_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. viii, 1906, p. 124 et seq.
[206] Similarly Numa Praetorius asserts (_Jahrbuch für 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] Näcke, "Die Diagnose der Homosexualität,"
_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 Homosexualität_, 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 Homosexualität_, 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 Homosexualität_,
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 Homosexualität_, p.
151.
[218] On the general signs of these conditions, see, e.g., H. Meige,
"L'Infantilisme, Le Féminisme 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: "Homosexualität und Beruf," _Jahrbuch für 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. Jäger 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 Bühne," _Jahrbuch für 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 Homosexualität," _Zentralblatt für 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
Homosexualität_, 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, Féré, 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 zoölogical 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
für 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 für 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 für 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 Neurösen 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 feminæ_ 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
indisputable. I have traced it in a considerable proportion of cases, and
in many of these the evidence is unquestionable and altogether independent
of the statement of the subject himself, whose opinion may be held to be
possibly biased or unreliable.[229] This hereditary factor seems indeed to
be called for by the Freudian theory itself. On that theory we need to
know how it is that the subject passes through psychic phases, and reaches
an emotional disposition, so unlike that of normal persona. The existence
of a definite hereditary tendency in a homosexual direction removes that
difficulty. Freud himself recognizes this and clearly asserts congenital
psycho-sexual constitution, which must involve predisposition. On a
general survey, therefore, it would appear that, on the psychic side, we
may accept the reality of unconscious dynamic processes which in
particular cases may be of the Freudian or similar type.
But while the
study of such mechanisms may illuminate the psychology of homosexuality,
they leave untouched the fundamental organic factors now accepted by most
authorities.[230]
The rational way of regarding the normal sexual instinct is as an inborn
organic impulse, reaching full development about the time of puberty.[231]
During the period of development suggestion and association may come in to
play a part in defining the object of the emotion; the soil is now ready,
but the variety of seeds likely to thrive in it is limited. That there is
a greater indefiniteness in the aim of the sexual impulse at this period
we may well believe. This is shown not only by occasional tentative signs
of sexual emotion directed toward the same sex in childhood, but by the
frequently ideal and unlocalized character of the normal passion even at
puberty. But the channel of sexual emotion is not thereby turned into an
abnormal path. Whenever this happens we are bound to believe--and we have
many grounds for believing--that we are dealing with an organism which
from the beginning is abnormal. The same seed of suggestion is sown in
various soils; in the many it dies out; in the few it flourishes. The
cause can only be a difference in the soil.
If, then, we must postulate a congenital abnormality in order to account
satisfactorily for at least a large proportion of sexual inverts, wherein
does that abnormality consist? Ulrichs explained the matter by saying that
in sexual inverts a male body coexists with a female soul: _anima
muliebris in corpore virile inclusa_. Even writers of scientific eminence,
like Magnan and Gley, have adopted