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 feminæ_. 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 feminæ_ 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 Näcke
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.)
Näcke and Colin Scott, some years ago, independently referred to
cases in which normal persons were liable to homosexual dreams,
and Féré (_Revue de Médecine_, Dec., 1898) referred to a man who
had a horror of women, but appeared only to manifest homosexuality in his dreams. Näcke (_Archiv für 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 Näcke'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 rôle, 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
Näcke:[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