highly significant,
and it is in harmony with all that we are learning to know regarding the
important part played by the internal secretions, alike in inversion and
the general bodily modifications in an infantile, feminine, and masculine
direction.

If we are justified in believing that there is a tendency for inverted
persons to be somewhat arrested in development, approaching the child
type, we may connect this fact with the sexual precocity sometimes marked
in inverts, for precocity is commonly accompanied by rapid arrest of
development.

A correspondent, who is himself inverted, furnishes the following
notes of cases he is well acquainted with; I quote them here, as
they illustrate the anomalies commonly found:--

1. A., male, eldest child of typically neurotic family. Three
children in all: 2 male and 1 female. The other 2 are somewhat
eccentric, unsocial, and sexually frigid, 1 in a marked degree.
The curious point about this case is that A., the only one of the
family possessed of mental ability and social qualifications,
should be inverted. Parents' marriage was very ill-assorted and
inharmonious, the father being of great stature and the mother
abnormally small and of highly nervous temperament, both of
feeble health. Ancestry unfortunate, especially on mother's side.

2. B., male, invert, younger of 2 sons, no other children, has
extremely feminine disposition and appearance, of considerable
personal attraction, and has great musical talent. Penis very
small and marked breast-development.

3. C., male, invert, younger of 2 sons, no other children.
Interval of six years between first and second son. Parents'
marriage one of great affection, but degenerate ancestry on
mother's side. Cancer and scrofula in family.

4. D., male, invert, second child of 6; remainder girls. Of
humble social position. Considerable depravity evinced by all the
members of this family, with the exception of D., who alone
proved steady, honest, and industrious.

5. E., male, invert, second son of family of 3, the youngest
child being a girl, stillborn. Of extreme neurotic temperament
fostered by upbringing. Effeminate in build and disposition;
musically gifted.

6. F., male, invert, second child of family of 5. Eldest child a
girl, died in youth. After F. a boy G., a girl H., and another
girl stillborn. Parents badly matched; mother of considerable
mental and physical strength; father last representative of
moribund stock, the result of intermarriage. Children all
resembling father in appearance and mother in disposition.
Drink-tendency in both boys, to which F.'s death at the age of 30
was mainly due. G. committed suicide some years later. The girl
H. married into a family with worse ancestry than her own. Has
two children:--

7. I. and J., boy and girl, both inverted as far as I am able to
judge. The boy was born with some deformity of the feet and
ankles; is of effeminate tastes and appearance. Boy resembles
mother, and girl, who is of great physical development, resembles
father.

The same correspondent adds:--

"I have noticed little abnormal with regard to the genital
formation of inverts. There are, however, frequent abnormalities
of proportion in their figures, the hands and feet being
noticeably smaller and more shapely, the waist more marked, the
body softer and less muscular. Almost invariably there is either
cranial malformation or the head approaches the feminine in type
and shape."


ARTISTIC AND OTHER APTITUDES.--All avocations are represented among
inverts. Among the subjects here dealt with are found, at one end of the
scale, numerous manual workers, and at the other end an equal number,
sometimes of aristocratic family, who exercise no profession at all. There
are 12 physicians, 9 men of letters, at least 7 are engaged in commercial
life, 6 are artists, architects, or composers, 4 are or have been actors.
These figures cannot give any clue to the relative extent of inversion in
various occupations, but they indicate that no class of occupation
furnishes a safeguard against inversion.

There are, however, certain avocations to which inverts seem especially
called.[219] One of the chief of these is literature. The apparent
predominance of physicians is easily explicable. The frequency with which
literature is represented is probably more genuine. Here, indeed, inverts
seem to find the highest degree of success and reputation. At least half a
dozen of my subjects are successful men of letters, and I could easily
add others by going outside the group of Histories included in this study.
They especially cultivate those regions of _belles-lettres_ which lie on
the borderland between prose and verse. Though they do not usually attain
much eminence in poetry, they are often very accomplished writers of
verse. They may be attracted to history, but rarely attempt tasks of great
magnitude, involving much patient labor, though to this rule there are
exceptions. Pure science seems to have relatively little attraction for
the homosexual.[220]

An examination of my Histories reveals the interesting fact that 45 of the
subjects, or in the proportion of 56 per cent., possess artistic aptitudes
of varying degree. Galton found, from the investigation of nearly 1000
persons, that the average showing artistic tastes in England was only
about 30 per cent. It must also be said that my figures are probably below
the truth, as no special point was made of investigating the matter, and
also that in some cases the artistic ability is of high order.

It is suggested that Adler's theory of
_Minderwertigkeit_--according to which we react strenuously
against our congenital organic defects and fortify them into
virtues--may be applied to the invert's acquirement of artistic
abilities (G. Rosenstein, "Die Theorien der Organminderwertigkeit
und die Bisexualitaet," _Jahrbuch fuer Psychoanalytische
Forschungen_, vol. ii, 1910, p. 398). This theory is in some
cases of valuable application, but it seems doubtful to me
whether it is very profitable in the present connection. The
artistic aptitudes of inverts may better be regarded as part of
their organic tendencies than as a reaction against those
tendencies. In this connection I may quote the remarks of an
American correspondent, himself homosexual: "Regarding the
connection between inversion and artistic capacity, so far as I
can see, the temperament of every invert seems to strive to find
artistic expression--crudely or otherwise. Inverts, as a rule,
seek the paths of life that lie in pleasant places; their
resistance to opposing obstacles is elastic, their work is never
strenuous (if they can help it), and their accomplishments hardly
ever of practical use. This is all true of the born artist, as
well. Both inverts and artists are inordinately fond of praise;
both yearn for a life where admiration is the reward for little
energy. In a word, they seem to be 'born tired,' begotten by
parents who were tired, too."

Hirschfeld (_Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 66) gives a list of pictures
and sculptures which specially appeal to the homosexual.
Prominent among them are representations of St. Sebastian,
Gainsborough's Blue Boy, Vandyck's youthful men, the Hermes of
Praxiteles, Michelangelo's Slave, Rodin's and Meunier's
working-men types.

As regards music, my cases reveal the aptitude which has been