remarked by others as peculiarly common among inverts. It has
been extravagantly said that all musicians are inverts; it is
certain that various famous musicians, among the dead and the
living, have been homosexual. Ingegnieros speaks of a
"genito-musical synaesthesia," analogous to color-hearing, in this
connection. Calesia states (_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1900, p.
209) that 60 per cent, inverts are musicians. Hirschfeld (_Die
Homosexualitaet_, p. 500) regards this estimate as excessive, but
he himself elsewhere states (p. 175) that 98 per cent, of male
inverts are greatly attracted to music, the women being decidedly
less attracted. Oppenheim (in a paper summarized in the
_Neurologische Centralblatt_ for June 1, 1910, and the _Alienist
and Neurologist_ for Nov., 1910) well remarks that the musical
disposition is marked by a great emotional instability, and this
instability is a disposition to nervousness. It is thus that
neurasthenia is so common among musicians. The musician has not
been rendered nervous by the music, but he owes his nervousness
(as also, it may be added, his disposition to homosexuality) to
the same disposition to which he owes his musical aptitude.
Moreover, the musician is frequently one-sided in his gifts, and
the possession of a single hypertrophied aptitude is itself
closely related to the neuropathic and psychopathic diathesis.

The tendency to dramatic aptitude--found among a large proportion of my
subjects who have never been professional actors--has attracted the
attention of previous investigators in this field.[221] Thus, Moll refers
to the frequency of artistic, and especially dramatic, talent among
inverts, and remarks that the cause is doubtful. After pointing out that
the lie which they have to be perpetually living renders inverts always
actors, he goes on to say:--

Apart from this, it seems to me that the capacity and the
inclination to conceive situations and to represent them in a
masterly manner corresponds to an abnormal predisposition of the
nervous system, just as does sexual inversion; so that both
phenomena are due to the same source.

I am in agreement with this statement; the congenitally inverted may, I
believe, be looked upon as a class of individuals exhibiting nervous
characters which, to some extent, approximate them to persons of artistic
genius. The dramatic and artistic aptitudes of inverts are, therefore,
partly due to the circumstances of the invert's life, which render him
necessarily an actor,--and in some few cases lead him into a love of
deception comparable with that of a hysterical woman,--and partly, it is
probable, to a congenital nervous predisposition allied to the
predisposition to dramatic aptitude.

One of my correspondents has long been interested in the
frequency of inversion among actors and actresses. He knew an
inverted actor who told him he adopted the profession because it
would enable him to indulge his proclivity; but, on the whole, he
regards this tendency as due to "hitherto unconsidered
imaginative flexibilities and curiosities in the individual. The
actor, _ex hypothesi_, is one who works himself by sympathy
(intellectual and emotional) into states of psychological being
that are not his own. He learns to comprehend--nay, to live
himself into--relations which were originally alien to his
nature. The capacity for doing this--what makes a born
actor--implies a faculty for extending his artistically acquired
experience into life. In the process of his trade, therefore, he
becomes at all points sensitive to human emotions, and, sexuality
being the most intellectually undetermined of the appetites after
hunger, the actor might discover in himself a sort of sexual
indifference, out of which a sexual aberration could easily
arise. A man devoid of this imaginative flexibility could not be
a successful actor. The man who possesses it would be exposed to
divagations of the sexual instinct under esthetical or merely
wanton influences. Something of the same kind is applicable to
musicians and artists, in whom sexual inversion prevails beyond
the average. They are conditioned by their esthetical faculty,
and encouraged by the circumstances of their life to feel and
express the whole gamut of emotional experience. Thus they get an
environment which (unless they are sharply otherwise
differentiated) leads easily to experiments in passion. All this
joins on to what you call the 'variational diathesis' of men of
genius. But I should seek the explanation of the phenomenon less
in the original sexual constitution than in the exercise of
sympathetic, assimilative emotional qualities, powerfully
stimulated and acted on by the conditions of the individual's
life. The artist, the singer, the actor, the painter, are more
exposed to the influences out of which sexual differentiation in
an abnormal direction may arise. Some persons are certainly made
abnormal by nature, others, of this sympathetic artistic
temperament, may become so through their sympathies plus their
conditions of life." It is possible there may be some element of
truth in this view, which my correspondent regarded as purely
hypothetical.

In this connection I may, perhaps, mention a moral quality which is very
often associated with dramatic aptitude, and also with minor degrees of
nervous degeneration, and that is vanity and the love of applause. While
among a considerable section of inverts it is not more marked than among
the non-inverted, if not, indeed, less marked, among another section it is
found in an exaggerated degree. In at least one of my cases vanity and
delight in admiration, both as regards personal qualities and artistic
productions, reach an almost morbid extent. And the quotations from
letters written by various others of my subjects show a curious
complacency in the description of their personal physical characters,
markedly absent in other cases. It is suggested by Alexander Schmid, on
the basis of Adler's views, that this vanity, which sometimes in the
inverted artist becomes an exalted pride, as of a guardian of sacred
mysteries, may be regarded as an effort to secure a compensation for the
consciousness of feminine defect.[222]

The extreme type of this preoccupation with personal beauty is
represented by the history of himself sent by a young Italian of
good family to Zola in the hope--itself a sign of vanity--that
the distinguished novelist would make it the subject of one of
his works. The history is reproduced in the _Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle_ (1894) and in _L'Homosexualite et les
Types Homosexuels_ (1910) by "Dr. Laupts" (G. Saint-Paul). I
quote the following passage: "At the age of 18 I was, with few
differences, what I am now (at 23). I am rather below the medium
height (1.65 metres), well proportioned, slender, but not lean.
My torso is superb; a sculptor could find nothing against it, and
would not find it very different from that of Antinotis. My back
is very arched, perhaps too much so; and my hips are very
developed; my pelvis is broad, like a woman's; my knees slightly
approximate; my feet are small; my hands superb; the fingers
curved back and with glistening nails, rosy and polished, cut
squarely like those of ancient statues. My neck is long and
round, the nape charmingly adorned with downy hairs. My head is
charming, and at 18 was more so. The oval of it is perfect and
strikes all by its infantine form. At 23 I am to be taken for 17
at most. My complexion is white and rosy, deepening at the
faintest emotion. The forehead is not beautiful; it recedes
slightly and is hollow at the temples, but, fortunately, it is
half-covered by long hair, of a dark blonde, which curls
naturally. The head is perfect in form, because of the curly
hair, but on examination there is an enormous protuberance at the
occiput. My eyes are oval, of a gray blue, with dark chestnut
eyelashes and thick, arched eyebrows. My eyes are very liquid,
but with dark circles, and bistered; and they are subject to
slight temporary inflammation. My mouth is fairly large, with
thick red lips, the lower pendent; they tell me I have the
Austrian mouth. My teeth are dazzling, though three are decayed
and stopped; fortunately, they cannot be seen. My ears are small
and with very colored lobes. My chin is very fat, and at 18 it
was smooth and velvety as a woman's; at present there is a slight
beard, always shaved. Two beauty spots, black and velvety, on my
left cheek, contrast with my blue eyes. My nose is thin and
straight, with delicate nostrils and a slight, almost insensible
curve. My voice is gentle, and people always regret that I have
not learned to sing." This description is noteworthy as a
detailed portrait of a sexual invert of a certain type; the
whole history is interesting and instructive.

Certain peculiarities in taste as regards costume have rightly or wrongly
been attributed to inverts,--apart from the tendency of a certain group to
adopt feminine habits,--and may here be mentioned. Tardieu many years ago
referred to the taste for keeping the neck uncovered. This peculiarity may
occasionally be observed among inverts, especially the more artistic among
them. The cause does not appear to be precisely vanity so much as that
physical consciousness which is so curiously marked in inverts, and
induces the more feminine among them to cultivate feminine grace of form,
and the more masculine to emphasize the masculine athletic habit.

It has also been remarked that inverts exhibit a preference for green
garments. In Rome _cinaedi_ were for this reason called _galbanati_.
Chevalier remarks that some years ago a band of pederasts at Paris wore
green cravats as a badge. This decided preference for green is well marked
in several of my cases of both sexes, and in some at least the preference
certainly arose spontaneously. Green (as Jastrow and others have shown) is
very rarely the favorite color of adults of the Anglo-Saxon race, though
some inquirers have found it to be more commonly a preferred color among
children, especially girls, and it is more often preferred by women than
by men.[223] The favorite color among normal women, and indeed very often
among normal men, though here not so often as blue, is red, and it is
notable that of recent years there has been a fashion for a red tie to be
adopted by inverts as their badge. This is especially marked among the
"fairies" (as a _fellator_ is there termed) in New York. "It is red,"
writes an American correspondent, himself inverted, "that has become
almost a synonym for sexual inversion, not only in the minds of inverts
themselves, but in the popular mind. To wear a red necktie on the street
is to invite remarks from newsboys and others--remarks that have the
practices of inverts for their theme. A friend told me once that when a
group of street-boys caught sight of the red necktie he was wearing they
sucked their fingers in imitation of _fellatio_. Male prostitutes who walk
the streets of Philadelphia and New York almost invariably wear red
neckties. It is the badge of all their tribe. The rooms of many of my
inverted friends have red as the prevailing color in decorations. Among my
classmates, at the medical school, few ever had the courage to wear a red
tie; those who did never repeated the experiment."


MORAL ATTITUDE OF THE INVERT.--There is some interest in tracing the
invert's own attitude toward his anomaly, and his estimate of its
morality. As my cases are not patients seeking to be cured of their
perversion, this attitude cannot be taken for granted. I have noted the
moral attitude in 57 cases. In 8 the subjects loathe themselves, and have
fought in vain against their perversion, which they often regard as a sin.
Nine or ten are doubtful, and have little to say in justification of their
condition, which they regard as perhaps morbid, a "moral disease." One,
while thinking it right to gratify his natural instincts, admits that they
may be vices. The remainder, a large majority (including all the women)
are, on the other hand, emphatic in their assertion that their moral
position is precisely the same as that of the normally constituted
individual, on the lowest ground a matter of taste, and at least two state
that a homosexual relationship should be regarded as sacramental, a holy
matrimony; two or three even regard inverted love as nobler than ordinary
sexual love; several add the proviso that there should be consent and
understanding on both sides, and no attempt at seduction. The chief regret
of 2 or 3 is the double life they are obliged to lead.

When inverts have clearly faced and realized their own nature it is not so
much, it seems, their conscience that worries them, or even the fear of
the police, as the attitude of the world. An American correspondent
writes: "It is the fear of public opinion that hangs above them like the
sword of Damocles. This fear is the heritage of all of us. It is not the
fear of conscience and is not engendered by a feeling of wrongdoing.
Rather, it is a silent submission to prejudices that meet us on every
side. The true normal attitude of the sexual invert (and I have known
hundreds) with regard to his particular passion is not essentially
different from that of the normal man with regard to his."

It is noteworthy that even when the condition is regarded as morbid, and
even when a life of chastity has, on this account, been deliberately
chosen, it is very rare to find an invert expressing any wish to change
his sexual ideals. The male invert cannot find, and has no desire to find,
any sexual charm in a woman, for he finds all possible charms united in a
man. And a woman invert writes: "I cannot conceive a sadder fate than to
be a woman--an average woman reduced to the necessity of loving a man!"

It will be seen that my conclusions under this head are in striking
contrast to those of Westphal, who believed that every invert regarded
himself as morbid, and probably show a much higher proportion of
self-approving inverts than any previous series.[224] This is largely due
to the fact that the cases were not obtained from the consulting-room, and
that they represent in some degree the intellectual aristocracy of
inversion, including individuals who, often not without severe struggles,
have found consolation in the example of the Greeks, or elsewhere, and
have succeeded in attaining a _modus vivendi_ with the moral world, as
they have come to conceive it.


FOOTNOTES:

[183] The following analysis is based on somewhat fuller versions of my
Histories than it was necessary to publish in the preceding chapters, as
well as on various other Histories which are not here published at all.
Numerous apparent discrepancies may thus be explained.

[184] This frequency of nervous symptoms is in accordance with the most
reliable observation everywhere. Thus, Hirschfeld (_Die Homosexualitaet_,
p. 177) states that of 500 inverts, 62 per cent. showed nervous symptoms
of one kind or another: sleeplessness, sleepiness, tremors, stammering,
etc.

[185] Hirschfeld finds that 54 per cent, of inverts become conscious of
their anomaly under the age of 14. The anomaly may, however, be present at
this early age, but not consciously until later. Hence the larger
percentage recorded above.

[186] In this connection I may quote an observation by Raffalovich: "It is
natural that the invert should very clearly recall the precocity of his
inclinations. In the existence of every invert a moment arrives when he
discovers the enigma of his homosexual tastes. He then classes all his
recollections, and to justify himself in his own eyes he remembers that he
has been what he is from his earliest childhood. Homosexuality has colored
all his young life; he has thought over it, dreamed over it, reflected
over it--very often in perfect innocence. When he was quite small he
imagined that he had been carried off by brigands, by savages; at 5 or 6
he dreamed of the warmth of their chests and of their naked arms. He
dreamed that he was their slave and he loved his slavery and his masters.
He has had not the least thought that is crudely sexual, but he has
discovered his sentimental vocation."

[187] Leppmann mentions a case (certainly extreme and abnormal) of a
little girl of 8 who spent the night hidden on the roof, merely in order
to be able to observe in the morning the sexual organs of an adult male
cousin (_Bulletin de l'Union Internationale de Droit Penal_, 1896, p.
118).

[188] I fully admit, as all investigators must, the difficulty of tracing
the influence of early suggestions, especially in dealing with persons who
are unaccustomed to self-analysis. Sometimes it happens, especially in
regard to erotic fetichism, that, while direct questioning fails to reach
any early formative suggestion, such influence is casually elicited on a
subsequent occasion.

[189] I may add that I see no fundamental irreconcilability between the
point of view here adopted and the facts brought forward (and wrongly
interpreted) by Schrenck-Notzing. In his _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der
Contraerer Sexualempfindung_ (Vienna, 1895), this writer states: "The
neuropathic disposition is congenital, as is the tendency to precocious
appearance of the appetites, the lack of psychic resistance, and the
tendency to imperative associations; but that heredity can extend to the
object of the appetite, and influence the contents of these characters, is
not shown. Psychological experiences are against it, and the possibility,
which I have shown, of changing these impulses by experiment and so
removing their danger to the character of the individual." It need not be
asserted that "heredity extends to the object of the appetite," but simply
that heredity culminates in an organism which is sexually best satisfied
by that object. It is also a mistake to suppose that congenital characters
cannot be, in some cases, largely modified by such patient and laborious
processes as those carried on by Schrenck-Notzing. In the same pamphlet
this writer refers to moral insanity and idiocy as supporting his point of
view. It is curious that both these congenital manifestations had
independently occurred to me as arguments against his position. The
experiences of Elmira Reformatory and Bicetre--not to mention institutions
of more recent establishment--long since showed that both the morally
insane and the idiotic can be greatly improved by appropriate treatment.
Schrenck-Notzing seems to be unduly biased by his interest in hypnotism
and suggestion.

[190] "If an invert acquires, under the influence of external conditions,"
Fere wrote with truth (_L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 238), "it is because he was
born with an aptitude for such acquisition: an aptitude lacking in those
who have been subjected to the same conditions without making the same
acquisitions."

[191] One of my subjects writes: "Inverts are, I think, naturally more
liable to indulge in self-gratification than normal people, partly because
of the perpetual suppression and disappointment of their desires, and also
because of the fact that they actually possess in themselves the desired
form of the male. This idea is a little difficult of explanation, but you
can readily imagine to what frenzies of self-abuse a normal man would be
impelled supposing that he included in his own the form of the female."

[192] I do not here enter upon the consideration of the normal prevalence
and significance of masturbation and allied phenomena, as I have dealt
with this subject in the study of "Auto-erotism," in volume i of these
_Studies_.

[193] Hirschfeld also finds, among German inverts (_Die Homosexualitaet_,
ch. iii), that the majority (though a smaller majority than I find in
England and the United States) have not had intercourse with women; 53 per
cent., he states, including a few married men, have never even attempted
coitus, and over 50 per cent, are presumably impotent. The number of
inverted women who have never had intercourse with men is still larger.

[194] Otto Rank, _Imago_, Heft 3, 1913.

[195] Erotic dreams have been discussed in "Auto-erotism," vol. i of these
_Studies_, and the wider bearings of the subject in another work, _The
Study of Dreams_. Many references to the extensive literature will be
found in both these places.

[196] E.g., _Archiv fuer Psychiatrie_, 1899; _Archiv fuer
Kriminal-Anthropologie_, 1900.

[197] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 71 et seq. Hirschfeld considers
that the dreams of the inverted fall into two groups: one in which the
dreamer imagines he is embracing a person of the same sex, and another in
which he imagines that he is himself of the opposite sex. The latter class
of dreams, constituting a pseudo-heterosexual group, seems to me to be
rare, and they may, moreover, occur in heterosexual persons.

[198] See Thoinot and Weysse, _Medico-legal Aspects of Moral Offenses_,
pp. 165, 291, etc.

[199] _Pedicatio_ (or _paedicatio_) is the most generally accepted
technical term for the sodomitical intromission of the penis into the
anus. It is usually derived from the Greek _pais_ (boy), but some
authorities have derived it from _pedex_ or _podex_ (anus). The terms
"paiderastia" and "pederast" are sometimes used to indicate the same act
and agent. This use, however, is undesirable. It is best to confine the
word "paiderastia" to its proper use as the name of the special
institution of Greek boy love. It may be added that the Greeks themselves
had many names (as many as 74) for paiderastia. See, on this subject of
nomenclature, Iwan Bloch, _Der Ursprung der Syphilis_, vol. ii, pp. 527,
563.

[200] It is the grosser forms of perversion which are first revealed in
every field. In the first edition of this Study the predominance of
_pedicatio_ was still greater; it is not practised by any of the subjects
of the Histories added to the present edition, though several see no
objection to it.

[201] _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. viii, 1906, p. 712.

[202] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 276 et seq.

[203] "Men," remarks Q., "tend to fall in love with boys or youths, boys
or youths with grown men, feminine natures with virile natures and _vice
versa_, and different races with each other."

[204] Stubbes, in his _Anatomy of Abuses_, affirmed that "players and
play-haunters in their secret conclaves play the Sodomites," and refers to
some recent examples of men who had been desperately enamoured of
player-boys thus clad in women's apparel, so far as to solicit them by
words, by letters, even actually to abuse them. Later on, in 1633, Prynne,
in his _Histrio-Mastix_ (part 1, p. 208 et seq.), strongly condemned "this
putting on of woman's array" by actors on the same ground, and adds that
he has heard credibly reported of a scholar of Balliol College that he was
violently enamoured of a boy-player. In Japan, again where, as in China,
woman's parts on the stage are taken by men (not always youths), the
homosexuality of these players became, during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, so notorious that they constituted a class requiring
special regulation as Joro, or prostitutes.

[205] This was remarked by even the earliest modern writers on
homosexuality, like Hoessli. See Hirschfeld, "Vom Wesen der Liebe,"
_Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. viii, 1906, p. 124 et seq.

[206] Similarly Numa Praetorius asserts (_Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, vol. viii, p. 732) that even the most virile homosexual
men exhibit feminine traits, and adds that we could scarcely expect it to
be otherwise when we find how constantly homosexual women show masculine
traits.

[207] Naecke, "Die Diagnose der Homosexualitaet," _Neurologisches
Centralblatt_, April 16, 1908.

[208] So also among American boarding-school girls. Thus Margaret Otis
(_Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, June, 1913) has described the
attraction which negro girls exert on white girls at school. The
correspondence of these lovers, and sometimes their method of sex
gratification, may occasionally be of an even coarsely passionate nature.

[209] See "Sexual Selection in Man," vol. iv of these _Studies_.

[210] Hirschfeld (_Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 283) found that 55 per cent. of
inverts are attracted to qualities unlike their own, and 45 per cent. to
qualities resembling their own, without regard to whether these qualities
belonged to the secondary sexual sphere. It may be added that as regards
the age of the persons they are attracted to, Hirschfeld (p. 281) admits
two main groups, each including about 45 per cent. of the homosexual;
_ephebophils_, attracted to youths between 14 and 21, and _androphils_,
attracted to adults in the prime of life. This division, as may be seen
from the histories included in the present volume, seems to hold good of
British and American inverts.

[211] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_, ch. v.

[212] Krafft-Ebing tells of an inverted physician (a man of masculine
development and tastes) who had had sexual relations with 600 more or less
inverted men. He observed no tendency to sexual malformation among them,
but very frequently an approximation to a feminine form of body, as well
as insufficient hair, delicate complexion, and high voice. Well-developed
breasts were not rare, and some 10 per cent, showed a taste for feminine
occupations.

[213] A similar condition of gynecomasty has been observed in connection
with inversion by Moll, Laurent, Wey, etc. Olano ("La Secrecion Mamaria en
los Invertidos Sexuales," _Archivos de Criminologia_, May, 1902, p. 305)
further observed a certain amount of mammary secretion in an inverted man,
20 years of age, in Lima.

[214] Hirschfeld finds. 7 per cent, inverts left-handed, and 6 per cent,
partly so. Fliess attaches special importance to left-handedness in
inversion, believing that in left-handed men feminine secondary sexual
characters are marked, and in left-handed women masculine sexual character
(_Der Ablauf des Lebens_, 1906). I am not prepared to deny this statement,
but, more evidence is needed.

[215] This point has been discussed by Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_,
pp. 156-8.

[216] Bloch (_The Sexual Life of Our Time_, p. 500) attaches importance to
this peculiarity, but it must be remembered that a high-pitched voice
occurs frequently in undoubtedly heterosexual men in whom it seems often
associated with high intellectual ability (Havelock Ellis, _A Study of
British Genius_, p. 200).

[217] See, e.g., Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 151.

[218] On the general signs of these conditions, see, e.g., H. Meige,
"L'Infantilisme, Le Feminisme et les Hermaphrodites Antiques,"
_L'Anthropologie_. 1895; also Hastings Gilford, "Infantilism," _Lancet_,
February 28 and March 7, 1914.

[219] Merzbach has dealt with the tendency of inverts to adopt special
professions: "Homosexualitaet und Beruf," _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, vol. iv, 1902.

[220] Moll's experience in Germany also reveals the prevalence of
inversion among literary men, though, of all occupations, he found the
highest proportion among actors. Jaeger has referred to the frequency of
homosexuality among barbers. I have been told that among London
hairdressers homosexuality is so prevalent that there is even a special
attitude which the client may adopt in the chair to make known that he is
an invert. Dr. Kiernan informs me that in Chicago, also, inversion is
specially prevalent among barbers, and he adds that he is acquainted with
two cases among women-barbers, a relatively large proportion. It is not
difficult to understand this, bearing in mind the close physical
association between the barber and his client. "W.G. was a barber's
assistant," writes one of my subjects, "and I took an immense fancy to him
at first-sight. He used to lather me, and the touch of his fingers was a
delight. Later on he shaved me and I always looked forward to going to the
barber's. If he were not able to attend to me I felt an incredible sinking
of heart. The whole day seemed dull and useless. I used to make a mark in
my pocket-diary every time he shaved me."

[221] See, e.g., "Vom Weibmann auf der Buehne," _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, vol. iii, 1901, p. 313. It is curious to find a
medico-legal record of this connection long before inversion was
recognized. In June, 1833 (see _Annual Register_ under this date), a man
died who had lived as a kept woman under the name of Eliza Edwards. He was
very effeminate in appearance, with beautiful hair, in ringlets two feet
long, and a cracked voice; he played female parts in the theater, "in the
first line of tragedy," and "appeared as a most lady-like woman." The
coroner's jury "strongly recommended to the proper authorities that some
means may be adopted in the disposal of the body which will mark the
ignominy of the crime."

[222] A. Schmid, "Zur Homosexualitaet," _Zentralblatt fuer Psychoanalyse_,
vol. i, 1913, p. 237.

[223] See for a summary of various statistics in several countries,
Havelock Ellis, _Man and Woman_, 5th ed., 1914, p. 174; also ib., "The
Psychology of Red," _Popular Science Monthly_, August and September, 1900.

[224] The proportion is not so large, however, as Hirschfeld (_Die
Homosexualitaet_, p. 314) now finds in Germany, where inverts are better
informed on the subject of this anomaly, for here 95 per cent. regard
their feelings as natural.




CHAPTER VI.

THE THEORY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.

What is Sexual Inversion?--Causes of Diverging Views--The Theory of
Suggestion Unworkable--Importance of the Congenital Element in
Inversion--The Freudian Theory--Embryonic Hermaphroditism as a Key to
Inversion--Inversion as a Variation or "Sport"--Comparison with
Color-blindness, Color-hearing, and Similar Abnormalities--What is an
Abnormality?--Not Necessarily a Disease--Relation of Inversion to
Degeneration--Exciting Causes of Inversion--Not Operative in the Absence
of Predisposition.


The analysis of these cases leads directly up to a question of the first
importance: What is sexual inversion? Is it, as many would have us
believe, an abominably acquired vice, to be stamped out by the prison? or
is it, as a few assert, a beneficial variety of human emotion which should
be tolerated or even fostered? Is it a diseased condition which qualifies
its subject for the lunatic asylum? or is it a natural monstrosity, a
human "sport," the manifestations of which must be regulated when they
become antisocial? There is probably an element of truth in more than one
of these views. Very widely divergent views of sexual inversion are
largely justified by the position and attitude of the investigator. It is
natural that the police-official should find that his cases are largely
mere examples of disgusting vice and crime. It is natural that the asylum
superintendent should find that we are chiefly dealing with a form of
insanity. It is equally natural that the sexual invert himself should find
that he and his inverted friends are not so very unlike ordinary persons.
We have to recognize the influence of professional and personal bias and
the influence of environment.

There have been two main streams of tendency in the views regarding sexual
inversion: one seeking to enlarge the sphere of the acquired (represented
by Binet,--who, however, recognized predisposition,--Schrenck-Notzing, and
recently the Freudians), the other seeking to enlarge the sphere of the
congenital (represented by Krafft-Ebing, Moll, Fere, and today by the
majority of authorities). There is, as usually happens, truth in both
these views. But, inasmuch as those who represent the acquired view often
deny any congenital element, we are called upon to discuss the question.
The view that sexual inversion is entirely explained by the influence of
early association, or of "suggestion," is an attractive one and at first
sight it seems to be supported by what we know of erotic fetichism, by
which a woman's hair, or foot, or even clothing, becomes the focus of a
man's sexual aspirations. But it must be remembered that what we see in
erotic fetichism is merely the exaggeration of a normal impulse; every
lover is to some extent excited by his mistress's hair, or foot, or
clothing. Even here, therefore, there is really what may fairly be
regarded as a congenital element; and, moreover, there is reason to
believe that the erotic fetichist usually displays the further congenital
element of hereditary neurosis. Therefore, the analogy with erotic
fetichism does not bring much help to those who argue that inversion is
purely acquired. It must also be pointed out that the argument for
acquired or suggested inversion logically involves the assertion that
normal sexuality is also acquired or suggested. If a man becomes attracted
to his own sex simply because the fact or the image of such attraction is
brought before him, then we are bound to believe that a man becomes
attracted to the opposite sex only because the fact or the image of such
attraction is brought before him. Such a theory is unworkable. In nearly
every country of the world men associate with men, and women with women;
if association and suggestion were the only influential causes, then
inversion, instead of being the exception, ought to be the rule throughout
the human species, if not, indeed, throughout the whole zooelogical series.
We should, moreover, have to admit that the most fundamental human
instinct is so constituted as to be equally well adapted for sterility as
for that propagation of the race which, as a matter of fact, we find
dominant throughout the whole of life. We must, therefore, put aside
entirely the notion that the direction of the sexual impulse is merely a
suggested phenomenon; such a notion is entirely opposed to observation and
experience, and will with difficulty fit into a rational biological
scheme.

The Freudians--alike of the orthodox and the heterodox schools--have
sometimes contributed, unintentionally or not, to revive the now
antiquated conception of homosexuality as an acquired phenomenon, and that
by insisting that its mechanism is a purely psychic though unconscious
process which may be readjusted to the normal order by psychoanalytic
methods. Freud first put forth a comprehensive statement of his view of
homosexuality in the original and pregnant little book, _Drei Abhandlungen
zur Sexualtheorie_ (1905), and has elsewhere frequently touched on the
subject, as have many other psychoanalysts, including Alfred Adler and
Stekel, who no longer belong to the orthodox Freudian school. When inverts
are psycho-analytically studied, Freud believes, it is found that in early
childhood they go through a phase of intense but brief fixation on a
woman, usually the mother, or perhaps sister. Then, an internal censure
inhibiting this incestuous impulse, they overcome it by identifying
themselves with women and taking refuge in Narcissism, the self becoming
the sexual object. Finally they look for youthful males resembling
themselves, whom they love as their mothers loved them. Their pursuit of
men is thus determined by their flight from women. This view has been set
forth not only by Freud but by Sadger, Stekel, and many others.[225] Freud
himself, however, is careful to state that this process only represents
one type of stunted sexual activity, and that the problem of inversion is
complex and diversified.

This view may be said to assume a bisexual constitution as
normal, and homosexuality arises by the suppression, owing to
some accident, of the heterosexual component, and the path
through an autoerotic process of Narcissism to homosexuality. On
this general Freudian conception of homosexuality numerous
variations have been based, and separate features specially
emphasized, by individual psychoanalysts. Thus Sadger considers
that, beneath the male individual loved by the invert, a female
is concealed, and that this fact may be revealed by
psychoanalysis which removes the upper layer of the psychic
palimpsest; he believes that this disposition of the invert is
favored by a frequent mixture of male and female traits in his
near relatives; originally, "it is not man whom the homosexual
man loves and desires but man and woman together in one form";
the heterosexual element is later suppressed, and then pure
inversion is left. Further, developing Freud's view of the
importance of anal eroticism (Freud, _Sammlung Kleiner Schriften
zur Neurosenlehre_, vol. ii), Sadger thinks that it is even the
rule for a passive invert to have experienced anal eroticism in
childhood and been frequently subjected to enemas, which have led
to the desire for the anal intromission of the penis.
(_Medizinische Klinik_, 1909, No. 2.) Jekels pushes this doctrine
further and declares that all inverts are really passive; the
invert is, in his love, he states, both subject and object; he
identifies himself with his mother and sees in the object of his
love his own youthful person. And what, Jekels asks, is the aim
of this mental arrangement? It can scarcely by other, he replies,
than in the part of the mother to stimulate the anal region of
the object which has now become himself, and to procure the same
pleasure which in childhood he experienced when his mother
satisfied his anal eroticism. Jekels regards this view as the
continuation and concretization of Freud's interpretation; and
the main point in homosexuality, even when apparently passive,
becomes the craving for anal-erotic satisfaction (L. Jekels,
"Einige Bemerkungen zur Trieblehre," _Internationale Zeitschrift
fuer Aerztliche Psychoanalyse_, Sept., 1913). Most psychoanalysts
are cautious in denying a constitutional or congenital basis to
inversion, though they leave it in the background. Ferenczi, in
an interesting attempt to classify the homosexual
(_Internationale Zeitschrift fuer Aerztliche Psychoanalyse_,
March, 1914), remarks: "Psychoanalytic investigation shows that
under the name of homosexuality the most various psychic states
are thrown together, on the one hand true constitutional
anomalies (inversion, or subject homoeroticism), on the other
hand psychoneurotic obsessional conditions (object homoeroticism,
or obsessional homoeroticism). The individual of the first kind
essentially feels himself a woman who wishes to be loved by a
man, while the other represents a neurotic flight from women
rather than sympathy to men." The constitutional basis is very
definitely accepted by Rudolf Ortvay who points out
(_Internationale Zeitschrift fuer Aerztliche Psychoanalyse_, Jan.,
1914) that the biological doctrine of recessives and dominants in
heredity helps to make clear the emergence or suppression of
homosexuality on a bisexual disposition. "Infantile events," he
adds, "which, according to Freud, decide the sexual relations of
adults, can only exert their operation on the foundation of an
organic predisposition, infantile impressions being determined by
hereditary predisposition." Isador Coriat, on the other hand,
while recognizing two forms of inversion, incomplete and
complete, boldly asserts that it is never congenital and never
transmitted through heredity; it is always "originated through a
definite unconscious mechanism" (Coriat, "Homosexuality," _New
York Medical Journal_, March 22, 1913). Adler's view of
homosexuality, as of other allied conditions, differs from that
of most psychoanalysts by insisting on the presence of an
original organic defect which the subject seeks to fortify into a
point of strength; he accepts two chief components of inversion:
a vagueness as to sexual differences and a process of
self-assurance in the form of rebellion and defiance, and even
the feminism of the invert may become a method of gaining power
(A. Adler, _Ueber den Neuroesen Charakter_, 1912, p. 21).

The mechanism of the genesis of homosexuality put forward by Freud need
not be dismissed offhand. Freud has often manifested the insight of
genius, and he refrains from molding his conceptions in those inflexible
shapes which have sometimes been adopted by the more dogmatic
psychoanalysts who have followed him. Nor need we be unduly shocked by the
"incestuous" air of the "Oedipus Complex,"[226] as it is commonly called,
which figures as a component of the process. The word "incest," though it
has been used by Freud himself, seems scarcely a proper word to apply to
the vague and elementary feelings of children, especially when those
feelings scarcely pass beyond a stage of non-localized and therefore
really presexual feelings (in the ordinary use of the term "sexual") which
may be regarded as natural and normal. The Freudian conception is
misrepresented and prejudiced by the statement that it involves
"incest."[227] When a child loves its mother with an entire love, that
love necessarily involves the germs which in later life become separated
and developed into sexual love, but it is inaccurate to term this love of
the child "incestuous." It is quite easily conceivable that the psychic
mechanism of the establishment of homosexuality has in some cases
corresponded to the course described by Freud. It may also be admitted
that, as psychoanalysts claim, the pronounced _horror feminae_ occasionally
found in male inverts may plausibly be regarded as the reversal of an
early and disappointed feminine attraction. But it is impossible to regard
this mechanism as invariable or even frequent. It is quite true, and I
have found ample evidence of the fact, that inverts are often very closely
attached to their mothers, even to a greater degree, indeed, than is the
rule among normal children, and often like to be in constant association
with their mothers. But this attraction is quite misunderstood if it is
regarded as a peculiarly sexual attraction. Indeed, the whole point of the
attraction is that the inverted boy vaguely feels his own feminine
disposition and so shuns the uncongenial amusements and society of his own
sex for the sympathy and community of tastes which he finds concentrated
in his mother. So far from such association being evidence of sexual
attraction it might more reasonably be regarded as evidence of its
absence; just as the association of boys among themselves, and of girls
among themselves, even in co-educational schools, is proof of the
prevalence of heterosexual rather than of homosexual feeling. Confirmation
of this point of view may be found in the fact--overlooked and sometimes
even denied by psychoanalysts--that frequently, even in early childhood
and simultaneously with this community of feeling with his mother, the
homosexual boy is already experiencing the predominant fascination of the
male. He feels it long before the age at which Narcissism is apt to occur,
or at which self-consciousness has become sufficiently developed to allow
the internal censure on unpermitted emotions to operate, or any flight
from them to take place. Moreover, while most authorities have rarely been
able to find any clear evidence of the sexual attraction of male inverts
in childhood to mother or sister,[228] an attraction of this kind to
father or brother seems less difficult to find, and if found it is
incompatible with the typical Freudian process. In my own observation,
among the Histories here recorded, there are at least two clear examples
of such an attraction in childhood. It must further be said that any
theory of the etiology of homosexuality which leaves out of account the
hereditary factor in inversion cannot be admitted. The evidence for the
frequency of homosexuality among the near relatives of the inverted is now