by
HAVELOCK ELLIS
1927
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
It has been remarked by Professor Wilhelm Ostwald that the problem of
homosexuality is a problem left over to us by the Middle Ages, which for
five hundred years dealt with inverts as it dealt with heretics and
witches. To regard the matter thus is to emphasize its social and
humanitarian interest rather than its biological and psychological
significance. It is no doubt this human interest of the question of
inversion, rather than its scientific importance, great as the latter is,
which is mainly responsible for the remarkable activity with which the
study of homosexuality has been carried on during recent years.
The result has been that, during the fourteen years that have passed since
the last edition of this _Study_ was issued, so vast an amount of work has
been carried on in this field that the preparation of a new edition of the
book has been a long and serious task. Nearly every page has been
rewritten or enlarged and the Index of Authors consulted has more than
doubled in length. The original portions of the book have been still more
changed; sixteen new Histories have been added, selected from others in my
possession as being varied, typical, and full.
These extensive additions to the volume have rendered necessary various
omissions. Many of the shorter and less instructive Histories contained in
earlier editions have been omitted, as well as three Appendices which no
longer seem of sufficient interest to retain. In order to avoid undue
increase in the size of this volume, already much larger than in the
previous editions, a new Study of Eonism, or sexo-esthetic inversion, will
be inserted in vol. v, where it will perhaps be at least as much in place
as here.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
It was not my intention to publish a study of an abnormal manifestation of
the sexual instinct before discussing its normal manifestations. It has
happened, however, that this part of my work is ready first, and, since I
thus gain a longer period to develop the central part of my subject, I do
not regret the change of plan.
I had not at first proposed to devote a whole volume to sexual inversion.
It may even be that I was inclined to slur it over as an unpleasant
subject, and one that it was not wise to enlarge on. But I found in time
that several persons for whom I felt respect and admiration were the
congenital subjects of this abnormality. At the same time I realized that
in England, more than in any other country, the law and public opinion
combine to place a heavy penal burden and a severe social stigma on the
manifestations of an instinct which to those persons who possess it
frequently appears natural and normal. It was clear, therefore, that the
matter was in special need of elucidation and discussion.
There can be no doubt that a peculiar amount of ignorance exists regarding
the subject of sexual inversion. I know medical men of many years' general
experience who have never, to their knowledge, come across a single case.
We may remember, indeed, that some fifteen years ago the total number of
cases recorded in scientific literature scarcely equaled those of British
race which I have obtained, and that before my first cases were published
not a single British case, unconnected with the asylum or the prison, had
ever been recorded. Probably not a very large number of people are even
aware that the turning in of the sexual instinct toward persons of the
same sex can ever be regarded as inborn, so far as any sexual instinct is
inborn. And very few, indeed, would not be surprised if it were possible
to publish a list of the names of sexually inverted men and women who at
the present time are honorably known in church, state, society, art, or
letters. It could not be positively affirmed of all such persons that they
were born inverted, but in most the inverted tendency seems to be
instinctive, and appears at a somewhat early age. In any case, however, it
must be realized that in this volume we are not dealing with subjects
belonging to the lunatic asylum, or the prison. We are concerned with
individuals who live in freedom, some of them suffering intensely from
their abnormal organization, but otherwise ordinary members of society. In
a few cases we are concerned with individuals whose moral or artistic
ideals have widely influenced their fellows, who know nothing of the
peculiar organization which has largely molded those ideals.
I am indebted to several friends for notes, observations, and
correspondence on this subject, more especially to one, referred to as
"Z.," and to another as "Q.," who have obtained a considerable number of
reliable histories for me, and have also supplied many valuable notes; to
"Josiah Flynt" (whose articles on tramps in _Atlantic Monthly_ and
_Harper's Magazine_ have attracted wide attention) for an appendix on
homosexuality among tramps; to Drs. Kiernan, Lydston, and Talbot for
assistance at various points noted in the text; and to Dr. K., an American
woman physician, who kindly assisted me in obtaining cases, and has also
supplied an appendix. Other obligations are mentioned in the text.
All those portions of the book which are of medical or medico-legal
interest, including most of the cases, have appeared during the last three
years in the _Alienist and Neurologist_, the _Journal of Mental Science_,
the _Centralblatt für Nervenheilkunde_, the _Medico-legal Journal_, and
the _Archivo delle Psicopatie Sessuale_. The cases, as they appear in the
present volume, have been slightly condensed, but nothing of genuine
psychological interest has been omitted. Owing to some delay in the
publication of the English edition of the work, a German translation by my
friend, Dr. Hans Kurella, editor of the _Centralblatt für
Nervenheilkunde_, has already appeared (1896) in the _Bibliothek für
Sozialwissenschaft_. The German edition contains some matter which has
finally been rejected from the English edition as of minor importance; on
the other hand, much has been added to the English edition, and the whole
carefully revised.
I have only to add that if it may seem that I have unduly ignored the
cases and arguments brought forward by other writers, it is by no means
because I wish to depreciate the valuable work done by my predecessors in
this field. It is solely because I have not desired to popularize the
results previously reached, but simply to bring forward my own results. If
I had not been able to present new facts in what is perhaps a new light, I
should not feel justified in approaching the subject of sexual inversion
at all.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Homosexuality Among Animals--Among the Lower Human Races--The
Albanians--The Greeks--The Eskimos--The Tribes of the Northwest United
States--Homosexuality Among Soldiers in Europe--
Indifference Frequently
Manifested by European Lower Classes--Sexual Inversion at
Rome--Homosexuality in Prisons--Among Men of Exceptional Intellect and
Moral Leaders--Muret--Michelangelo--Winkelmann--
Homosexuality in English
History--Walt Whitman--Verlaine--Burton's Climatic Theory of
Homosexuality--The Racial Factor--The Prevalence of Homosexuality Today.
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Westphal--Hössli--Casper--Ulrichs--Krafft-Ebing--Moll--
Féré--Kiernan--
Lydston--Raffalovich--Edward Carpenter--Hirschfeld.
CHAPTER III.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN MEN.
Relatively Undifferentiated State of the Sexual Impulse in Early Life--The
Freudian View--Homosexuality in Schools--The Question of Acquired
Homosexuality--Latent Inversion--Retarded Inversion--
Bisexuality--The
Question of the Invert's Truthfulness--Histories.
CHAPTER IV.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN WOMEN.
Prevalence of Sexual Inversion Among Women--Among Women of
Ability--Among the Lower Races--Temporary Homosexuality in Schools,
etc.--Histories--Physical and Psychic Characteristics of Inverted
Women--The Modern Development of Homosexuality Among Women.
CHAPTER V.
THE NATURE OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Analysis of Histories--Race--Heredity--General Health--
First Appearance of
Homosexual Impulse--Sexual Precocity and Hyperesthesia--
Suggestion and
Other Exciting Causes of Inversion--Masturbation--
Attitude Toward
Women--Erotic Dreams--Methods of Sexual Relationship--
Pseudo-sexual
Attraction--Physical Sexual Abnormalities--Artistic and Other
Aptitudes--Moral Attitude of the Invert.
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.
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSIONS.
The Prevention of Homosexuality--The Influence of the School--Coeducation--The Treatment of Sexual Inversion--Castration--Hypnotism--Associational Therapy--Psycho-analysis--Mental and Physical Hygiene--
Marriage--The
Children of Inverts--The Attitude of Society--The Horror Aroused by
Homosexuality--Justinian--The _Code Napoléon_--The State of the Law in
Europe Today--Germany--England--What Should be our Attitude Toward
Homosexuality?
APPENDIX A.
Homosexuality Among Tramps.
APPENDIX B.
The School-friendships of Girls.
INDEX OF AUTHORS.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
SEXUAL INVERSION.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Homosexuality Among Animals--Among the Lower Human Races--The
Albanians--The Greeks--The Eskimos--The Tribes of the Northwest United
States--Homosexuality Among Soldiers in Europe--
Indifference Frequently
Manifested by European Lower Classes--Sexual Inversion at
Rome--Homosexuality in Prisons--Among Men of Exceptional Intellect and
Moral Leaders--Muret--Michelangelo--Winkelmann--
Homosexuality in English
History--Walt Whitman--Verlaine--Burton's Climatic Theory of
Homosexuality--The Racial Factor--The Prevalence of Homosexuality Today.
Sexual inversion, as here understood, means sexual instinct turned by
inborn constitutional abnormality toward persons of the same sex. It is
thus a narrower term than homosexuality, which includes all sexual
attractions between persons of the same sex, even when seemingly due to
the accidental absence of the natural objects of sexual attraction, a
phenomenon of wide occurrence among all human races and among most of the
higher animals. It is only during recent years that sexual inversion has
been recognized; previously it was not distinguished from homosexuality in
general, and homosexuality was regarded as a national custom, as an
individual vice, or as an unimportant episode in grave forms of
insanity.[1] We have further to distinguish sexual inversion and all other
forms of homosexuality from another kind of inversion which usually
remains, so far as the sexual impulse itself is concerned, heterosexual,
that is to say, normal. Inversion of this kind leads a person to feel like
a person of the opposite sex, and to adopt, so far as possible, the
tastes, habits, and dress of the opposite sex, while the direction of the
sexual impulse remains normal. This condition I term sexo-esthetic
inversion, or Eonism.
The nomenclature of the highly important form of sexual
perversion with which we are here concerned is extremely varied,
and most investigators have been much puzzled in coming to a
conclusion as to the best, most exact, and at the same time most
colorless names to apply to it.
The first in the field in modern times was Ulrichs who, as early
as 1862, used the appellation "Uranian" (Uranier), based on the
well-known myth in Plato's _Banquet_. Later he Germanized this
term into "Urning" for the male, and "Urningin" for the female,
and referred to the condition itself as "Urningtum."
He also
invented a number of other related terms on the same basis; some
of these terms have had a considerable vogue, but they are too
fanciful and high-strung to secure general acceptance. If used in
other languages than German they certainly should not be used in
their Germanized shape, and it is scarcely legitimate to use the
term "Urning" in English. "Uranian" is more correct.
In Germany the first term accepted by recognized scientific
authorities was "contrary sexual feeling" (Konträre Sexualempfindung). It was devised by Westphal in 1869, and used
by Krafft-Ebing and Moll. Though thus accepted by the earliest
authorities in this field, and to be regarded as a fairly
harmless and vaguely descriptive term, it is somewhat awkward,
and is now little used in Germany; it was never currently used
outside Germany. It has been largely superseded by the term
"homosexuality." This also was devised (by a little-known
Hungarian doctor, Benkert, who used the pseudonym Kertbeny) in
the same year (1869), but at first attracted no attention. It
has, philologically, the awkward disadvantage of being a bastard
term compounded of Greek and Latin elements, but its significance--sexual attraction to the same sex--is fairly clear
and definite, while it is free from any question-begging
association of either favorable or unfavorable character. (Edward
Carpenter has proposed to remedy its bastardly linguistic
character by transforming it into "homogenic;" this, however,
might mean not only "toward the same sex," but "of the same
kind," and in German already possesses actually that meaning.)
The term "homosexual" has the further advantage that on account
of its classical origin it is easily translatable into many
languages. It is now the most widespread general term for the
phenomena we are dealing with, and it has been used by
Hirschfeld, now the chief authority in this field, as the title
of his encyclopedic work, _Die Homosexualität_.
"Sexual Inversion" (in French "inversion sexuelle,"
and in
Italian "inversione sessuale") is the term which has from the
first been chiefly used in France and Italy, ever since Charcot
and Magnan, in 1882, published their cases of this anomaly in the
_Archives de Neurologie_. It had already been employed in Italy
by Tamassia in the _Revista Sperimentale di Freniatria_, in 1878.
I have not discovered when and where the term
"sexual inversion"
was first used. Possibly it first appeared in English, for long
before the paper of Charcot and Magnan I have noticed, in an
anonymous review of Westphal's first paper in the _Journal of
Mental Science_ (then edited by Dr. Maudsley) for October, 1871,
that "Conträre Sexualempfindung" is translated as
"inverted
sexual proclivity." So far as I am aware, "sexual inversion" was
first used in English, as the best term, by J.A.
Symonds in 1883,
in his privately printed essay, _A Problem in Greek Ethics_.
Later, in 1897, the same term was adopted, I believe for the
first time publicly in English, in the present work.
It is unnecessary to refer to the numerous other names which have
been proposed. (A discussion of the nomenclature will be found in
the first chapter of Hirschfeld's work, _Die Homosexualität_, and
of some special terms in an article by Schouten, _Sexual-Probleme_, December, 1912.) It may suffice to mention the
ancient theological and legal term "sodomy"
(sodomia) because it
is still the most popular term for this perversion, though, it
must be remembered, it has become attached to the physical act of
intercourse _per anum_, even when carried out heterosexually, and
has little reference to psychic sexual proclivity.
This term has
its origin in the story (narrated in Genesis, ch.
xix) of Lot's
visitors whom the men of Sodom desired to have intercourse with,
and of the subsequent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This
story furnishes a sufficiently good ground for the use of the
term, though the Jews do not regard sodomy as the sin of Sodom,
but rather inhospitality and hardness of heart to the poor (J.
Preuss, _Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin_, pp. 579-81), and
Christian theologians also, both Catholic and Protestant (see,
e.g., _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol.
iv, p. 199,
and Hirschfeld, _Homosexualität_, p. 742), have argued that it
was not homosexuality, but their other offenses, which provoked
the destruction of the Cities of the Plain. In Germany "sodomy"
has long been used to denote bestiality, or sexual intercourse
with animals, but this use of the term is quite unjustified. In
English there is another term, "buggery," identical in meaning
with sodomy, and equally familiar. "Bugger" (in French,
_bougre_) is a corruption of "Bulgar," the ancient Bulgarian
heretics having been popularly supposed to practise this
perversion. The people of every country have always been eager to
associate sexual perversions with some other country than their
own.
The terms usually adopted in the present volume are
"sexual
inversion" and "homosexuality." The first is used more especially
to indicate that the sexual impulse is organically and innately
turned toward individuals of the same sex. The second is used
more comprehensively of the general phenomena of sexual
attraction between persons of the same sex, even if only of a
slight and temporary character. It may be admitted that there is
no precise warrant for any distinction of this kind between the
two terms. The distinction in the phenomena is, however, still
generally recognized; thus Iwan Bloch applies the term
"homosexuality" to the congenital form, and
"pseudo-homosexuality" to its spurious or simulated forms. Those
persons who are attracted to both sexes are now usually termed
"bisexual," a more convenient term than "psycho-sexual
hermaphrodite," which was formerly used. There remains the normal
person, who is "heterosexual."
Before approaching the study of sexual inversion in cases which we may
investigate with some degree of scientific accuracy, there is interest in
glancing briefly at the phenomena as they appear before us, as yet
scarcely or at all differentiated, among animals, among various human
races, and at various periods.
Among animals in a domesticated or confined state it is easy to find
evidence of homosexual attraction, due merely to the absence of the other
sex.[2] This was known to the ancients; the Egyptians regarded two male
partridges as the symbol of homosexuality, and Aristotle noted that two
female pigeons would cover each other if no male was at hand. Buffon
observed many examples, especially among birds. He found that, if male or
female birds of various species--such as partridges, fowls, and
doves--were shut up together, they would soon begin to have sexual
relations among themselves, the males sooner and more frequently than the
females. More recently Sainte-Claire Deville observed that dogs, rams, and
bulls, when isolated, first became restless and dangerous, and then
acquired a permanent state of sexual excitement, not obeying the laws of
heat, and leading them to attempts to couple together; the presence of the
opposite sex at once restored them to normal conditions.[3] Bombarda of
Lisbon states that in Portugal it is well known that in every herd of
bulls there is nearly always one bull who is ready to lend himself to the
perverted whims of his companions.[4] It may easily be observed how a cow
in heat exerts an exciting influence on other cows, impelling them to
attempt to play the bull's part. Lacassagne has also noted among young
fowls and puppies, etc., that, before ever having had relations with the
opposite sex, and while in complete liberty, they make hesitating attempts
at intercourse with their own sex.[5] This, indeed, together with similar
perversions, may often be observed, especially in puppies, who afterward
become perfectly normal. Among white rats, which are very sexual animals,
Steinach found that, when deprived of females, the males practise
homosexuality, though only with males with whom they have long associated;
the weaker rats play the passive part. But when a female is introduced
they immediately turn to her; although they are occasionally altogether
indifferent to sex, they never actually prefer their own sex.[6]
With regard to the playing of the female part by the weaker rats it is
interesting to observe that Féré found among insects that the passive part
in homosexual relations is favored by fatigue; among cockchafers it was
the male just separated from the female who would take the passive part
(on the rare occasions when homosexual relations occurred) with a fresh
male.[7]
Homosexuality appears to be specially common among birds. It was among
birds that it attracted the attention of the ancients, and numerous
interesting observations have been made in more recent times. Thus Selous,
a careful bird-watcher, finds that the ruff, the male of the _Machetes
pugnax_, suffers from sexual repression owing to the coyness of the female
(the reeve), and consequently the males often resort to homosexual
intercourse. It is still more remarkable that the reeves also, even in the
presence of the males, will court e