The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bi-sexual love; the homosexual neurosis, by
Wilhelm Stekel
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
using this eBook.
Title: Bi-sexual love; the homosexual neurosis
Author: Wilhelm Stekel
Release Date: November 8, 2021 [eBook #66693]
Language: English
Produced by: Turgut Dincer, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The Internet
Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BI-SEXUAL LOVE; THE HOMOSEXUAL
NEUROSIS ***
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other
spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.
The footnotes have been placed at the end of the book.
Excerpts from the Professional Press on the work of DR. WM. STEKEL
We have lacked thus far a systematic clinical application of Freudian
analysis. Stekel’s work fills this need.
_Jung_, in MEDIZ. KLINIK.
* * * * *
... A standard work; a milestone in the psychiatric and
psycho-therapeutic literature.
Geh. Sanitätsrat _Dr. Gerster_, in DIE NEUE GENERATION.
* * * * *
It would be regrettable if the work did not attract fully the
attention of the scientific world; its deep sobriety and the fulness
of its details render it a treasury of information, primarily for
the physician, but, in large measure, of interest also to the
educationist, the minister, the teacher and, not least, to the student
of criminology....
_Horch_, in ARCHIV F. KRIMINALOGIE.
* * * * *
These case histories will be read with great interest by everyone,
including those who are inclined to maintain a sceptical attitude
towards psychoanalysis.
_Eulenburg_, in MEDIZINISCHE KLINIK.
* * * * *
Stekel’s work teaches practitioners a great many things they did not
know before, particularly about the significance of psychology and
sexual science in the practice of medicine.
_Hitschmann_, in INTERNAT. ZEITSCHRIFT F. PSYCHOANALYSE.
* * * * *
It is Stekel’s extraordinary merit that he compels us to take into
account a pressing mass of data which he brings to light with a
scientific zeal which is unfortunately still rare,—facts and
observations so penetrating, so true to life that these often render
unnecessary any formal statement of the obvious deductions which flow
from them.
DIE NEUE GENERATION.
* * * * *
The most modern problems are considered, new viewpoints are brought
out, while the excesses in the technique and interpretation of the
earlier stages of psychoanalysis are avoided.
_Kermauner_, in WIENER KLINISCHE WOCHENSCHRIFT.
* * * * *
All in all, Stekel’s is a work for which I bespeak the widest interest
not only among physicians, but also among jurists, educationists,
sociologists and ministers. Only an understanding of the mental life of
the individual will yield a proper view of our social life.
_Liepmann_, in ZEITSCHRIFT F. SEXUALWISSENSCH.
* * * * *
The work is a treasury for all who have occasion to probe the depths
of human life and should be a source of considerable information and
stimulus to every jurist who takes in earnest his professional duties.
Geh. Justizrat _Dr. Horch_, in ARCHIV F. KRIMINALOGIE.
* * * * *
It does not matter from what angle the work of Stekel is approached.
Any consideration of it reveals rich material. Stekel is a writer
who handles his subjects in a lavish manner; lavish, but with that
restraint which bends all to the urgency of his themes. He evidently
approaches his clinical work with the same exuberant interest. There
he reaps through psychoanalysis a rich harvest of results. He has
collected these results and presented them for the dissemination of
such knowledge of the sexual disturbances as he thus obtained. Facts
are there in great number. They cannot be gainsaid. Stekel’s own
evaluation of such facts and his earnest plea for their consideration,
both by the medical profession and by the society of men and women
where these facts exist, can speak only for themselves to the truly
conscientious reader. There is not much in these books that the
psychotherapeutist can afford to pass over.
NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL.
BI-SEXUAL LOVE
THE HOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
BY
DR. WILLIAM STEKEL
(VIENNA)
_Authorized translation by_
JAMES S. VAN TESLAAR, M.D.
(For sale only to Members of the
Medical Profession.)
[Illustration]
BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY RICHARD G. BADGER
All Rights Reserved
Made in the United States of America
The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.
_Preface_
The present work is the English version of a part of one of the volumes
in the author’s massive series of clinical studies bearing the generic
title, _Disorders of the Instincts and Emotions_ and covering the
whole range of the so-called _Parapathic Maladies_. The translation
represents approximately one-half of the _Homosexualität_ of the volume
entitled _Onanie und Homosexualität_, and bearing the sub-title, _Die
Homosexuelle Neurose_. The balance of the _Homosexual Neurosis_ and the
author’s clinical study of _Autoerotism_ are also translated and will
appear shortly.
It is the author’s intention, and mine as his translator, to issue
an English version of all the volumes in this comprehensive series.
In addition to the subjects covered in the present volume and in the
two volumes to follow shortly, the _Disorders of the Instincts and
the Emotions_ include the _Anxiety States_, _Female Frigidity_, _Male
Impotence_, _Infantilism_ (including _Exhibitionism_ and _Fetichism_),
the _Compulsion Neuroses_ and _Morbid Doubts_. The range of the
subjects and the plan of the volumes already published show that the
series as conceived by the author forms a complete clinical account of
the psychogenetic disorders, and represents the most recent development
of scientific research. Since the genetic study of these parapathic
maladies involves a thorough understanding of the facts of sexual life
Dr. Stekel’s works on the _Disorders of the Instincts and the Emotions_
constitute incidentally the latest practical reference Handbook of
Sexual Science in the light of our newer knowledge and should prove
also on that score of inestimable value to the medical and the allied
learned professions.
The absence of formal systematic instruction in the Principles and
Practice of Psychoanalysis in spite of the wide interest that the
subject has deservedly aroused in our midst is highly regrettable,
the more so since the lack of systematic instruction in our country
deprives the older practitioners as well as the oncoming generations of
physicians of an opportunity to familiarize themselves with this most
important branch of therapy. Even though the curriculum of instruction
in our schools, and particularly in our medical colleges, is admittedly
burdened with a bewildering plethora of other branches of instruction,
it is inconceivable that our colleges, our hospitals and psychiatric
institutes, and our other institutions of higher learning will long
continue to neglect a subject of such vital importance as psychotherapy
and re-education, now that the subject has been placed, at last, upon
a solid basis through the application of the psychobiotic and genetic
methods of approach. But it will probably take considerable time before
competent instruction to fill the need will be available.
It appears therefore highly desirable that an English version of Dr.
Stekel’s works should make their appearance at this time. For in the
absence of formal instruction his clinical studies form an excellent
substitute, perhaps the most suitable means available for post-graduate
instruction in the clinical aspects of Psychoanalysis. And should
systematic courses be made available in the near future, in response to
the urgent need, our instructors and students alike will undoubtedly
find the Stekel series most valuable aids for study and guidance.
In a letter received from Dr. Stekel while this work was going through
the press he states that a new edition of _Onanie und Homosexualität_
is being issued in the original, bearing a dedication to the present
translator.
v. T.
Brookline, Mass.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Krafft-Ebing considers onanism the cause of homosexuality—Confusion
of cause and effect—The
views of Krafft-Ebing—The views of Moll—of
Havelock Ellis—of Bloch—of Magnus Hirschfeld—How
is the diagnosis established?—The fundamental
bisexuality of all persons—Relation of
neurosis and homosexuality—The family of the
homosexual—The views of Bloch on the problem—The
influence of the psyche on the organism—Wish
as active factor of the psyche—My theory—
The theories of Kiernan, Chevalier and Lombroso—The
neurotic as a retrograded type—Early
awakening of sexuality 11
II The development of sexuality—-the bisexual ideal
of all persons—The fundamental law of sexuality—The
rôle of homosexuality in neurosis—Womanly
men and mannish women—Gerontophilia—Love
of prostitutes—The significance of sexual
symbols—Various masks of homosexuality—Transvestites—A
case of Transvestism—The significance
of the hose as a symbol—Love at first sight—The
critical age—The pleasure seeker—The
case of a man passive through the critical age—Neurotic
types of homosexuality—The Don
Juan type—Psychoanalysis of a Don Juan—Passionate
falling in love during advanced age,
significant—Analysis of a Don Juan 53
III Diagnosis of Satyriasis—Priapism—A case of Satyriasis—A
second case of Satyriasis—A case of
nymphomania—Proof that the cravings represented
by this condition are traceable to the ungratified
homosexual instinct 129
IV Description of Don Juan types who are satisfied
with conquest and forego physical possession—An
unlucky hero, whose love adventures are interfered
with by gastric derangements—A would-be
Messalina who hesitates on account of vomiting
spells—Influence of religion on neurosis 175
V Resistance of homosexuals against cure and their
pride in their condition—Acquired vs. inherited—Insanity
and alcoholism betray the inner man—Three
cases by Colla illustrating behavior during
alcoholic intoxication—Observations of Numa
Prætonis—The case of Hugo Deutsch—Views of
Juliusburger—Two personal observations—A case
of Moll—Views of Fleischmann and Naecke—A
personal observation—Bloch on woman haters 241
VI May disgust produce the homosexual attitude?
Cases by Krafft-Ebing, Fleischmann, Ziemcke—Observation
(personal) and case by Bloch—Late
trauma as cause of homosexuality—Personal
observation of a case of late homosexuality—Two
cases by Bloch—Further discussion of the
problem—A case of Pfister’s with the analysis
of several dreams 279
VII Erotism and sexuality—The motive power of unfulfilled
wishes—The male protest—The relations
of the homosexual to his mother—Hirschfeld’s
schematic outline—Infantile impressions—Influence
of the stronger parent—Letter of an
expert 331
Index 353
I
Krafft-Ebing considers Onanism the Cause of Homosexuality—Confusion
of Cause and Effect—The Views of Krafft-Ebing—The Views of Moll—of
Havelock Ellis—of Bloch—of Magnus Hirschfeld—How is the Diagnosis
established?—The fundamental Bisexuality of all Persons—Relation
of Neurosis and Homosexuality—The Family of the Homosexual—The
Views of Bloch on the Problem—The Influence of the Psyche on the
Organism—Wish as active Factor of the Psyche—My theory—The Theories
of Kiernan, Chevalier and Lombroso—The Neurotic as a retrograded
type—Early awakening of sexuality.
_Leben—ist das nicht gerade ein Andersseinwollen, als die Natur
ist?—Nietzsche._
BI-SEXUAL LOVE
I
_Living,—is it not the will to be otherwise than nature
is?—Nietzsche._
That there are preeminent physicians who earnestly look upon
masturbation as the cause of homosexuality seems hardly believable. It
would be as proper to consider masturbation the cause of sexuality.
We have shown elsewhere that onanism may be the result of ungratified
homosexual trends. At times it may stand as a substitute for some
homosexual act. It then replaces for a time the adequate temporary form
of sexual gratification. I state “temporary form,” because the sexual
object itself does not remain permanently the same and the sexual
directive goals,—to use the excellent expression of _Hans Blüher_[1]
are often abandoned. The false notion that onanism is responsible for
homosexuality has been preconized by _Krafft-Ebing_, whose great
authority in matters of sexual psychopathology persists to this day.
His services are significant, indeed, and we must observe that he
has at last accepted the view of _Hirschfeld_ that homosexuality is
inborn,—that there is an acquired and a hereditary homosexuality.[2]
But in the last (14th) edition of _Krafft-Ebing’s_ work, which has
appeared in 1912, his editor, _Alfred Fuchs_, preserves the statement
about onanism at the head of the chapter and he even underscores the
contentions of his great teacher on this particular subject.[3]
My work proves that we must abandon the merely descriptive method of
sexual research. The subject’s first account is only a statement of
the manifest content of his consciousness concerning his paraphilia.
We must look into the latent content, into the unconscious and
quasi-conscious forces involved. The descriptive form of sexual
research must be replaced by the psychological, in keeping with the
spirit of our times. In no other field does analysis so convincingly
and completely prove its claims.
What was the status of the subject before the advent of analysis?
_Krafft-Ebing_ originally looked upon homosexuality as the result
of a hereditary transmission, a hypothesis not corroborated by the
observations of subsequent investigators. Certain circumstances favor
an outcropping in manifest form of the latent homosexuality common
to all persons,—a fact which complicates this problem. Environment
also comes into play. An environment such as is furnished by some
nervous or psychopathic parents naturally plays a role. This subject we
shall take up later. The alleged hereditary transmission is supposed
to show itself in the homosexual through the early awakening of the
sexual instinct and by the appearance of masturbation during early
childhood. But we know that the homosexuals share this peculiarity
with all others, especially with neurotic persons. A strong flaring
up of instinct is not the consequence but the cause of the neurosis.
But according to _Krafft-Ebing_ masturbation during childhood is
the cause of homo-or pseudo-homosexuality breaking forth at a later
period. “Nothing is more likely,” he states, “than masturbation, so to
disturb and occasionally thwart all noble emotions at the source as
they arise spontaneously out of the sexual feeling.[4] The habit robs
the nascent feeling of charm and beauty leaving behind only the husk
of grossly animal craving for sexual gratification. An individual, so
thwarted, attains the age of maturity lacking the esthetic, ideal, pure
and undefiled longing which leads to the other sex. At the same time
the heat of sensuous passion cools off while the inclination towards
the other sex is significantly weakened. This deficiency embraces the
morals, the ethics, the character, the phantasy and the disposition
of the youthful masturbator as well as his emotional and instinctive
life and holds true of both sexes, occasionally reducing to zero the
yearning after the opposite sex, so that in the end masturbation is
preferred to every other form of gratification.”
Imagine the injurious effect of such statements upon the masturbating
youth; particularly when he reads that the best way to combat
homosexuality is to fight against masturbation (p. 336, _loc. cit._).
The great investigator has confused here cause and effect. The
masturbators avoid the path leading to woman not because they
masturbate. They indulge in the habit because the path towards
womanhood is closed to them. For many persons masturbation is the only
available method of sexual gratification. Persons with a strongly
accentuated homosexual tendency often find no other path open at all,
particularly when the intercourse with woman becomes impossible for
them on account of some definite traumatic incidents, such as we shall
discuss fully later.
Masturbation is never _the cause_ of homosexuality. Homosexuals do not
contract the habit early, as _Krafft-Ebing_ claims,—it is an early,
a very early habit of all persons—and that without any exception.
The homosexuals do not forget their childhood onanism because there
are other, more painful memories for them to repress and drive out
of memory. Again we shall speak fully of that later. More important
for the present is the question: how does homosexuality arise? Is the
condition hereditary or acquired? Is it something fatally predetermined
or is it only the result of certain definite constellations of the
family circle? May it be ascribed to a hereditary taint? _Krafft-Ebing_
was at first of the latter opinion and propounded the thesis that
“we may doubt whether a person of the same sex ever has a sensuous
attraction for a normally predisposed individual,” but later he changed
this opinion fundamentally and expressed the conviction that there is
an inborn homosexuality though the condition is found only among the
hereditarily predisposed.
He propounded the following theses:
“1. The sexual life of such persons manifests itself as a rule very
precociously and consequently, is of abnormal strength. Not rarely the
peculiar attraction for members of the same sex which in itself marks
the abnormal direction of the sexual instinct is associated with other
perverse manifestations.
“2. The spiritual love of these persons is frequently an exalted
dreaming just as their sexual instinct as a whole penetrates their
consciousness with a peculiar and even compulsive strength.
“3. In addition to the functional signs of degeneration manifested
in the contrary sexual instinct often there are found also other
functional and frequently also anatomic stigmata of degeneration.
“4. Neuroses are present (hysteria, neurasthenia, epileptoid states,
etc.). Neurasthenia, transitional or chronic, is nearly always
manifest. This is usually a constitutional state induced by inborn
conditions. It is awakened and sustained through masturbation or
compulsory abstinence.”[5]
These statements are relatively milder and here the ideal traits
of homosexuality are also given some recognition, although—as we
know well—all without exception are addicted to masturbation.
_Krafft-Ebing_ does not know that all artists are neurotics and that
neurosis stands in intimate connection with creative ability. He also
makes a distinction between true and false homosexuality,—bisexuality
(psychic hermaphroditism) and other forms, as described by
_Hirschfeld_.[6]
_Krafft-Ebing_ points out a certain relationship between homosexuality
and neurosis. But since he still preserves the concept of degeneration,
he is forced in the end to admit that homosexuality may also appear in
the normal and is not necessarily a morbidity.
_Moll_, to whom we owe the first great comprehensive work on
homosexuality, is of an entirely different opinion. He states:
“Considering the sexual instinct not as a means for the attainment of
pleasure but as standing in the service of procreation we must look
upon exclusive homosexuality as belonging to the realm of pathology.”
(_Die kontraere Sexualempfindung_, Berlin, 1899, 3rd edn.) This is an
untenable argument. _For there is no procreative instinct as such,
only a sexual instinct._ Science is not concerned with the study of
purposiveness, it is interested in the ascertainment of facts. Science
must not and cannot be placed in the service of teleology. At any
rate _Moll_ is inclined to look upon homosexuality as a neurosis:
he claims to have found in recent years a growing tendency among
investigators to establish a border province between mental health and
disease, “and into that realm have been relegated many cases of psychic
degeneration—I may mention, for instance, certain compulsory neuroses.
I believe it is proper that we should place in the same category the
contrary sexual feeling.” (_Loc. cit._ p. 435.) He refers here to
_Westphal_ who compares homosexuality to moral insanity.[7]
Notwithstanding _Moll’s_ opinion we must state that most modern
investigators declare that they have examined many homosexuals whom
they have found normal or have at least designated as normal.
_Havelock Ellis_ and _Albert Moll_[8] very appropriately state in their
last joint work:
“_Naecke_ has repeatedly maintained that the homosexuals are perfectly
healthy and aside from their specific deviation may be normal in
every respect. We have always maintained this view although, contrary
to _Naecke_, we assume that _homosexuality is very frequently found
in intimate association with minor nervous states_. We agree with
_Hirschfeld_ that heredity plays a rôle in no more than 25 per cent
of the cases of homosexuality and that, although a neuropathic
background may be present in homosexuality, the degenerative factor
plays but a small role.” These authors find the hypothesis that every
person’s constitution combines the male and female elements a keen
concept though rather hypothetical. “But still it is undoubtedly
justified, if we look upon homosexuality as an inborn anomaly or, to
speak more correctly, as an anomaly resting on constitutional traits,
which if morbid, are so only in _Virchow’s_ sense, according to whom
pathology is not the science of diseases but of deviations, so that the
homosexual may be as healthy as the color blind. Inborn homosexuality
ranks on the level of a biologic variation: it is a variation,
representing perhaps an incomplete phase of sexual differentiation,
but bearing no discernible relationship to any morbid condition of the
individual.”
I am inclined to doubt this view. What proof have we that the
homosexual is perfectly healthy when any criterion of health we may
accept must be artificial? On this point we have only the statements of
the involved persons to rely upon. All describe themselves as healthy.
Do not advanced psychopaths do the same? They lack any feeling of
illness. This seems to be characteristic of homosexuals in particular.
They want their condition to be looked upon as normal. They claim to
be in good health, seldom wish to change their condition, and usually
do not call for medical advice unless they come into conflict with the
law and find themselves in danger. The authors themselves very properly
remark: “As to the men, the homosexuals prefer to hold themselves as
normal and endeavor to justify that contention. Those who struggle
against their instinctive craving, who look upon their conduct as
peculiar or so much as entertain any doubts about it, are in the
minority,—less than 20 per cent.”
Naturally the large number of homosexual physicians have always tried
to convince their observers that they are normal and that they do
not differ from other persons in any other way. But all unprejudiced
observers have to admit the presence of numerous neurotic traits in
connection with homosexuality. This I have undertaken to prove _sine
ira et studio_ having met numberless homosexuals and having become
very closely acquainted with many of them. _I have never yet found a
homosexual who was not a neurotic._ He is necessarily that, as I shall
later prove. He must be neurotic, the same as the heterosexual, who
struggles to overcome and repress a vast portion of homosexual longing
with him. _Havelock Ellis_ and _Moll_ as well as _Krafft-Ebing_ also
lay stress upon the tendency to neurasthenia. But who nowadays is not
neurasthenic? is a question frequently heard. Such an unprejudiced
investigator as _Iwan Bloch_ becomes convinced and recognizes an
inborn homosexuality which must not be conceived as a morbidity. For a
long time _Bloch_ preconized a different view but changed his opinion
convinced by _Hirschfeld’s_ work and through his own professional
contact with homosexuals. He is now a believer in the theory of
inborn homosexuality having been led to this view particularly by the
statements of the homosexuals. Later we shall prove how unreliable such
statements must be. At any rate so keen an observer as _Bloch_ could
not fail to note the striking percentage of neurotic homosexuals. But
he thought they were nervous because “homosexuality acts upon them as
a psychic trauma.” Further he states: “According to my investigations
and observations the _relationship between health and disease among
homosexuals is originally the same as among heterosexuals_ and in time,
on account of the social and individual isolation of the homosexuals,
acting like a psychic trauma, morbidity becomes accentuated; usually we
encounter nervous complaints and difficulties of an acquired character,
and we note the development of a typical ‘homosexual neurasthenia,’
which may readily enough lead some superficial observers to confuse
_post hoc_ with _propter hoc_.” Undoubtedly the dangers of homosexual
activity favor the development of anxiety states. But such nervous
states are found also in cases showing no predisposition towards
anxiety, and anxiety states are encountered without any relation to
homosexuality.
_Magnus Hirschfeld_ places himself with all the weight of his
personality and experience squarely in favor of the contention that
homosexuality is a normal state. His investigations touching upon
this field are numerous. We also owe to his labors that great work on
the subject: _Die Homosexualitaet des Mannes und des Weibes_. (The
Homosexuality of Man and of Woman, Verlag L. Marcus, Berlin, SW, 61.)
No investigator interested in this subject can neglect this fundamental
and exhaustive treatment of it. Subsuming the views of _Hirschfeld_
we may state: There is a genuine inborn homosexuality which must not
be looked upon as a morbidity. This homosexuality should be confused
neither with bisexuality nor with pseudo-homosexuality. _Hirschfeld_,
too, has changed his views in the course of time. He had conceived
homosexuality as a sexual intermediary stage between man and woman and
proposed the famous term: _the third sex_. As is well known all persons
are bisexual. _Hirschfeld_ looked for the well known physical stigmata
of bisexuality among the homosexuals. He found among men enlargement of
the breasts, female hips, delicate skin, etc., and among women growth
of facial hair, male, energetic traits, etc. In his work entitled, _Der
Urnische Mensch_, he maintained: “A homosexual not differing bodily,
physically and mentally from the full grown man I have not found among
1500 subjects and I am therefore disposed to doubt the occurrence
until I shall meet such an individual.” But in his more recent work
he declares: “The androgynic type of man and the gynandric type of
woman are not necessarily homosexual. There are types of persons which
may be described as eunuchoid,—they give the impression of castrated
persons without having undergone the operation,—they possess female
bodies, high voice and beardless face. Generally there is azoospermia,
frequently anorchia. There are corresponding types in the female
sex,—persons with bodies showing many masculine traits. These marked
womanly men and mannish women are often considered homosexual, but
it is not uncommon to find them completely heterosexual inasmuch as
they find complementary individuals among the types belonging to the
opposite sex. The types which attract them are also androgynous.”[9]
_Hirschfeld_ does not admit the influence of latent homosexuality in
the choice of this androgenic type. A homosexual whose condition is
not manifest he does not recognize. His ground for diagnosis is no
longer similarity of bodily traits when compared with the opposite
sex. The determining factor for _Hirschfeld_ is only the subject’s
feeling. _If he is homosexually inclined (particularly if so disposed
from childhood), the subject is homosexual._ _Hirschfeld’s_ own
statement is as follows: “The determining factor in the diagnosis
of homosexuality remains as before the contrary feeling proper; the
diagnosis is strongly supported by a negative attitude towards the
other sex, as well as by altero-sexual episodes, although these two
features in themselves are not capable of establishing the diagnosis.”
Since _Bloch_ also admits that there are many virile homosexuals with
bodily structures wholly male, it follows that the organic diagnosis
of homosexuality is altogether unreliable. _Hans Blüher_, a reliable
expert on homosexuality, also recognizes the pure homosexual, which he
calls the “male hero” type, whose character and habitus is completely
male, thus differing from the second type, the “woman-like invert”
(_invertierter Weibling_). The latent homosexual he considers a
third type. (Vid. _Die drei Grundformen der Homosexualitaet: Eine
sexuologische Studie._ Jahrbuch f. sexuelle Zwischenstuffen, vol. XIII).
Let us repeat and underscore the far-fetched feature of this
method of diagnosis. According to it _there is no objective means
for ascertaining homosexuality. The only diagnostic guide is the
homosexual’s declaration that he has always felt homosexually inclined
and that he is indifferent towards the other sex._
The analyst is well qualified to recognise the utter weakness of such
a diagnostic guide. We meet continually persons who claim to know
themselves thoroughly; they claim that they have investigated their own
state very conscientiously but after a few weeks, often only after a
few days (illustrations will be fully given in this book) the subject
must admit that he did not know himself, that, in fact, he had avoided
knowing himself. _All persons lie about sexual matters and deceive
themselves in the first place._ All play _Vogel-strauss-politik_, the
ostrich.
_All neurotics falsify their life history or at least retouch it._ They
simply forget the facts which do not suit their system of thinking. We
must also bear in mind _Havelock Ellis’_ statement that the homosexuals
prefer to consider themselves as normal. Similarly the childhood
history is distorted consciously or unconsciously and a life history is
reconstructed (in retrospect) from which all heterosexual episodes have
been eliminated.
Psychoanalysis has proven that all homosexuals, without exception,
show heterosexual tendencies in early life. There is no exception to
this rule. _There are no monosexual persons!_ The heterosexual period
stretches far into puberty. _All persons are bisexual._ But persons
repress either the homosexual or the heterosexual components on
account of certain motives or because they are compelled by particular
circumstances and consequently act as if they were monosexual. Even
the “male hero” (_Maennerheld_) type and _Hirschfeld’s_ “genuine”
homosexual is only apparently monosexual. A glance through the
confessions disclosed by all writers is enough to convince one of
this fact. _Hirschfeld_ himself points out that it is to the credit
of psychoanalysis that it has revealed the transitory heterosexual
cravings of the homosexual.
_The instinct of the homosexual originally is not exclusively directed
towards the same sex. Originally the homosexual is also bisexual._
But he represses his heterosexuality just as the heterosexual must
repress his homosexuality. _Blüher_ who is unwilling to recognise a
pathogenesis of homosexuality for the ‘male hero’ type, contends that
one could claim with equal relevance that there is a pathogenesis of
heterosexuality.
That is a fact. Every monosexuality is other than normal or natural.
_Nature has created us bisexual beings and requires us to act as
bisexual beings._ The purely heterosexual is always a neurotic in a
certain sense, that is, the repression of the homosexual components
already creates a predisposition to neurosis, or is in itself a
neurotic trait shared by every normal person. The psychology of
paranoia, for whose investigation we are indebted to the genius of
_Freud_, shows us the extreme result of this process of repression on
one side, just as homosexuality shows us the other side of the same
process.
There is no homosexual who is not more or less neurotic, that condition
being due to the repression of the heterosexuality. The repression
is a purely psychic process and has nothing to do with degeneration.
Homosexuality is not a product of degeneration in the ordinary sense.
It is a neurosis and displays the etiology of a neurosis, as we shall
prove later.
I revert to _Hirschfeld_. Regarding the relationship of neurosis and
homosexuality he states:
“1. Pronounced physical and mental stigmata of degeneration are
relatively rare among homosexual men and women; at any rate such signs
are not more frequent in proportion to the total number of homosexuals
than among the heterosexuals of both sexes.
“2. On the other hand we find frequently and not merely as a result
of homosexuality, _a greater instability of the nervous system_
(frequently shown in the periodic character of endogenous temperamental
instability) (_endogene Stimmungsschwankungen_).
“3. The family of the homosexual often contains a larger number of
nervous persons and such as deviate from the normal sexual type.
(_Hirschfeld_, _l.c._, _p._ 338).
_Hirschfeld_ also emphasizes the labile character of the nervous system
among homosexuals pointing to the large number of abnormal sexual
types in the family of the homosexual. That undoubtedly is a correct
observation. It may be explained in two ways: (1) as the result of
heredity; (2) as a consequence of a common environment. The extent to
which these two factors are at work in particular instances may be
ascertained only on the basis of specific inquiries.
I can state from my own professional experience that the parents of
homosexuals always show abnormal character traits. With remarkable
frequency male homosexuals have mothers who are melancholic, or
subject to depressions or who are advanced hystericals. All gradations
are found, from the emotional, domineering type of woman to the
solitary, quiet, submissive woman who becomes a prey to melancholia
and eventually must be interned in some institution. Urlinds show just
as frequently a pathologic father, a home tyrant, a drinker, morphine
fiend, dissolute fellow, ‘lady killer,’ epileptic or hysterical. We
will determine later to what extent such parents influence psychically
their offspring and the attitude of the children towards them. Careful
investigation of life histories will make the subject plain.
How do the various writers explain the rise of homosexuality? We have
mentioned already that _Hirschfeld_ and all investigators deriving
their inspiration from him hold to the theory that homosexuality is
inborn. According to them, therefore, it is part of inexorable fate,
like the law of the planets....
But _Bloch_ finds the condition baffling in spite of all the
explanations furnished by _Hirschfeld_ and reverting to the latter’s
chemical theory (_andrin_ and _gynecin_) he concludes:
“(1) The so-called ‘undifferentiated’ stage of the sexual instinct
(_Max Dessoir_) is often eliminated when the sexual instinct becomes
directed towards a definite particular sex among heterosexuals or
homosexuals before the advent of puberty. Homosexuality shows a
definite, clear direction of the sexual instinct towards the same sex
long before puberty.
“2. A comprehensive theory of homosexuality must also explain the
extreme cases, particularly male homosexuality coupled with complete
virility.
“3. Sexual parts and genital glands cannot determine homosexuality
in those possessing typical normal male genitalia and testicles;
neither can the brain itself be the determining factor in genuine
homosexuality, because homosexuality cannot be rooted out by the
strongest conscious and unconscious heterosexual influences brought to
bear upon thought and phantasy,—the condition developing in spite of
such influences.
“4. Since as a predisposition (not as sexual instinct) homosexuality
appears long before puberty and before the actual functioning of
the respective genital glands, it suggests that in homosexuals some
physiologic action pertaining to ‘sexuality’ but not necessarily
related to the functioning of the genital glands undergoes some subtle
change as the result of which the sexual instinct is turned from its
goal.
“5. The condition suggests chemical changes, alterations in the chemism
of sexual tension, the latter being fairly independent of the activity
of the sexual glands proper, as is shown by the fact that it may be
preserved among eunuchs and others who undergo castration.” (_Bloch_,
_loc. cit._ p. 589).
Further he states: “In my opinion the anatomic contradiction, the
biologic monstrosity of a womanly, or unmanly psyche in a typical male
body or a womanly-unmanly sexual psyche in the presence of normally
appearing and functioning male genitalia can be solved only if we take
into consideration this intercurrent third factor. The latter may be
traceable to some embryonal disturbance in the sexual chemism. That
would also explain why homosexuality often appears in the midst of
healthy families as a singular manifestation, having no relation to
any possible hereditary transmission or degenerative taint. On the
other hand, the contention of _v. Roemer_ that homosexuality is a
regenerative process has hardly any points to support it. The root of
the riddle of homosexuality lies here. At least I conceive it to be a
riddle. With my theory I endeavor to cover merely the facts and the
probable physiologic relationship of homosexuality with particular
reference to the biologic aspect of the problem and to do it more
closely than the previous theories have done it. But my theory does
not attempt to explain the ultimate origin of the relatively frequent
condition known as homosexuality.
“I do not claim to be able to penetrate into the last ultimate causes.
This remains a riddle to be solved. But from the standpoint of
culture and procreation homosexuality appears to be a meaningless and
purposeless dysteleological manifestation, like many another natural
appearance, such as, for instance, the vermiform appendix in man. In a
former chapter I have already pointed out that the progress of culture
has been in the direction of a sharper differentiation of sexes, that
the antithesis male and female, becomes progressively sharper. Sexual
indifference, genital transition-forms are of primitive character and
_Eduard v. Mayer_ is correct when he holds that homosexuality was
much more widespread during the prehistoric age than it is today and
considers it as common, genetically, as heterosexual love. Through
heredity, adjustment and differentiation, culture has progressively
repressed the homosexual leanings.” (_Bloch_, _loc. cit._ p. 590.)
Concerning these novel theories of homosexuality I must remark: _It
is not correct that the homosexuals before puberty show an exclusive
definite inclination towards their own sex and only towards their
own._ The truth is that like all other persons, the homosexuals
show a bisexual period (the undifferentiated stage of _Max Dessoir_)
before puberty. Only they forget their heterosexual experiences. The
truth is that a comprehensive theory of homosexuality ought to explain
also the extreme cases, specifically male homosexuality coupled with
complete preservation of vitality and female homosexuality with the
preservation of all feminine characters. Such cases are covered neither
by _Hirschfeld’s_ theory nor by that of _Bloch_. The third point is
equally pertinent. It cannot be a question of brain and genital gland.
Chemical influences are likely, but difficult to prove.
The baffling feature of the problem is due to the fact that the attempt
has been made to explain all cases of homosexuality on the basis of a
single plan.
As a matter of fact homosexuality may develop in a number of ways and
each one must be taken into consideration. That the genital glands
play a role in homosexuality seems to me very likely. But while these
influences may be suspected they cannot be proven. What I am able to
prove on the basis of my data are the psychic factors.
Nor must we forget that not only does the body influence the mind,
but that the reverse is also true: the psyche builds up the body
in accordance with its predispositions. We find that the artist’s
physiognomy differs from that of the artisan, and the physician’s
differs from that of the attorney. The mind also models the body.
A man who feels himself woman-like and who longs to be a woman will
unconsciously adopt woman’s ways and imitate woman. In the course of
time even his appearance will be womanly. Possibly—that agrees with my
view—the transformation is conditioned by glandular changes. We may
presuppose that, but the notion appertains to the realm of hypothesis,
which I prefer to avoid.
All writers seem to neglect the powerful role of the psychic factors.
These factors may seem unreal to the upholder of mechanistic
theories. Unfortunately most physicians underestimate the power of
the unconscious wish as a plastic and synthesising energy within the
human organism. The wish to be a man may raise boys to manliness;
the wish to remain a child hinders development towards adulthood;
the wish to be a woman makes for femininity. Any one familiar with
_Pawlow’s_ investigations of the ‘conditioned reflex’ will readily see
that certain particular wishes may exert a definite influence upon
the activity of the genital glands. The wishes are certainly capable
of influencing the appearance, action, activity and features of the
individual.
When a boy acts like a girl, it does not necessarily mean that he has
that kind of a predisposition. It may only signify his identification
with his mother or with a sister.
Very clearly on this point is the testimony of a case of which I find
an account in _Hirschfeld’s_ book.
A homosexual woman writes: “I was born in the country, where my father
owned a large estate, and there I was brought up till my 14th year.
I was the youngest. My oldest brother had girlish ways about him and
was mother’s pet rather than father’s, whose favorite child, in turn,
was my eldest sister. On my part I am the thorough image of my father
in all character traits and in my sensuous predisposition as well. In
later years father had often said: ‘With you and Ludwig (the elder
brother) nature made a mistake; you should have been a boy and Ludwig
a girl.’ Nevertheless I am certain that father knew nothing about
homosexuality, also that my brother was not homosexual. My peculiar
predisposition showed itself already while I was a child, for it was
always my greatest desire to be a boy. As a child two or three years
of age, I put on some of father’s clothes, played with his cap and
promenaded around the yard with his walking stick.” (_Hirschfeld_,
_loc. cit._, p. 43).
We see clearly that this young woman identified herself with her
father. She wanted to be a man like her father.
The remarks of _Ulrichs_ (_vid. Inclusa_, p. 27 ffl.) may be understood
in the same sense: “As a child the urning shows an unmistakable
predisposition towards girlish occupations, intercourse with girls,
girlish games, and playing with dolls. Such a child is very sorry
that it is not ‘boy-like’ to play with dolls, that Santa Claus does
not bring him also dolls and that he is not allowed to play with his
sister’s dolls. Such a child shows interest in sewing, knitting and
cutting, in the soft and delicate texture of girls’ clothes, such as
he, too, would like to wear, and in the colored silks and ribbons
of which he delights to abstract some specimens as keepsakes. He
avoids contact with boys, he avoids their plays and games. The play
horse leaves him indifferent. Soldier games, so much in favor with
boys do not attract him. He avoids all boyish rough plays, such as
snow-balling. He likes ordinary ball games but only with girls. He
throws the ball with the girl’s light and stilted arm movement not
with a boy’s free and powerful arm swing. Any one who has occasion
to observe a boy urning and does it carefully may verify these or
similar peculiarities. Is that all only imagination? I had observed
in myself long ago the peculiarities mentioned above and, moreover,
they always impressed me, although I did not at first recognize their
female character. In 1854 I related the facts to a relative of mine,
intimating that they must have some bearing on my sexuality. He scorned
the idea and I yielded to his opinion at the time. But in 1862 I took
up that matter again with him: meanwhile I had had opportunity to
observe other urnings and I noted that the female _habitus_ recurred
in every one, although not precisely with the same particular features.
But the female _habitus_ differs also among women with regard to
certain details. In my case, as a boy of 10 or 12 years of age, how
often my dear mother sighed as she exclaimed: ‘Karl, you are not like
other boys.’ How often she warned me: ‘You will grow up a queer fellow,
if nothing worse!’” (_Hirschfeld_, _l. c._ p. 117).
What do these fine observations prove? Any one who understands the
playful character of children, their early directed psyche, must
recognise that such conduct results through the influence of a wish.
No—these observations do not prove at all that the contrary sexual
feeling is innate. _Hirschfeld_ contends: “these accounts (referring
to previous statements) show a remarkable absence of tenderness among
the urning girls. An expert thoroughly familiar with their psyche, not
without reason states that we must watch the girl who passes carelessly
by a looking glass without stopping in front of it when dressing and
we must watch the boy who clings with pleasure to the looking glass
returning to it again and again, for thereby both betray early their
homosexual nature.” (_Hirschfeld_, _loc. cit._ p. 119). I see nothing
in these statements but an attempt on his part to differ from the
other colleagues.
Finally I turn to my own conception of homosexuality, formulated, on
the basis of psychoanalytic data and as an outgrowth of the teachings
of _Freud_.
_All persons originally are bisexual in their predisposition. There
is no exception to this rule. Normal persons show a distinct bisexual
period up to the age of puberty. The heterosexual then represses his
homosexuality. He also sublimates a portion of his homosexual cravings
in friendship, nationalism, social endeavors, gatherings, etc. If this
sublimation fails him he becomes neurotic. Since no person overcomes
completely his homosexual tendencies, every one carries within himself
the predisposition to neurosis. The stronger the repression, the
stronger is also the neurotic reaction which may be powerful enough in
its extreme form to lead to paranoia_ (Freud’s theory of paranoia). _If
the heterosexuality is repressed, homosexuality comes to the forefront.
In the case of the homosexual the repressed and incompletely conquered
heterosexuality furnishes the disposition towards neurosis. The more
thoroughly his heterosexuality is sublimated the more completely the
homosexual presents the picture of a normal healthy person. He then
resembles the normal heterosexual. But like the normal hetero__sexual
individual, even the “male hero” type displays a permanent latent
disposition to neurosis._
_The process of sublimation is more difficult in the case of the
normal homosexual than in the case of the normal heterosexual. That
is why this type is extremely rare and why a thorough analysis always
discloses typical neurotic reactions. The neurotic reactions of
repression_ (Abwehr, Freud) _are anxiety, shame, disgust and hatred (or
scorn). The heterosexual is inspired with disgust at any homosexual
acts. That proves his affectively determined negative attitude. For
disgust is but the obverse of attraction. The homosexual manifests the
same feeling of disgust for woman, showing him to be a neurotic. (Or
else he hates woman.) For the normal homosexual—if there be such a
type—would be indifferent towards woman. These generalisations already
show that the healthy person must act as a bisexual being._
We know only one race of people who recognised formally the bisexual
nature of man: the Greeks. But we must recognise also that the Greeks
had attained the highest level of physical and cultural development.
We shall have to inquire into the reasons why homosexuality fell into
such disrepute and why the example of the Greeks found no imitation
among the moderns, despite the recognition accorded the tremendous
cultural achievements of the ancient Greeks. That will be done
later. We conclude: _There is no inborn homosexuality and no inborn
heterosexuality. There is only bisexuality.[10] Monosexuality already
involves a predisposition to neurosis, in many cases stands for the
neurosis proper._
The theory is not a novel one. New is only its association with
neurosis. The merit to have been the first to express it belongs to
_Kiernan_ (_Medical Standard_, 1888). _Kiernan_ started with the fact
that all lower animals are bisexual and conceived homosexuality as a
retrogression to the primitive hermaphroditic form of animal existence.
We must note this theory as we shall have occasion to revert to it when
discussing the predisposition to neurosis. _Chevalier_ (_Inversion
Sexuelle_, 1893) also begins his inquiry with a consideration of the
aboriginal bisexuality of the fœtus. Two other investigators may be
mentioned in this connection: _Lombroso_, to whom belongs the credit
of having called attention to the manifestations of retrogression
(_atavism_) and _Binet_, who maintains that homosexuality arises
when the aboriginal undifferentiated sexual instinct (consequently
the bisexual instinct) is aroused through some early experience in
association with a person of the same sex. Here we have an adumbration
of the theory of infantile trauma which plays such a tremendous role
in _Freud’s_ work. In the following chapters a number of cases will
be recorded clearly illustrating the latent influence of infantile
experiences.
But we must guard against assuming as true all the traumas which are
reported to us. Some of the incidents are interpolated into the life
history and only subsequently assume significance. But nothing is so
dangerous in psychology as one-sidedness. The etiology of homosexuality
is a particularly fruitful field in which to prove, here and there,
the role of infantile traumatic experiences. _Krafft-Ebing_ holds that
_Binet’s_ theory will not stand close critical analysis but expresses
himself very unfavorably regarding the importance of psychologic
relations as a whole. He states: “Psychic forces are not sufficient
to explain so serious a degenerative process.” This depreciation of
psychic influences was not very surprising at a time when the prevalent
tendency was to explain nearly everything through heredity or taint.
Before attempting to give an exposition of the psychologic theory
of homosexuality I must discuss the relations between homosexuality
and neurosis. All investigators, we have already seen, agree that a
relationship exists between them. The question is: does the homosexual
become neurotic because he fears coming into conflict with the penal
laws, because he feels his unfortunate predisposition is something
contrary to nature (to adopt his own expression),—briefly because he
is homosexual, or is he homosexual because he is neurotic?
Here we naturally encounter the need of defining the meaning of
neurosis. What is neurosis and who is neurotic? I call neurotic the
person who has not successfully overcome the asocial cravings which
he perceives to be unethical. I call asocial cravings all instincts
which society rejects as conflicting with its cultural demands. That
in itself shows that the essence of neurosis must differ in different
countries. In one instance we find repression of normal sexuality,
because sexual activity itself is considered unmoral. (Example: the
properly brought up girl in good society who must remain coy.) In
another, we find a struggle with instincts which society decrees as
morbid. (Example: the actress who maintains many friendships and must
suppress her homosexual longings.) In the same way criminal tendencies
may play a role in the development of a neurosis. The neurosis is the
result of the struggle between instinct and inhibition. There are,
therefore, two paths for the development of the neurosis: a strong
instinctive craving which naturally endeavors to break through the
inhibitions and powerful inhibitions which reduce to a minimum the
voicing of sexual needs even under the impulsion of strong instincts.
The predisposition to neurosis, therefore, is intimately linked with
our instincts. The progression of the human race requires the frequent
suppression of certain instincts and every step in ethical and cultural
progress involves giving up some portion of instinctive cravings. The
laws are a protection of society against the instinctive cravings of
its members. Society tolerates but a portion of the instincts to a
certain extent and all others it outlaws as asocial. The evolution of
the race may eventually reach a stage wherein the instincts will have
been placed altogether at the service of society: the domestication
of the instinctive cravings. This is the meaning of the struggle of
centuries between brain and spinal cord. The results of this struggle
may be determined only if we contrast a truly aboriginal man with a
typical representative of culture. What remarkable progress has been
attained in the conquest of instinct! Society goes a step further. It
takes care that individuals possessing asocial instincts should be
unable to propagate their kind. Criminals are rendered innocuous, the
asocial person finds the environment unfavorable and disappears.
But—as I have already stated in my book, _Die Träume der
Dichter_[11]—the creative urge of nature does not mollify man’s
asocial requirements. The struggle between nature and culture keeps up
unabated and the result is neurosis. All paraphilias are a compromise
between instinct and repression.
I must revert here to my theory of neurosis which I have expressed
first in my work entitled, _Die Träume der Dichter_.[12] The neurotic
is a retrograded type. He represents a conquered stage of human
evolution. He must personally undergo the struggle through which the
human race as a whole has already passed. The ontogenesis of culture!
Whenever nature attempts the creation of something great, powerful
or sublime it turns to the great reservoir of its past. Recessive
types manifest more powerful instincts. The neurotic, criminals and
the specially gifted persons have that in common. Three paths are
open to the man with heightened instincts: he sublimates his selfish
tendencies, his criminal cravings, his asocial attitude derived from
previous epochs and becomes a creator (poet, painter, sculptor,
musician, prophet, inventor, etc.); he works out his instincts
untrammelled and becomes a criminal; or the sublimation is but partly
successful and he becomes a neurotic.
My theory of homosexuality thus links itself to the view of _Lombroso_.
The homosexual, in the first place, is a recessive character. He
shows a precocious development of an instinct which does not fit
the requirements of culture; but biologically he stands nearer the
aboriginal bisexual predisposition of mankind than the normal person
who is typical of the current age. This conflict manifests itself in
various over-compensations, so that the neurotic advances beyond his
age and becomes a creator of the future. I must ask my readers to
consult my works quoted above for further details on this subject. I
have here merely stated in brief what may have a bearing on our present
theme.
The specially gifted, the artist, the criminal and the neurotic
manifest the same characteristic: over-stressing of instinctive
cravings. The criminal carries out his promptings, the artist
sublimates them in his works (_Shakespeare_ conceived so many murders
and that saved him from becoming a murderer ... states _Hebbel_) while
the neurotic meets in them his unsolvable conflicts. He is the criminal
without the criminal’s courage to commit asocial deeds. He is the Don
Juan of phantasy, the Marquis de Sade of his own day dreams, the Jack
the Ripper, without knowing it.
These considerations justify the assumption that poets, artists and
neurotics must show a precocious development of the instinctive
cravings, particularly of the sexual. That is in fact the case. With
regard to artists this is well known,[13] the fact has been repeatedly
mentioned as typical of criminals and with regard to neurotics the
analysts have been able to prove it again and again.
We may now appreciate why all investigators found that the sexual
instinct awakens early in all homosexuals. I want to make myself
clear. We owe to psychoanalysis the recognition of the fact that the
sexual instinct awakens early in all persons,—a fact I have pointed
out already during my pre-Freudian period in my essay on “_Coitus
during Childhood_.” But most persons repress their infantile memories
and later recall nothing about these occurrences dating from their
childhood. The homosexual remembers everything and that fact is pointed
out as proof of his sexual precocity. Already as a child he knew
that certain things pertain to the forbidden realm of the sexual. He
repressed from memory numberless particular incidents among the vast
number his memory could hold. The fact of his precocity, he does not
forget. But at the same time all memories which do not happen to fit
into his system of ideas are either bedimmed in consciousness or lost
from memory altogether. Sexual precocity is a fact brought out in all
life histories and confessions of homosexuals. And that very sexual
precocity shows us that the conditions which lead to the repression
of heterosexuality, are traceable far back into the past and stretch
well beyond ordinary memory recall. Therefore, _Krafft-Ebing_ finds:
“The sexual life of persons of this type is usually manifest very early
and is abnormally strong. Not infrequently it is associated with other
perverse manifestations, in addition to the perverted direction of the
sexual instinct peculiar to this type of sexual feeling.”
Further in the same work: “There are neuroses present (hysteria,
neurasthenia, epileptoid states, etc.). Nearly always there is also
present either temporary or permanent neurasthenia.” (P. 259.)
We see now that the two statements correspond. The individual
becomes neurotic because he is unable to overcome the abnormally
strong instincts. Epilepsy as well as grand hysteria serve as means
for releasing the abnormally stressed instincts during slumber
states.[14] It would appear therefore that a certain relationship
must exist between homosexuality and epilepsy; in fact we shall take
the opportunity later to report in full a case illustrating that
relationship.
These instincts involve not only homosexual and heterosexual cravings.
They include also sadistic tendencies and mysophilia, koprophilia,
necrophilia and particularly the linking of sexual and criminal
tendencies. Neurosis represents them under grotesque changes,
attenuations, transformations, substitutions and exaggerations, all
having counterpart in the homosexual neurosis. The relations between
homosexuality and sadism are particularly interesting and will be
considered fully in the following pages.
We may formulate our notion of the development of homosexuality as
follows: _A person with abnormally strong instinctive cravings is
induced early in life to surround these cravings with inhibitions. The
early awakening of his sexual instinct and its precocious functioning
bring him into conflict. The processes of repression and of sublimation
set in to deal with these cravings much earlier than in other persons.
For one reason or another the heterosexual components are repressed and
the homosexual are evolved. The heterosexual cravings are hemmed in and
rendered useless by disgust, hatred or fear._
Homosexuality arises out of bisexuality as a result of certain
particular attitudes which become determined very early in life. But
not always. Such traits may appear also relatively late in life. Why
and under what conditions does that happen? In the chapters next
following we propose to take up this problem.
II
The development of Sexuality—The Bisexual Ideal of all persons—The
fundamental Law of Sexuality—The role of homosexuality in
Neurosis—Womanly men and mannish women—Gerontophilia—Love of
Prostitutes—The significance of Sexual symbols—Various masks
of Homosexuality—Transvestites—A case of Transvestitism—The
significance of the hose as a Symbol—Love at first sight—The
critical age—The pleasure Seeker—The case of a man passing through
the critical age—Neurotic types of homosexuality—The Don Juan
type—Psychoanalysis of a Don Juan—Passionate falling in love during
advanced age, significant—Analysis of a Don Juan.
_Das Christentum gab dem Eros Gift zu trinken:—er starb zwar nicht
daran, aber er entartete zum Laster.—Nietzsche._
II
_Christianity has given Eros a poison cup; Eros was not killed thereby
but has been turned into a taint.—Nietzsche._
Freud who supports the theory of bisexuality with all the weight of his
authority, points out that hitherto we have entertained wrong notions
concerning the nature of the relations between sexual instinct and
sexual goal. The sexual instinct is at first independent of its object
and owes not its origin to the excitations roused by the sexual object.
The earliest stage of man he has designated as autoerotic and he has
described for us the infantile form of onanism.
The development of sexuality may be conceived, broadly, as follows: the
first stage is autoerotic, although all-erotic stimuli are also present
(suckling at the mother’s breast, caressing of the infant, etc.). The
child is more sensitive to all forms of excitation and all vegetative
functions are surcharged with pleasurable feelings more strongly in him
than in the adult. Sexual life is autoerotic, but it is bisexually
autoerotic. The child makes no distinction between the persons to whom
it is attached. Young or old, male or female,—it is all alike to him.
But autoerotism is characteristic of this sexual life. Gradually this
feature is overshadowed by the appearance of the all-erotic tendency.
At first the child seeks to find the goal for its sexuality among the
possible objects of his limited surroundings. Just as the first period
of autoerotism is overcome so the normal fixation upon one’s family
must be eventually outgrown. (Thou shalt leave thy father and thy
mother and follow thine husband!) But even during the earliest period
all libidinous excitations are distinctly bisexual. This bisexuality
persists until the period of puberty, that is, throughout that stage of
sexual indifference, of which _Desoir_ also speaks. But the tendency
to bisexuality is unable to withstand the powerful stress of puberty.
The girlish boy becomes a man, the tomboy girl becomes a young
woman. The development of the secondary sexual characters displace
man’s heterosexual characteristics with the stamp of monosexuality.
Usually at this time there develops also a decisive struggle against
homosexuality leading, sooner or later, to the complete suppression of
that tendency. (Naturally there are exceptions, as some persons retain
their bisexual character traits without trouble throughout life.) _I
have not examined a person thus far in whom I failed to recognise
clearly the signs of juvenile homosexuality._
It is proper to hold that the neurotics show themselves functionally
bisexual. Among the neurotics the males often have little or no beard
growth, plump and roundish bodily figure, high voice and soft facial
features, especially nose and lips; they have small hands, small feet,
their penis is remarkably small, scant hairy growth upon their mons
veneris, cryptorchism (undescended testicle), hernias. On the other
hand neurotic women show hairy growth on face, flat chest, strong,
male figure—more angular than is characteristic of women,—large,
full hands, large feet, disorders of menstruation including amenorrhea
(complete suppression), infantile uterus, male larynx and deep voice. I
do not maintain that this is invariably the case. Now and then I have
met with exceptions; but I believe that a thorough investigation would
support this contention.
The tendency to neurosis is due to the strong instinctive cravings
which manifest themselves bisexually.
There is a process at work which I am inclined to designate as the
fundamental law of sex. According to this law every individual tends to
sum up all his instinctive sexual cravings in one image. Every person
seeks the sexual ideal capable of satisfying all his sexual longings.
The sexual ideal of the ancients was, clearly, a bisexual being.
Divinity is the ideal erotic goal magnified. The first divinities
were always bisexual. They were either women with a penis or men with
a female breast. The longing for the bisexual ideal may be traced
throughout humanity. In his Banquet, _Plato_ has excellently expressed
this longing in the well-known words of _Aristophanes_.
We feel that we are utilizing but a portion of our sexual energy and
that the remainder is allowed to remain fallow. The various sexual
trends are sometimes so split up in life that no part of them is
sufficient alone to furnish the whole driving power for the proper
sexual activity. This is the case with those who apparently manifest
a diminished sexual craving, as _Freud_ and _Havelock Ellis_ have
observed with reference to certain homosexuals. This condition is
only apparent, however, and analysis discloses that it is not real.
Persons of this type, apparently asexual, really vacillate back and
forth between various possible sexual goals never reaching the stage
of aggression, because they are incapable of attaining a sufficient
summation of sexual libido. Their libido splits up into a number of
autoerotic acts, through which the fore-pleasure instead of centering
on a focus is expended in small instalments, as I have pointed out when
I described the various forms of cryptic onanism.
I repeat: the ideal of every person is to be able to concentrate all
libido upon a single goal. That explains why the homosexual does not
seek the typical male, except in the rarest instances. _Freud_ has
drawn our attention to this apparent contrast. Many homosexuals,
particularly those who, themselves, possess strong virility, do not
seek out the complete male for their ideal, but the womanly male. They
prefer the female type of man, men in female clothes, or of female
habitus,—a fact which has shaped a great deal the course of male
prostitution. The male prostitute endeavors always to imitate the
female through the use of trinkets, corset, the adoption of articles of
female apparel, close shaving, peculiar gait and speech.
What the homosexual seeks consciously the latent homosexual, as we
designate the neurotic and, in smaller measure, every individual who
acts exclusively as a heterosexual, endeavors to attain through vague
yearnings which he fails to understand but which are strong enough to
break through.
Let us now turn our attention to these hidden forms of sexuality,
before attempting to explain the rise of the manifest and of the overt
forms of homosexuality. Among the latent homosexuals who struggle with
all the problems of bisexuality which to them appear unsolvable and
inscrutable, and who have recourse to various compromises which bring
them some temporary relief, we may find the various transitional
stages leading all the way up to the overt forms of homosexuality.
Latent homosexuality is a fact, not uncovered by analysis, but analysis
has tremendously enlarged our understanding of the mental processes
involved. The deeper we penetrate into the psychic mechanism of the
neuroses and psychoses, the more vital appears to us the role of
homosexuality. The difference between my method of analysis and the
customary anamnesis is shown nowhere so clearly, as in connection with
the disclosures of the neurotics regarding their hidden homosexuality.
No other component of the sexual instinct undergoes repression to such
an extent or shifts so far from the sphere of ordinary consciousness. I
know persons who have frankly adopted a great many forms of paraphilia
but have completely repressed the homosexual component of their
condition. I have analysed, for instance, a young woman who had quite
an eventful life history. She became neurotic because she could neither
master nor suppress her homosexuality. Like all other neurotics she
skilfully covered her homosexuality and this trait of hers remained
unknown to her consciousness.
It will be helpful to the beginner, therefore, to know the various
disguises which serve as masks for homosexuality. As is well known,
all neurotic symptoms are the results of compromise and they cover, on
the one hand, as much as they disclose, on the other. The tendency
to adopt compromises, which is typical of the split personality, is a
subject worthy of special consideration. The most antagonistic impulses
are stressed and summed up under the same symptom. This tendency to
adopt compromises governs the mental life of the neurotic. It is
seen in dreams as well as in political life, in artistic products
no less than in neurotic symptoms. If the need to adjust opposing
tendencies under some compromise is not met successfully a condition of
uncertainty arises,—of vacillation and doubt. Doubt is the result and
the sign of unsuccessful compromises.
This superficial building up of compromises is seen most clearly in
the case of homosexuality. The neurotic endeavors to focus the most
divergent tendencies of his psyche upon the same goal. His ideal is a
being at once male, female, and infantile (and perhaps also beast and
angel at the same time).
The neurotics always describe their ideal in a way which corresponds to
this polymorphous picture. The males rave about women of a strikingly
manly bearing; heavy, angular figure, flat chest, energetic, bony
facial features, short hair, deep voice, traces of facial hair or of a
mustache. The hidden bisexual ideal is thus partially fulfilled (Woman
with penis or man with vagina!). The repressed cravings, thus partly
freed, serve during sexual aggression and further the attainment of
gratification.
When nature fails to meet these needs, external features, such as dress
and ornaments are brought into play to enhance the illusion. The symbol
is made to replace reality. Men fall in love with women who wear tights
(or who sport mannish hats, officers’ coats, walking canes, etc.) and
consequently they are attracted by actresses, fencers, cycle-riders,
mountain-climbers, horseback-riders, or by girls whom they chance to
see in under-pants. Others require of their sexual objects the adoption
of various male symbols before their libido is roused. The woman,
appeals to them, for instance, at best, wearing a military blouse, a
mannish hat, or in some male attitude or other, capable of yielding a
suggestion of something genuine.
Women display parallel tendencies. They fall in love with men who are
beardless, gynecomastic, men who have a large panniculus adiposus,
broad hips, delicate throat, female voice, or who wear long coats and
long hair. I will quote here only a few examples: the priest, the
physician in his hospital coat, particularly surgeons with graceful
arms, female impersonators, beardless men, or men with high voices who
perfume themselves and wear bracelets, and artists with long, flowing
locks of hair are likely to prove very attractive. (Perhaps the great
erotic attraction exercised by all artists is due to their pronounced
bisexual character.)
Physical factors are also of great significance. Women who smoke,
ride, go mountain climbing and who are generally aggressive, make a
very strong impression upon the neurotic. This is true also about
the influence of men with strong womanly features upon women. Many
neurotic men dream of being overpowered. (The “pleasure without
guilt” principle!). Energetic women fascinate them, just as delicate,
sensitive men fascinate the hysterical woman.
Less known are other masks of homosexuality which I now mention. The
love of old women (gerontophilia) and passion for children often
covers a homosexual tendency. Persons deviating from the complete
male or female type often prove irresistible for the same reason.
Age eventually wipes out the typical secondary sexual characters.
Man becomes like an old woman and old women acquire remarkable male
features (including mustache) and male habits. Children also may figure
as a strong bisexual attraction since they lack the secondary sexual
characters.
A peculiar cryptic form under which male homosexuality manifests
itself, is the love of prostitutes. The unconscious factor which here
appeals to the homosexual component of the sexual libido is the fact
that the body of the prostitute has been previously enjoyed by other
men.[15]
This process,—mediation through the other sex,—plays a great role
in homosexuality in various other ways. The prostitute may be enjoyed
only in the presence of one or more male witnesses. The carrying out of
coitus jointly in one room, looking on, or allowing onlookers, also
betray this motive besides others.
In many cases the form of sexual intercourse preferred betrays a latent
homosexuality. Men choose to lie underneath, or carry out coitus a
posteriori, or per anum. Women show corresponding preferences. They
attain supreme enjoyment only if they are on top during intercourse.
Many paraphilias (fellatio, cunnilingus) betray a homosexual trend
besides showing sexual infantilism.
Various external signs may betray a strong homosexual trend or mark a
sudden outbreak of it. Men suddenly decide to cut or shave off their
beard. They unexpectedly turn their interests to sports which give them
the opportunity of watching men undressed. They become passionate fans
around prize rings, are seen at sun bathing establishments and sporting
places, or rave about the culture of nakedness as a hygienic fad, etc.
Women suddenly find that they cannot possibly wear their long hair and
decide to cut it short. Sometimes they do it without telling their
husband so as to ‘pleasantly’ surprise him. They change fashions, take
readily to English jackets, tight coats and Girardi hats and begin to
show tremendous interest in the emancipation of women.
Joint suicide as a mask is a subject to which I can only refer briefly.
Persons who do not have the courage to live together are the ones
likely to commit suicide jointly. The suicide of two friends, male
or female, is often due to unsatisfied homosexuality, however ideal,
apparently, the motives may be. A life which does not yield to the
full gratification craved by the unconsciously operating instincts,
loses its zest. _Frenssen_ states: “Sun, moon and stars no longer carry
any message to one who has lost interest in them; a thing degenerates
unless cultivated assiduously; it is so with everything. Indifference
deadens; love breathes life into everything.”
I have already pointed out in my treatise on Onanism that those
who have not given up the habit may give expression to tendencies
distinctly homosexual through their autoerotic acts. The feeling
of guilt is due in part, although only in part, to this cause. The
greater hold the habit has upon the individual the stronger also
seems the homosexual trait back of it. Many onanists are asocial in
their inclinations and avoid group life. But I know a number who are
enthusiastic ‘joiners,’ belonging to numerous organisations and always
eager to assume honorary membership in all sorts of clubs. That female
lawyers are particularly apt to show homosexual tendencies is well
known and the fact is often exploited in the comic papers under slight
disguise.
Lastly, I must mention another important form of masked homosexuality:
the artistic. Poets whose preference is the delineation of female
characters are partly homosexual. They perceive accurately the female
emotions, they are able to portray with fidelity the life of that sex,
because they carry within their breast, as it were, a goodly portion of
womanhood. _Chamisso_ described so wonderfully womanly love, because
he himself was largely woman, as his portrait is enough to indicate.
Painters may also show the reverse tendency. They paint preferably male
scenes or, as sculptors, create statues of men. Their appraisal of
esthetic values betrays their hidden homosexuality. Some artists find
the male figure much more beautiful than the female, others find the
male body repulsive. An overstressed aversion betrays the homosexual
trend as clearly as an emotionally overstressed preference.
The choice of a pseudonym may also prove a characteristic sign. Just
as the transvestites (wearers of clothes of opposite sex) clearly
show their homosexual peculiarities thereby so do men choosing a
female pseudonym for their contributions or writings, often betray
their homosexuality by the act. Of course, in the case of women, the
choice of a male nom de plume is determined partly by the well known
common notion that works obtain a wider circulation if attributed to
male authorship. At any rate, it betrays a desire to be taken for a
man, by the readers, at least. A woman writer whom I know and who is
active under a male nom de plume has told me, as an objection to this
view, that she is decidedly interested in men. She confessed herself a
Messalina. But back of such an unsatisfied craving, there stands, as I
have already mentioned, homosexuality, the blind instinct, ungratified.
This woman preferred relations with well known “women killers,” typical
Cassanovas. Obviously, the thought of the numerous female conquests
must have furnished here the chief attraction. Such men carry about
them the aroma of many women. They must be proven masters of the art
of love and a woman is disposed to expect of them special thrills
and, possibly, new refinements of the art; but the heroes, as a rule,
when tried fail to come up to the expectations lodged in them; they
in turn become easily tired of their new conquest. The unsatisfied
homosexual male is incapable of gratifying completely the love hungry
homosexual woman. (That is the tragedy back of many unhappy marriages.)
It is also significant that this woman, who otherwise had allowed
herself an unusual degree of freedom about sexual matters, looked upon
homosexuality as Tabu.
I have mentioned only a small number of the possible masks of
homosexuality. Some of the screens are so transparent they cannot
but be noticed even by those who are still novices in psychoanalytic
matters. One marries a girl, for instance, after falling in love with
that girl’s brother; or a girl marries the brother of her homosexual
choice, as I have clearly shown in connection with the highly
instructive case history No. 93, in my study of Anxiety States.
For this reason a friend’s wife may be a very dangerous person and this
mediation of homosexuality through a third person has often been the
cause of terrific household dramas. I know men who are regularly prone
to fall in love with their friends’ sweethearts, naturally, without
suspecting that back of this proclivity there stands the hidden passion
for their friend.
In conclusion I may point out another very significant mask of
homosexuality. I refer to psychic impotence, which shows itself
particularly during attempted intercourse with respectable women. Men
potent with prostitutes but unable to carry out coitus with a ‘decent’
woman, are latent homosexuals whose libido is sufficiently roused
in the presence of the prostitute by the realisation that the woman
has been used before by another man. Of course, a relative impotence
of this character has many other determinants. But the factor here
mentioned is never absent.
The study of this cryptic form of homosexuality alone will enable us to
appreciate the inestimable role of bisexuality in the mental life of
modern man.
Other forms of masked homosexuality, manifested in phobias and
compulsion, I must mention only superficially. There are men who become
extremely uneasy if some other man walks directly behind them, men
who are unable to remain with another man alone in a room, men who
always dream of scenes in which some man points a revolver or knife at
them, or who have the uncomfortable feeling that some hard substance,
perhaps nothing more than an indurated cylindrical mass of fæces, is
pressing within their rectum. With these peculiarities such men betray
their homosexuality, just as the paranoiacs do with their delusions of
persecution.
Women show similar phobias and more especially morbid anxieties
often centering around servant girls. Women who change servant girls
continually, who worry themselves over the servant problem or quarrel
with the girls, or feel impelled to touch them (acts which really
take the place of sexual deeds) are frequently homosexual. Similarly,
various forms of fetichism may be a cover for homosexuality.
It is plainly obvious that the study of sexual masks promises to
further immensely our knowledge about matters of sex. At the same time
it is clear that the opposition of many circles to the new studies
must remain a tremendous one. Possibly a great deal of the opposition
to the new psychology has its roots in this very peculiarity of human
nature. Their basic bisexual predisposition is precisely what men are
least disposed to recognise.
These general statements I now propose to prove on the basis of various
observations from my practice illustrating the great role played by
the homosexual components in the love life of average men and women.
This will show clearly why I never use such terms as “contrary,” or
“inverted” sexual feeling, and why I never speak of “inversion,” or of
“perversion,” when I discuss homosexuality. The very purpose of this
work is to bring out the homosexual components in the life of every
person and to bring out the normal feature of that state. For normal is
everything that is natural; _and from the standpoint of nature we are
never monosexual and always bisexual_.
I regret that I must contradict so worthy an investigator as
_Hirschfeld_. But I fail to understand the need of setting up,
besides the hetero- and homosexuals, a third group, the so-called
transvestites.[16] Among the transvestites (personifiers) we find
the most pronounced examples of masked homosexuality and stressed
bisexuality. This is a designation proposed by _Hirschfeld_ for men
who—obeying an overwhelming inner impulse—wear women’s apparel and
for women who similarly attire themselves in things belonging to a
man’s wardrobe. In the course of an extensive review (_Zentrbl. f.
Psychoanalyse_, vol. I, p. 55.) I pointed out that it is unnecessary
to consider the transvestites as a distinct sexual species, but that
they are merely bisexual persons with strong homosexual leanings.
_Hirschfeld_ lays great emphasis upon the fact that the transvestites
experience normal sexual feelings, being subject only to the
impulsion to change their clothing for that of the opposite sex.
Unfortunately here he takes into consideration only the conscious
sexual manifestations. He considers merely the facts as they appear
upon the surface neglecting the important mechanisms of repression
and masking,—the tendency to play before, and with, one’s self.
The data obtained upon superficial examination must be subjected to
careful analysis; then the results are most surprising. Analysis
invariably reveals that there is no such thing as monosexuality and
that the transvestites, like the homosexuals, have their repressions.
The homosexual represses his heterosexuality, the transvestite his
homosexuality. In his phantasy the man is a woman (the woman fancies
herself the reverse) and thus he combines the two components of his
libido. It were nothing less than doing violence to facts to attempt
to distinguish the transvestites from the homosexuals.
As one reads carefully the cases published by _Hirschfeld_, with an
eye for signs of homosexuality, one cannot fail to note characteristic
traits of homosexuality in every one of the cases. For instance, one
of them carries out succubus _in coitu_, which is clearly a symptom
of latent homosexuality; if he appears as a woman, the men who follow
him cause him nausea. Another was able to carry out the heterosexual
act only under the influence of alcohol, and when going out in women’s
clothes was fond of eating in the company of men and coquetting with
them. A third is repelled by the thought of homosexual relations, but
dreams of pregnancy, plays succubus _in coitu_, and fancies that his
wife is a man. The fourth hugs his wife tightly, sinks his nails into
her ears, etc., so as to gain the illusion of being overpowered through
sheer force by some man.
Then, most interesting of all, case 12: A man who during four years of
married life has carried out coitus only once. This subject actually
betrays an open inclination towards homosexuality, which _Hirschfeld_
declares is only apparent.... How is one to determine between an
apparent and a real homosexual trend? In order to succeed in that one
must purposely overlook the phenomenon of human bisexuality and be
anxious to hold on at all costs to the notion that homosexuality is
inborn and irreducible.
The transvestite last mentioned relates concerning his homosexuality:
“About homosexuality I learned for the first time through reading
the book: _Die Enterbten des Liebesgluecks_. Some passages gripped
me powerfully, even more so than the works on masochism, of which I
also had read a large number. As I had to renounce my womanly ideal
(for reasons mentioned previously), it occurred to me to seek a man as
the complement to my yearnings. For even the strongest woman wants to
be beneath man during love. But I felt I needed a partner who should
overpower and conquer me with some display of force. So I said to
myself that such a role can be filled properly only by a man. A great
deal of what I read in books about homosexuality confirmed me in this
view.”
If this is not a tell-tale rationalization of homosexuality—what may
we designate as homosexuality?
Comments are hardly needed in this connection. On all sides and
from all directions homosexuality is proven in the history of the
case. But _Hirschfeld_ finds that the tendency to homosexuality is
only apparent and that the whole foundation of the subject’s libido
consists of transvestism. The homosexuality he looks upon as an
incidental manifestation. But there are no ‘incidental’ manifestations
in our vita sexualis. A dream, which has also been reported, shows
conclusively that M., the subject, was all along actuated by the
thought: I wish I were a woman. But there are passages in this case
history showing how highly the subject esteems the male and proving
that this wish is an infantile attitude and due to a feeling of
inferiority. What else should we conclude from the statement: “For the
genuine man, who belongs to the proudest specimens of his sex, sexual
gratification is merely a hygienic requirement, a form of physical
release; beyond that his wonderful creative spirit dwells in higher
realms ... etc.”
In the chapter devoted to masochism I explain the meaning of a case
like the above more fully. The man wants to be a woman and to be
overpowered. He is able to have relations with women, if they assume
the aggressive role. His mind insists upon the fictive notion: I
am a woman and I am forced to carry out this part. Naturally he
shifts towards homosexual acts. The male trait in him tolerates no
submissiveness. The female trait lends itself readily to coercion. The
neurosis consists in this suppression of the male components of the
sexual instinct.
A careful reading of the following case history will show clearly the
homosexual roots of the tendency to personify the opposite sex:
Mrs. H. S. consults me on account of complete sexual frigidity during
her marital relations. She is twenty-four years of age and had married
at the age of 19. Her marriage was a love affair. She has always been
of a loving and sensuous disposition so that from the age of 14 her
mind was preoccupied mostly with sexual fancies and thoughts. At the
age of 15 she fell in love with an uncle. His kisses roused her passion
and she would have readily yielded to him. The father observed what was
going on and forbade her uncle the house. She lived in the Country and
met no men under circumstances which could have endangered her. She was
19 years of age when she first met her present husband and she fell
rapidly in love with him. She withstood her parents’ opposition and
married the young man in a few months. Already during her engagement
she said to her husband: “I don’t believe one man will be enough
for me. You must watch out for me....” During the first few weeks
of married life her husband was impotent, and this drove her nearly
to distraction. After her husband underwent some medical treatment
he succeeded in rupturing her hymen and in a few months she became
pregnant. For a short time during that first pregnancy she experienced
complete orgasm. After that her feeling for her husband disappeared
entirely and she felt very dissatisfied. Her whole character changed
completely. Previously she had been happy, joyous, always in good
humor. Now she became quiet, lived a retired existence, avoiding men in
particular because she was afraid of them.
Deeper investigation of the case shows that, after the death of her
father, to whom she felt attached by bonds of deepest affection, she
became sexually anesthetic. The father was a very earnest, strong man
who adored his pretty wife and he was a model of loyal and dutiful
husband. The mother was an artist who, after the death of her husband,
lost all interest in life. She could not stay alone and abandoned the
country place to live with her daughter in the City. I suspected that
the sudden onset of anesthesia probably coincided with the mother’s
arrival in the house. Might she not hide some special attachment for
her mother?
She emphasized that she felt the greatest compassion for her mother,
who had lost her support in life. For her mother’s sake she would have
gladly taken her father’s place, if such a thing were possible. And
further she declared:
“You would probably find it almost unbelievable, if I told you that I
strongly wished I were a man, at the time. I kept thinking of mother
all the time! You see—she is so pretty and young yet, so full of
life! I also know that she is a very passionate woman. How could she
get along without a man? Now, I must confess something, though it is
very hard for me to express it. You know already a number of my pet
fancies. But there is another which I have persistently kept from you
till now. I wanted to put on father’s clothes, as I have a few of them
in my possession, and to go to mother’s bed at night. I acquired a
sort of an apparatus ... for the purpose. But I did not quite have the
courage. I put on the clothes but stayed in my room. I kept standing
before the looking glass for hours, looking on.”
“Did the clothes fit you?”
“To tell you the truth, I had used some of father’s old suits for a
long time before that. I got hold of them under all sorts of pretexts.
I wrote him, for instance, that I wanted to give his unused clothes to
a worthy poor man. Then I had them altered for a figure of my size and
was glad to wear them while my husband was away. Already as a small
girl I remember I was fond of wearing my brother’s clothes.”
“Do you recollect your thoughts while you were wearing your brother’s
clothes?”
“Oh, I do. I played I was papa. For a time I felt really dissatisfied
because I was a girl. I envied all boys.”
“Later, too, after you were married already?”
“Certainly! Do you know, I have never mustered enough courage to do
something downright disloyal. But I was thinking, if I were a man, I
could never remain true. I have always envied men. In fact, with my
soul I felt myself more like a man.”
“What were your feelings during the time you were in love with your
husband?”
“I had plunged headlong into love and forgot all about my liking of
men’s clothes. During that time I felt altogether womanly. Especially
when I became a mother. Then all my dreams about manliness disappeared.”
“That was also the only time when you enjoyed your relations with your
husband?”
“I have never thought of the two things together. But you are right.
For a short time during that period I was entirely womanly, until
father died....”
“And your mother came to live with you!”
“Yes ... that is so.... Do you mean, that then I wanted again to be a
man? Now, I can confess to you that I always envied father on account
of mama. I used to think that if I were a man, I should certainly be in
love with mama.”
The further analysis reveals interesting details. Repeatedly she dreams
that she is a man and that she has a phallus. She dreams also that she
urinates standing after the manner of men. She admits that, already
as a child, she loved her mother passionately. She had also overheard
a number of times her parents getting together in bed and once she
watched them in the act of coitus, peeping through a key hole. She was
deeply excited by what she saw and thought that her mother must have
suffered great pain and that only the father found pleasure in the act.
This infantile conception of male gratification has remained with her
to this day. Her favorite expression: “If I should come again into the
world I would want to be a man.” The homosexual attitude towards the
mother deprived her of libido during her marital relations.
I suggested that she should separate from her mother but she resented
scornfully this suggestion. She would rather give up her husband.
Some time later she actually did so. She now lives with her mother. I
was greatly surprised one day, when she called on me clothed in male
attire. She requested from me a certificate to the effect that she
was an abnormal person and should be permitted to wear man’s clothes.
She had heard that in Berlin a number of women had been granted such
a permit by the police on the strength of such a statement from a
physician.
Upon being questioned regarding her sexual life she states that she now
maintains relations with a man who, before the sexual embrace, puts
on women’s clothes. This rouses great orgasm in her. Regarding her
relations to her mother her answers are elusive. But I must not think,
she adds, that she is a “Urlinde.” The thought of such persons only
fills her with disgust. Her mother is now merely her dearest friend.
It is plain that this woman has repressed her homosexual love for her
mother and is satisfied with the symbol of masculinity, the wearing of
trousers. The man whom she meets in embrace, becomes for her a woman,
through the wearing of feminine articles. Thus the two partners carry
on a comedy in which the heterosexual act replaces the longed-for
homosexual embrace.
* * * * *
I am familiar with a number of instances in which a man dressing like
a woman, or the reverse, was the means of rousing sexual passion, or,
at least, of increasing it enormously. Whenever this happens it is
plainly a manifestation of latent homosexuality,—a condition of which
_Blueher_ appears to have a very poor opinion. Although he seems to
agree with my views otherwise (“today it is no longer possible,” he
says, “to hold that homosexuality or heterosexuality is inborn; instead
we must recognize that bisexuality is inborn in every individual, with
a special predilection in one direction or the other,”), he makes a
distinction between “healthful inversion” and an outbreak of latent
homosexuality; one condition he considers aboriginal and in keeping
with cultural development, while the other “arises out of the depths of
the unconscious, through the removal of the inhibitions....” This view
is also contrary to facts. _Blueher_, like _Hirschfeld_, is inclined
to consider latent homosexuality as ‘pseudo,’ as something unnatural,
and accordingly passes judgment upon it. The practical observations
gathered in the course of my practice do not coincide with these
theoretical assumptions. I know only one kind of homosexuality, and
that is always inborn. Also, I find it always linked intimately with
heterosexuality. Awareness of one’s own homosexual tendency or lack of
it is not a reliable guide. If the number of consciously homosexual
persons be estimated at 2 per cent., we may confidently assert that
there are 98 per cent. of persons who know nothing of their homosexual
traits, or rather that they do not want to know anything about them.
As we become familiar with the various masks of homosexuality, we learn
to appreciate surprising homosexual and heterosexual trends. I shall
draw attention merely to the manifold significance of “trousers” in
human love affairs. How often men fall in love with women only when and
because they are seen in tights! I remember a number of classmates in
high school, who had fallen in love with a singer, when they saw her
in a role which she played wearing tights. _Grillparzer_ apparently
fell in love once in his life and very passionately. It was with
the singer to whom he absent-mindedly sent his famous poem. She had
appeared upon the stage as a Cherub in tights. The woman wearing the
trousers is a by-word,—a typical compromise. Through the medium of
such compromises it becomes possible for the homosexual suddenly to
act like a heterosexual person. _Hirschfeld_, who was the first to
point out this fact, relates that a lieutenant of cavalry well known in
the circle of Berlin urnings one day surprised his acquaintances with
the announcement of his engagement and even more with the statement
he had become fully heterosexual. Previous to that time he had loved
only boys in girls’ clothes but apparently he had found a woman of
very youthful type, one who was able to satisfy both components of his
libido. Symbols at times disclose tremendous power. The trousers figure
as a symbol of masculinity. I remember the storm of popular indignation
which arose once when some change in women’s fashions threatened man’s
exclusive prerogative. The skirt and long hair are symbols of feminity.
The symbol often furnishes the bridge across which traits, otherwise
antagonistic, become fused.
* * * * *
The following case is an illustration:
Mr. E. W. has practiced onanism since he was five years of age and
during the act was in the habit of thinking he was touching girls.
Later he masturbated jointly with other school boys. They attempted
pederastic acts, in the course of which he felt neither aversion nor
pleasure. At 14 years of age he was seduced by a servant girl, and he
went to her bed every night for a year. A poor scholar up till that
time, he became subsequently one of the best in the class. After a
time he became tired of her and he sought other opportunities which
were easy to find. He maintains that up to his 20th year he has had
intercourse with every one of the girls who served in his parents’
house, and he estimates them to have been about twenty in number. It
struck him that he could not always achieve orgasm. But he was always
potent, so much so, sometimes the girls wondered. But he would become
indifferent before reaching ejaculation. This happened to him with
fat women who excited him tremendously and at the same time failed to
satisfy him.
He began early to be interested in painting and made special efforts
to experience the feeling of love; for the petty adventures with the
servant girls did not involve the heart in the least. As he grew all
women only appeared to him to be merely objects for the gratification
of lust. He had all sort of love affairs but could be true to none
for any length of time and did not always reach orgasm with them. He
happened to try once the situs inversus and after that he found it
always possible to bring about the orgasm. Coitus a posteriori was
also a method which enabled him to attain this aim more easily than
the normal position. He was already thirty years of age when he saw at
a social affair a girl who appeared as a boy in a “living picture.”
He felt at once the greatest attraction for her. During the whole
evening he kept her in his company, and he felt animated and inspired
with the thought that he had found, at last, his soul affinity. A few
weeks later he became engaged to her. The picture of her as a boy
always floated before his mind. He married soon, experienced tremendous
orgasm during coitus and felt himself very happily married. After a
few years his potentia began to fail him and this worried him a great
deal because he loved his wife tremendously and was ashamed to confess
to her the true state of things. He became more frigid and finally his
potentia failed him completely.
He came into his wife’s room (they had separate rooms) while she was
undressing. She was in her tights, the kind in which he had seen her
in the role of a boy. At once this roused his passion and he threw
himself upon his wife, covering her with kisses, against her protests,
for she was very bashful. This happened in day time. His wife had never
consented to coitus in day time before. But this time she was taken by
surprise and as he pressed her for it, she called out, over and over:
“What is the matter with you today!” He did not tell her the reason for
his excitement; he was ashamed to request her to dress herself next
time in tights.
He called to have this remarkable occurrence explained and to be
cured of the peculiarity. Later he achieved potentia again but always
he had to think of his wife as dressed in trousers. The man was an
out-of-town resident and had come to Vienna only for the day. I was
unable to find out much about the psychic roots of this condition.
He recalled no infantile memories, but thought that the sight of
his little sister in bloomers had already roused him. He was much
interested in women’s underwear and could have easily turned into a
fetichist, one gathering a large assortment of women’s underclothes. I
advised him to confide in his wife and ask her for his sake to dress
herself in the kind of apparel which appealed to him. That was, after
all, a harmless desire which he shared with many other men.
A few years later I saw him again. He had followed my advice, and
his wife, who loved him devotedly, had finally consented, because he
could not attain erection otherwise, and she required the fulfilment
of marital relations. Since she “gave in” to her husband’s peculiar
request, she is able to rouse him to coitus as often as she desires
it. She only needs to put on tights.... He experiences the greatest
satisfaction while his wife wears tights and they assume the situs
inversus. Through such a small compromise, by meeting some specific
phantasy, it is often possible to turn an incompatible marriage into a
happy one.
This is not the only case of its kind of which I know. I know men who,
when going to houses of prostitution request the women to retain their
drawers when undressing. Others actually demand that the girls should
put on male trousers. These latent homosexuals are well known to the
prostitutes. They remain passive and expect the woman to be aggressive.
This shows they maintain the fiction that they are females and they
require relatively but little in the form of overt acts to maintain
this fiction in their mind. Many an instance of love at first sight is
induced in the same way.
* * * * *
Case. Z. I. A man, 48 years of age, had several light love affairs,
was twice unhappily married. After the second separation—some six
years previously—he left women severely alone because he had a poor
opinion of them. He used to say: all women are worthless decoys and
it is a pity to turn a single hair grey on their account. In the
circle of women haters he was known for that reason as the decoy-man.
His physical sexual needs he satisfied with prostitutes or street
acquaintances. Beyond that he avoided women and sought only the company
of men. It was obvious that he was drifting away from heterosexuality
and leaning towards psychic homosexuality. Then it happened that he
agreed once to sit as a model for a woman artist. The sculptress was
in ordinary clothes and had made no particular impression on him.
She asked him to wait a few moments and then she stepped out to put
on her working clothes. When she reappeared, a few moments later, he
was astonished. She wore a long white coat, which covered her whole
dress, a pleasing little cap, under which she had tucked her hair to
protect it against the dust, and a pair of glasses which she wore
only when working. She appeared so attractive that he fell in love
with her that moment. He did not hide his feelings but immediately
hastened to make up on the spot what he had lost in six years of
opportunities to worship at the shrine of womanhood. She accepted his
compliments good-naturedly. He fell in love with her as he had never
been in love before. A few weeks later he proposed marriage, but she
politely refused. She had made up her mind never to marry. But he did
not give her up; on the contrary he pursued her with his attentions
and tendernesses. His club and all his cronies he abandoned. He was
head over heels in love, like a frisky boy, and held that now he knew
the meaning of love. One of his friends proposed to cure him of his
infatuation and told him in confidence that he had heard the sculptress
was a homosexual who maintained relations with a chorus girl wearing
tights. The whole town knew about it. It was an open secret. This
information had the contrary effect upon him. His passion reached such
a point that life seemed to him worthless without her. He struggled
with thoughts of suicide and told the beloved about it. This made a
strong impression upon her and she stated frankly: she would agree to
be his sweetheart, but his wife, never. For a time he fought against
accepting this compromise, desiring nothing short of a union for life.
Finally he acquiesced. She was a virgin no longer and told him that
she had already been her instructor’s sweetheart. That is why she did
not want to consider marriage. With her instructor, however, she had
never achieved orgasm. His embrace left her cold. She could achieve
satisfaction and orgasm only with the aid of _manipulatio cum digito_.
Z. I. remained faithful to her for a few years and during that time
tried several times to induce her to consider marriage. He was always
most excited when he saw her wearing the apparel which had first roused
his love for her. They always met in her studio while she was wearing
her working clothes. Finally his love cooled and he returned to the
society of his woman-hating companions. An attempt to have intercourse
with a girl in his employ failed him and he called for advice.
He believed himself impotent. But it was merely the homosexual trait
which comes to the fore at this age in various manifestations which
physicians call the climacterium of man.
Analysis disclosed that the woman sculptor was the cousin of one
of his favorite old school mates, whom she resembled closely. This
young man also wore, while at work in his laboratory, a white coat,
like the sculptress. It was this similarity that roused his libido so
tremendously. The young man had become engaged a few weeks previously.
He disapproved the young man’s step on various grounds. (A young man
should not jeopardise his scientific career on account of a woman.) He
was in love with the young man without realising it. The transference
of the feeling into a heterosexual one was mediated through the fact
that the woman looked like her cousin and the costume also helped
to transfer some of the homosexual tendencies into the heterosexual
channel.
In connection with this case I may make a few remarks about the
so-called climacterium of man and about woman’s critical period. The
psychic process is well known, in so far as it involves a parting from
one’s youth, and it has been repeatedly outlined and described. The
whole love instinct of man rebels against growing old and fosters the
utilization to the utmost of the opportunities during the few remaining
years. The milder the sexual life in the past, the greater and more
stormy becomes the need of making up for lost opportunities “while
there is time.”
But the significance of homosexuality during this critical period is a
matter which most investigators have overlooked. It may be that the
involution of the sexual glands brings the opposite sex into stronger
relief at this period. One who conceives bisexuality as a chemical
process—and there are some data apparently supporting such a view—may
speak of the conquest of man’s heterosexuality over homosexuality.
_Hirschfeld_ would say of a man: as he now produces less andrin the
gynecin achieves upper hands. Perhaps many cases of so-called late
homosexuality (_Krafft-Ebing_) may be explained in this manner. I have
known a man who, up to the 50th year of his life, has had no sexual
experiences and who was also unaware of his homosexuality. At that
age he happened to drift into the company of homosexuals and now he
is a confirmed member of the third (intermediate) sex. Possibly the
outbreak of homosexuality leading all the way to paranoia—a subject
which I shall take up more fully in another chapter—depends on changes
in the sexual glands, these changes leading to characteristic psychic
expression.
In the last case disappointment after marriage (both women proved
unfaithful to the man) induced the breaking forth of the homosexual
tendencies.
The behavior of those persons who do not care to acknowledge their
homosexuality is characteristic. So passionately do they fall in love,
their impulsion to loving is so tremendous that every new passion
surpasses all previous experiences.
This peculiarity gives us an insight into the mentality of the Don Juan
type, the desolute adventurer, and the Messalina type....
The flight away from homosexuality leads the individual to overstress
his heterosexuality (with the formulation of compromises and the
adoption of homosexual masks) but that seldom yields the satisfaction
craved by the individual. The sexual adventurer is always a person who
has failed to find proper gratification. He who has found complete
gratification becomes thereby master of his libido and knows the
meaning of satiety. When the gratification is only apparent the
craving leads soon again to new adventures. Just as the compulsory
acts of neurotics cannot be permanently removed, because such acts
are only symptomatic and stand for hidden cravings, the unsatisfied
homosexual longing which stands masked under an apparently excessive
heterosexuality cannot be completely gratified on that path. The sexual
instinct,—as _Freud_ has pointed out—is of complex character and is
seldom brought into play in its full form. Man’s unattainable ideal is
the whole instinct, undivided and unhampered in any of its component
parts; falling in love manifests the expectation of a gratification
previously unattained.
During man’s critical period—as well as woman’s—a number of
troublesome compulsion neuroses are likely to break forth and these
have been erroneously attributed to excitement, overwork, and other
secondary factors. Every compulsion neurosis appearing at this period
is a complicated riddle through which the subject aims to hide
before his own consciousness no less than before the world at large
the true significance of the psychic impulses which reassert their
supremacy at the time. Frequently back of the various symptomatic
acts it is possible to discern the clear mechanism of defence against
homosexuality.
* * * * *
The next case shows an interesting array of symbolisms and of symbolic
acts, which are easily understood if one has the key to the psychology
of such mental processes.
Mr. B. experiences the outbreak of an acute neurosis at 60 years of
age. Suddenly he becomes obsessed with the fear of tuberculosis. He is
firmly convinced that he is a victim of the disease and the reassurance
of famous specialists quiets him only for a few days. He reads all
popular works on tuberculosis as well as the scientific works of
Cornet, Koch, and other investigators. He has worked out for himself a
systematic method for the cure of tuberculosis. He holds, in the first
place, that cold air is the best, and takes long walks out of doors,
sleeps with all windows wide open, goes to Davos and generally prefers
winter sporting places. He is a confirmed believer in the theory
of infection through particles of sputum and therefore avoids the
proximity of ... men.
“Why be afraid specially of men? May not women also carry the
infection?”
“No; women do not expectorate so vigorously. Men spit all over, women
only close by!”
“How do you know these things?”
“You see, I have given the matter a great deal of thought and I have
studied the subject. I thought to myself, coughing and urinating are
very much alike. In both operations products of the organism are
removed from the body. A woman urinates with a small stream which does
not reach far. But many men urinate with force and are able to throw
out their stream,—a distance of several feet.”
Already this statement showed that back of the fear of consumption
there stood some hidden sexual motive. B. carried the analogy still
further:
“Men are also able to ejaculate, while women only omit a little
moisture which trickles down upon their parts.... At any rate, I am
particularly afraid of infection through some tubercular man.”
I inquired into the circumstances under which this fear first showed
itself and how long he had it and in reply received the following
interesting confession:
“For a long time I lived with a nephew who occupied a separate room in
my home. My married daughter came once to pay us a visit because her
child had whooping cough and she was advised that a change of air would
be beneficial.”
(It is characteristic that he was not afraid of catching whooping
cough, although he knew of a serious case,—an elderly man who had
caught the infection and as a result was seriously ill for months. The
fear of tuberculosis thus shows itself to be a misdirected notion.)
“It became necessary for me to share with my nephew the same sleeping
room,” continued the man. “He had but recently returned from Meran and
was considered cured.... But you know, how these alleged cures turn out
upon closer examination. During the night I became uneasy and several
times I heard my nephew coughing. I noticed that he did not sleep, and
I also could not fall asleep because the thought tormented me that I
would surely catch the infection. The first thing I did next morning
was to call my physician; he laughed at me but upon my persistent
questioning he told me: ‘If you are as afraid as all that, you better
sleep in a separate room!’ I did not wait to be told twice and for a
number of weeks after that I slept at a hotel. But here too, I began to
think, perhaps some tubercular man has occupied the room before me, and
could not sleep! I had night sweats and after that I no longer believed
the physicians’ reassurances and was convinced that this was a sign of
the first stage of consumption....”
We note that the elderly gentleman had become homosexually roused
by the presence of his nephew and this craving appeared to his
consciousness masked under the form of a fear of tubercular infection.
“I could tear my hairs out by the roots, to think that I had done such
a foolish thing!”
“What foolish thing?”
“I mean, sleeping in the same room with my nephew. If I had at least
put up a Japanese screen. But, unfortunately, one does foolish things
without reflecting upon the consequences....”
B. also displays various compulsory mannerisms, the meaning of which
becomes obvious once we appreciate that, in his case, ‘tuberculosis’
really means ‘homosexuality.’ As he walks upon the City streets he
meets a man coming his way. While still at a distance he steps aside or
crosses on the other side; he no longer shakes hands with any man, not
even with his friends; one may become infected with tubercle bacilli in
that way. All places where men are seen naked or in partial undress,
such as gymnasia or bathing resorts, are breeding spots for tubercular
infection.
Moreover, B. shows some female traits in his nature. He has shaved his
beard because hairs may be nests for tubercle bacilli; he has become
emotional, whining and he is unable to arrive at decisions promptly. He
finds the fashion of wearing short coats not “dressy” and wears a long
coat that has almost the appearance of a jacket. (Similar mannerisms
are found in _Jean-Jacques Rousseau_; _vid._ his _Confessions_.)
This case is one of almost complete outbreak of femininity, closely
allied to the paranoiac forms, which will be considered more fully
in another chapter. He is also jealous of his wife and thinks he is
slighted,—that he is not given the proper degree of attention. He is
excitable, sleepless, dissatisfied with life. After a few hours the
analysis is given up.
Such persons are tremendously afraid of the truth; they wander from
physician to physician and really want but one thing: to preserve
their secret and to devote themselves more and more to their hidden
homosexuality. If the condition were once disclosed before their eyes
they could not continue their indulgence so easily. They always break
up the treatment after a few hours under some pretext or other and this
justifies the suspicion that, sooner or later, they come to regard the
physician also as a man and, transferring their homosexual attachment
to the physician they flee from the danger of being together with the
object of their love.
This case illustrates, I believe, what remarkable masks the outbreak
of the homosexual trait is capable of assuming. Similar masks are the
fear of syphilis, the fear of “blood poisoning,” and the dread of
physical contact with other persons or objects. The fear of syphilis
covers also other dreads. Formerly I thought that syphilidophobia was
only a mask for incest craving. I am now convinced that it stands
for “forbidden love” generally. Syphilis stands as a symbol either
for incest or for homosexuality. ‘Becoming infected’ means: ‘being
oppressed’ by homosexual or incestuous tendencies. These figures of
speech are suggested by the every day use of language. One hears, for
instance, that the whole city of Berlin is infected with homosexuality;
the opponents of homosexuality fight against the plague which threatens
the whole German nation; young men are warned against being infected
with homosexuality. It is not surprising, therefore, that the morbid
expressions of neuroses assume similar figurative forms.
The rise of such morbid fear during advanced age is always suspicious
of an outbreak of homosexuality, against which various protective
devices are thus raised. If I should attempt to describe all these
forms of outbreak and all the protective devices I would have to write
a special treatise on anxiety states. We well know already that all
neuroses have a bisexual basis. But, what is more, I maintain that
homosexuality plays a far greater role in the development of neurotic
traits than any other suppressed instincts.
I am now turning my attention to a character in whom homosexuality
would hardly be suspected as a motive power. I refer to the Don Juan
type of personality. The Messalina type I shall describe in connection
with my study of sexual anesthesia in woman. But the Don Juan character
deserves special attention in this connection.
One would think that a man who devotes his whole life to women, who
dreams day and night only of new conquests, who considers every woman
worth while when opportunity favors him, a man for whom no woman is
too old, or too ugly, if he desires her,—that such a man would be far
removed from any homosexual trend. Yet the contrary is the fact and
the greater my opportunity to study the ‘woman chaser’ the stronger my
conviction becomes that, back of the ceaseless hunt, stands the longing
after the male. Though many explanations have been offered for the Don
Juan type,—that prototype of Faust’s—none has solved satisfactorily
the riddle of his psyche. Only the recognition of latent homosexuality
promises to clear for us the meaning of this character.
What are the typical character traits attributed to the Don Juan
type? His easily stirred passion; secondly, his indiscriminate taste;
thirdly, his sudden cooling off. Of course, there are any number of
transitional forms and mixed stages.
I choose for examination the fundamental type, as he is known to me
through a number of concrete examples. This triad: “quickly roused,
not particular as to choice, just as quickly cooled,” admits of
numerous variations. Particularly the choice of the sexual object is
something that in many woman chasers becomes determined on the basis
of particular fetichistic preferences, such as red hair, virginity, a
particular figure, a special occupation, etc. The Don Juan collectors
of women are differentiated into various distinct classes. I knew one
who for his record of adventures specialized in widows. The shorter the
period of widowhood the greater was his ambition to make the conquest.
Only women in mourning attracted him. But beyond this point he was not
particular. It made no difference to him whether the woman was young or
old, beautiful or homely, so long as she was a widow in mourning. His
greatest pride he took in his conquest of widows on the burial day.
_Oskar A. H. Smitz_, (in his _Cassanova und Andere erotische
Charaktere_, Stuttgart, 1906, quoted after _Bloch_), has attempted
to trace a fine distinction between the Don Juan and the Cassanova
type: “Don Juan is a deceiving, cunning seducer to whom the sense
of possessing the woman, the feeling of danger, and the pleasure of
overcoming resistance and of exercising his manly strength are the
chief things, but he is not erotic, whereas Cassanova is the erotic
type par excellence; he, too, is tricky and remorseless, but he craves
the satisfaction of his sensuous needs rather than of his sense of
power. Don Juan sees only women, for Cassanova every woman is “the
woman.” Don Juan is demonic, devilish, he deliberately plans the
destruction of the women who yield to him and drives them to perdition,
while Cassanova is humane, he is always interested in the happiness of
his sweethearts and preserves of them tender memories. Don Juan hates
woman, he is a typical misogynist, the satanic type of woman hater,
whereas Cassanova is a typical feminist, he has a deep and sympathetic
understanding of woman’s soul, he is not deceived by his love affairs
but needs continual intercourse with women as the condition of his
happiness. Don Juan seduces through his demonic character, with the
brutal, and wild, attraction exercised by his uncanny power, Cassanova
achieves his conquests through the more refined gentle atmosphere
generated by his charming presence.”
_Bloch_ introduces a third type, the pseudo-Don Juan, or more
correctly, the pseudo-Cassanova,—the adventurer perennially
disappointed in his conquests, of whom Retif de la Bretonne is the
nearest widely known type. He is continually looking for the true
love and never finds it. While I admit that the seducer as a type
belongs to one of these categories, I must designate all three classes
mentioned above, that is, the Don Juan, the Cassanova, and the
would-be type of either, as bearers, alike, of a latent homosexuality.
None of them finds his ideal. Retif de la Bretonne is the perennially
disappointed type, and true love is something he can never find; in
his love he displays considerable dependence on woman. He portrays
the hopeless flight to woman and away from man. Cassanova feels all
the time impelled to prove to himself how seductive a fellow and man
he is and every new conquest gives him a new opportunity to do so.
Woman is to him but a means to enhance his sense of virility. He must
not depreciate his conquest for the glory of his achievement would be
lessened in his own eyes if he were to do so.
The Don Juan type is close to the level which leads directly to the
well known Marquis de Sade type of character. He scorns woman because
she is incapable of yielding to him all the gratification for which he
yearns. He is perennially searching for release and in that respect
bears some resemblance to the Flying Dutchman who is similarly in quest
of love and whom the quest leads eventually to death. But I cannot
concur with the idea that these types are so sharply differentiated
as _Schmitz_ and _Bloch_ are inclined to maintain. We meet the finest
gradations and the most varied combinations. Moreover individuals
change, their character shifting from one type to another by
imperceptible degrees in the course of time.
I propose to consider Don Juan as the representative of the type
of seducer, irrespective of further variations. In fact it is
characteristic of all the types mentioned above that they are alike
unable to remain loyal in their love. And, in my view, this is the most
important characteristic.
Ready excitability, scorn of womankind, latent cruelty, and perennial
readiness for love adventures are traits which show that, in the last
analysis, Don Juan represents a type of unsatisfied libido. For him the
most important moment is the conquest of the woman. In the joy of this
conquest there is betrayed something of the scorn of woman which plays
such an important role in the lives of all homosexuals—whether latent
or manifest. For the genuine Don Juan the conquest of a woman is a task
which appeals to his play lust. Will he succeed with this one, and with
that one, and with the third woman? Each new conquest reassures him
that he is irresistible, magical in his charm, so that he can say to
himself: _thou art a real man_! He must reassure himself over and over
that he is fully a man because he fears his femininity too strongly;
with the aid of his feminine trait he is the better able to achieve his
conquests among women because that trait enables him the better to feel
and know what every woman wants. He is really but a woman in man’s
clothes. His narcissistic character (the morbid self-love) requires
continually new proofs of his irresistible powers. This type of man,
one who practices all sorts of perversions on women and in this very
changing of the manner of his loving betrays his insatiable quest for
new and untried gratifications, never permits himself any homosexual
act, although he is far from particular otherwise and has run the gamut
of tasting all ugly and forbidden fruit. Homosexuality strikes this
type of man as disgusting and unbearable, he must spit out when meeting
a fellow of that kind, he would have all men and women of that kind
in jail, he would have them rooted out as one would a plague. Towards
homosexuality his attitude is emotionally overstressed, showing that
this negative form of disgust and neurotic repulsion really covers
the positive trend of longing. But at the same time he looks for
women who are mannish in appearance and who lack the secondary sexual
characteristics, thin, ephebic women, matrons and girls who are so
young as to look like children and thus represent really intermediary
stages towards manhood.
Certain aversions, which _Hirschfeld_ has described as antifetichistic,
sometimes disclose the homosexual character of their libido and the
protective means adopted against the recognition of homosexuality.
One man dislikes woman with large feet, another is repelled by women
with hair on their bodies. Such a woman causes him to have distinct
nausea. A third one is repelled by the presence of hair upon the
woman’s upper lip, or by a deep voice. There are, besides, all sorts of
transitional types. One seeks only the completely developed and typical
female figure, another is attracted particularly by the type of woman
resembling the male figure but without disdaining the former type.
His search is endless because he is truly, though secretly, attracted
by the male. His sexual goal is man. Through each new woman he expects
to experience, at last, the completely satisfactory gratification which
he craves. But he turns away from each one equally disappointed because
his libido cannot be fully gratified by any of them. In the manner of
his conquering and abandoning each woman he shows his scorn of the
sex. The true woman lover is really no Don Juan because he distributes
his sexual libido among a few women at the most and the emotional
overvaluation of these women furnishes the key to his attitude towards
the whole sex. Don Juan makes love in a manner apparently as if he
respected womankind. But the cold manner in which he dismisses his
victims betrays his complete contempt for the sex. He admires only the
women who withstand him and whom he cannot subdue. Such resistance
may lead eventually to the marriage of a Don Juan, a marriage which
necessarily proves unhappy and he continues his former life. For the
step has not furnished him what he is really seeking, man has eluded
him again.
Closer examination reveals the characteristic fact that frequently the
choice of lovers is determined by homosexual traits of one kind or
another. The Don Juan who runs after married women may be goaded on
by the fact that he likes the physical appearance of their husbands.
Naturally the thought heightens his feeling of self-esteem because it
must be a harder task to induce the wife of a handsome man to deceive
her husband than it would be to bring to one’s feet the wife of an ugly
man. A Don Juan told me once: “I have possessed all sorts of women, but
never cared for the wife of a simpleton. I have always considered it
beneath me and not worth while to deceive a fool.” Here we have a type
of man desirous to measure his wit against that of a sharp rival. (If
you are so very sharp, why don’t you look out better for your wife!)
The emphasis here is really upon the fact that he likes the husband,
admires him, and considers him a bright man. Before he makes up his
mind to get a woman he must like her husband, and he can be attracted
only by intelligent men. That condition is imperative before he engages
in any love adventure. _Maupassant_ describes this type of man in one
of his stories. The hero is interested only in married women whose
husbands attract him and are among his friends. I give the history of
an extreme case of this type in my chapter on jealousy in the present
work.
* * * * *
H. O., 49 years of age, is undergoing a severe mental crisis. He
relates that he was happily married, until an actress crossed his
path. He fell so deeply in love he could not leave her, he neglected
his home, was unable to follow his calling and was on the point of
committing suicide. It was not his custom to cling for long to any one
woman. Usually he changed sweethearts every few weeks.
“Did you say that your married life was happy?”
“Yes; that has never troubled me. I cannot be true to any woman. I must
change all the time. I am a polygamous being. This woman is the first
to whom I feel loyal and true right along, I did not feel so towards
my wife and only a few weeks after marriage I preferred the embrace
of other women, but this sweetheart of mine,—she has taken me off my
balance entirely, to her I am loyal. Think of it! I stand for her going
with other men, who support her. Who could have told me that I would
come to this! Every little while I decide to break with her and never
see her again. I have sworn it to my wife, who is heartbroken over
the affair. But I am too weak.... Save me! Free me from this terrible
plight! Restore me to my family.”
... This man’s life history is typical of the neurotic. He understood
sexual matters and masturbated at a very early age. He began to
masturbate as early as the sixth year at school and thinks that he
can even trace the beginning of the habit to an earlier date. He had
many play mates with whom he carried on the “usual childish games.”
These “usual childish games” turned out to be fellatio, pederasty,
manual onanism, and zoophily. The children pressed into service a
dog who by licking the parts produced the highest orgasm in them.
The last homosexual love he carried on at 14 years of age. He and a
colleague performed mutual masturbation. Once the two were warned
against the dangers of masturbation and they went together to a house
of prostitution. This they kept up for a long time because it increased
their satisfaction. Often they exchanged their sexual partners. (This
is not an uncommon practice through which latent homosexuals achieve
a heightening of their orgasm and cryptically reach after their male
companion. In houses of prostitution this practice is common among
friends.)
In a short time he developed into a genuine Don Juan. At 16 years of
age he had already become a full-fledged woman hunter and succeeded
in attracting his high school professor’s wife as his sweetheart. He
went after every woman, young or old, pretty or plain. He claims that
old women have yielded the highest pleasures and shows me a letter in
which _Franklin_ advises young men to cling to old women. But this
pronounced gerontophiliac tendency does not prevent him from having
relations with girls below age, almost children. His whole thought,
night and day, was concentrated upon women. His first thought upon
rising in the morning usually was: “What adventures await me today?”
If he finds himself in a room with a woman alone invariably he thinks:
“How can I get her?” Every woman he gets hold of he looks upon merely
as a means for gratification and soon tires of her. With the exception
of one elderly woman whom he occasionally visits he has not kept
up with any woman longer than a few weeks. Often after the first
intercourse he feels disgust for his new sexual partner and thinks to
himself: “You are not any different than the others!” Since his 16th
year he has had intercourse almost daily and often several times a day.
He was 32 years of age when he first met his present wife. Her father
was his superior at the office, a man for whom he had the very highest
respect. (“There are not many such men as he.”) He married the man’s
daughter, whom he held high in esteem high above all others of her sex,
and it was a very happy marriage. His only fear was that his wife would
find out about his amorous escapades. For no woman was safe near him
and even during the early part of their married life he kept up sexual
relations with their cook. Finally he managed to control himself at
least to the extent of avoiding any escapades under his own roof so
as to be more sure of keeping his wife in ignorance of his amorous
proclivities. But he always kept on the string a lot of women and girls
who were at his disposal whenever he wanted any of them.
He became acquainted with a young man whom he liked a great deal.
But there was one thing about that young man which repelled him:
he was homosexual and proud of it. This was something he could not
understand and he endeavored very zealously to rouse in his friend a
love for women. He failed completely; on the other hand his new friend
introduced him to the local homosexual circle, in which he became
interested merely as a “cultural problem.” He frequented a café where
homosexuals were in the habit of congregating and noticed that many
among them were of pronounced intellectual caliber. He was particularly
impressed by the fact that their common peculiarity levelled so
completely persons of different social standing. A Count met a waiter
or post office clerk as cordially as he would a most intimate friend. A
few weeks later he met the sister of his new friend and fell deeply in
love with her at first sight. That was his tremendous attachment.
It was plain that contact with the homosexuals had released some of
the inhibitions which had kept back his own latent homosexuality
and the latter trait now threatened to overpower him. There was but
one safeguard against that, namely: flight into love. The attachment
to his friend became now a passionate love for his friend’s sister,
who resembled her brother very closely. During coitus with his new
sweetheart it occurred to him early to give up succubus, and to try the
anal form of gratification, and this produced in him tremendous orgasm
such as he had never before experienced.
His wife was informed through anonymous letters of the state of
affairs. Moreover he had become very weak in his sexual relations with
her and was able to carry on his marital duties only with greatest
difficulty.
Psychoanalysis brought wonderful results in this case. He learned
quickly to recognise his emotional fixations and only wondered that he
was too blind not to have seen for himself that he really loved the
brother through that woman. He broke with the actress in a dignified
manner. He proposed that if she should give up her intimate relations
with all other men he would keep his word and marry her. He still loved
her but he was no longer in the dark. She laughed in his face. Did he
really think that he could meet the cost of her wardrobe and other
needs? That put an end to the attachment. He was ashamed afterwards
to think that he should have preferred such a woman to his wife. The
analysis of a remarkable dream brought about the complete severing of
his infantile fixations.
The dream: _I am with Otto_—that was his friend’s name—_in a room. He
walks up to me and says: “Don’t you see that I love you and want you!”
I try to avoid his love pats and draw a revolver out of my pocket. I
hold it high and am ready to shoot my friend. But instead of my friend
I see standing before me my son, and my boy’s sincere blue eyes look up
at me imploringly: ‘Protect me!’ I throw down the revolver and run out
of the room._
His young friend resembled somewhat his boy to whom he was specially
devoted just before the unfortunate love affair....
This case shows that sometimes a great and passionate love arises to
save the lover from himself. There are times when it becomes necessary
to love and then the object of one’s love, though falling short of
the actual yearnings of one’s soul, becomes emotionally overvalued so
that the intoxication of love leads to forgetfulness (like every other
intoxication). Any love affair which breaks out during later life
rouses the suspicion that it is an attempt to save one’s self with all
one’s might from homosexuality. The characteristic signs of such a
love are its exaggerated and compulsory character. The lovesick man is
unable to keep away from his sweetheart; he wants to have her by his
side all the time; she must accompany him everywhere; even in sleep
he puts his hand out to his sweetheart as if to protect him from every
temptation. And I have seen cases in which the curious infatuation
was able to withstand all opposition when it must be looked upon as a
successful healing process.
In the course of analysis it not infrequently happens that those who
call for advice transfer their attachment to their consultant, feel
tremendously attached to him and in this state of emotional readiness
the first woman who happens along becomes the object of their most
intense love emotion as the shortest way out of a sexual danger. The
sexual danger in question is homosexuality.
Don Juan, Cassanova, Retif de la Bretonne,—all flee from man and seek
salvation in woman. Retif is a foot fetichist. The choice of this
fetich, typically bisexual, already indicates latent homosexuality.
Insatiable woman hunters often end their flight away from homosexuality
by falling into the deepest neuroses.
The next case history illustrated this fact:
G. K., a prominent inventor, 32 years of age, consults me for a number
of _remarkable_ compulsory acts which he must always carry out before
retiring for the night. He must prove about twenty times to make
sure that the doors are all locked. Then he goes through the house
and submits every foot of the place to the most painfully detailed
and careful search to make sure that no burglar is hidden anywhere.
He looks not only under the beds but into every box and drawer and
closet, opening and closing each one in turn, and very carefully. One
can never tell where a burglar may hide himself! By the time he has
concluded this search it is nearly midnight. The terribly arduous
procedure fatigues him for he has to look everywhere, emptying even
the book cases in the course of his search for fear that the burglar
may be hidden back of the books, and it is midnight when he crawls
into bed, although he begins his preparations around ten o’clock. Then
he is usually tormented with doubt whether he has done everything. It
occurs to him that he did not go into the nursery at all, where his
three children are asleep. The boy’s room, too, has not been searched.
Jumping out of bed he lights a candle and in his night toilette makes
his way to the children’s rooms, unable to rest any longer. The girls
are already accustomed to seeing him that way, nevertheless they jump
out of their sleep scared. In his white nightgown, like a shadow, he
moves from place to place with lighted candle in hand, looks under the
children’s bed, under the servant girl’s bed and incidentally makes
sure that no man lies by her side in bed. During these rounds every
door and every window is tried whether it is safely locked. It is now
long past midnight. Exhausted he returns to his bed. Again various
doubts begin to torture him: did or did he not try this, or that, or
the other particular door, is the gasometer safely turned off, and
again in his thoughts he rehearses every detail. His logical faculty
tells him: you have done everything, you need not have any further
concern, it is high time you went to sleep! But logic is powerless when
his doubts overpower him. Again he rises and takes a few additional
precautions which I need not detail here. Thus it may be three or four
o’clock in the morning and even later before he is finally through.
Then he lies down in his wife’s bed and wakes her up. Only after
coitus, which he carries out regularly every night, he falls asleep.
But by that time the night is over and the dawn is just breaking. He
remains in bed exhausted, often sleeping till past the noon hour, much
to his wife’s disgust. The whole house is in uproar. The children wake
up but are taken to another wing of the house because “papa is asleep
and must not be waked up!” As he is very wealthy, he has his way.
The servants are paid extra well so that they are willing to put up
with “that queer household.” Afternoons he is at work in his chemical
laboratory. His researches have made him famous. He is a very capable
chemist, possessing wonderful ideas and his patents have brought him a
great fortune.
In addition to all that he is obsessed by another compulsory thought,
which seems very extraordinary. Continually he wants to know how
everybody likes his wife and whether she is still considered a
pretty woman. Regard for her appearance is his greatest concern.
Many afternoons he spends with her in the fitting rooms of modistes
and tailors. He reproaches her for not knowing how to dress tastily,
and scolds her because she does not take proper care of herself. On
the other hand he is entirely indifferent regarding the manner of
her appearance in the house. He is greatly concerned only with the
impression his wife makes upon other men. It also disturbs him if other
women do not find his wife beautiful but he worries more if men fail to
notice her. As he dreads evenings he spends the time in the company of
friends. (Thus the ceremonial on retiring is delayed and he sleeps to a
late hour into the day.)
His chief thought is his wife’s appearance. If a man says to him: “Your
wife is charming today!” or if some stranger says to him: “Who is that
beautiful woman?” as has actually happened at balls and entertainments
he feels supremely happy. Or, if he introduces his wife to some man who
gallantly remarks later: “I did not know that you had such a charming
wife!” his happiness knows no bounds and his wife has a good time in
consequence. The very next day he buys her a costly gem, he is tender
with her and bestows upon her pleasant flatteries.
But, on the other hand, if he sees that his wife passes unobserved in
a crowd, or if there is some other pretty woman in the room, he feels
unhappy. Then he meets his wife with severest reproaches because she
does not know how to dress attractively, he growls, and raves, and is
angry for several days until another event takes place and his wife is
again noticed by men and women when he quiets down. He cannot endure to
hear that some other man also has a pretty wife. He does not rest until
he meets that woman and is happy if some one says to him: “Your wife is
really prettier.” But if he hears that another woman is praised and his
wife is not mentioned at same time he feels again very depressed and
his wife pays unpleasantly for it. His uncles—he has no brothers—all
have pretty women. His chief concern is to find out whether his wife
is really the prettiest. He asks this question frequently of his
acquaintances, in an offhand manner of course, for he would not have
them suspect his feelings for anything in the world and the opinion
of a man towards whom he is otherwise completely indifferent often
determines his disposition for the whole day. He is happy if he notices
that some one is making love to his wife. On the other hand it troubles
him if he sees there are young men around and they fail to gather
around his wife. He is not jealous because he knows his wife well, can
trust her and, besides, she is never alone. She is either with him
or in her mother’s company. That is why he is very happy to see men
gather around her. He goes with her wherever any beauty contests are
on and spends a great deal of money to make sure that his wife will win
the prize. If another woman is the winner it makes him unhappy and he
genuinely envies the man who possesses or will possess such a woman.
In spite of all that, the man is a Don Juan and was never true to his
marital vows. He maintains a second house where he receives girls and
also such of his friends’ wives as find favor in his eyes and are
willing to accept his attentions. As he is a well preserved, stately
man of most attractive appearance he is very lucky with women.
Besides that he receives a number of girls in his laboratory where he
has fitted out a room for this purpose. Not a day passes in which he
does not possess some woman—any woman—in addition to his wife. He
looks well, though occasionally a little pale, feels physically very
fresh and energetic. He works really but two or three hours a day. In
this brief time he accomplishes more than other men in a day’s grind.
The character of his sexual gratification is noteworthy. While carrying
out normal coitus with his wife, with the girls and other women he
indulges in the kind of practices which furnish him the greatest
orgasm. He gives them his phallus which they take hold of, and kisses
them, _dum puella membrum erectum tenet et premit_. He carries out
coitus if the partner requests it. But the act is interrupted and
again exchanged for hand manipulation. As he is a very potent man, he
is able to satisfy the woman and still has time to withdraw his penis
before ejaculation and put it in the woman’s hand to be manipulated
by her. There have been also various other indulgences. He has tried
everything. The form of gratification just mentioned he prefers to all
others. A certain feeling of shame has prevented him from asking his
wife to do it for him.
His anamnesis is very fragmentary. He remembers no particular incidents
of childhood or early youth. He began to masturbate very early and up
to the time of his marriage masturbated regularly every night before
falling asleep. Already before marriage he had had such compulsory
habits, but usually he was through his bed time searching in about
one half hour. At any rate he masturbated daily even when he had
intercourse with women. He never took women to his house. They always
came to his laboratory. He is greatly attached to his mother who is
yet a very attractive woman and shows great veneration for his father
who brought him up with strict but just discipline and who showed some
light neurotic peculiarities.
He recalls no homosexual episodes. He masturbated excessively and began
intercourse with women at 18 years of age; after that he rapidly became
a confirmed woman hunter but he developed a very particular taste. All
his women had to be very fair, have a pretty, round, strongly feminine
figure, a delicate tint and be, above all, very beautiful. Yet a very
white and smooth skin would make up for the lack of other points of
beauty in his eyes. With the perfectly white face he required dark,
fiery eyes. This type of beauty seems to coincide with his mother’s
who was a remarkably attractive woman and who to this day carries with
great dignity the obvious signs of her former great beauty.
He had also certain antifetichistic peculiarities. If he notices hair
on a woman’s body, for instance, at once she loses all attractiveness
in his eyes. Such a woman he finds as disgusting as a woman with a
mustache. Equally disgusting to him are all women with sharp figures
and no breasts such as remind one of a man. “A woman should be a
woman,” is his favorite remark. He despises all “blue stockings”
and emancipated women and has requested his wife to drop the
acquaintanceship of a friend of hers who had taken an interest in
various women’s movements.
In the course of the analysis he refers continually first of all to his
wife. According to him he has married an angel of patience. It takes
great love to endure this man’s moods and whims. But the wife loves
him devotedly and has learned to stand everything from him because she
knew that he loved her and she said to herself: every man has his
peculiarities. She was contented and the house vibrated with her happy
laughter. If he troubled her with his foolish reproaches she did not
pout for long. On the contrary she soon smiled forgiveness so that
their married life was really a model.
He insists that his wife is an ideal person. When early in the
course of analysis one confesses such a deep affection, the opposite
feeling, scorn, is sure to become disclosed before long. First the
advantages,—then the disadvantages. But this woman seemed to have no
unpleasant component in her nature. He could tell only favorable things
about her and about his concern regarding her beauty.
But before long—in the course of a few weeks—the tone of his talk
changed. There was another trauma about which he felt he must tell me,
something of tremendous significance which had shattered his whole
married life. At the time of his marriage he had resolved nothing
less than to give up his Don Juan adventures and to be true to his
wife. Just before marriage he had been carrying on with six different
girls at the same time and it kept him on the jump to keep each woman
from finding out about the others. He wanted to live quietly after
marriage and be true to his wife. He had also resolved solemnly to
give up masturbation after marriage. As a married man this would be
easy,—instead of masturbating before going to sleep he would have
intercourse with his wife.
Before the marriage ceremony he became obsessed with the thought
that his bride might have hair growing on her breasts. That would be
unbearable. He was on the point of demanding that his bride should be
examined by a physician but, as a man of high standing, he was ashamed
to make such a suggestion. During the bridal night he discovered a few
light hairs on her breast and a light soft down on her abdomen. He was
so shocked that he would have wanted to send her back to her parents.
For months after that he was very unhappy and every night he wept over
his misfortune. His great hope, to find a woman who would take the
place of all other women in his life, was gone.
This notion about his wife’s hairs made him most unhappy and prevented
his moral resurrection. He had planned to turn a new leaf. But he
continued to feel himself irresistibly attracted to beautiful white
women with marble-like smooth skin and no hair to remind one of a man’s
body.
The most remarkable feature, characteristic of the whole case is the
fact last mentioned.
The man is avowedly bisexual with a strong leaning towards
homosexuality. This homosexual trend was gratified up till that time
through masturbation—as he has pointed out. He sought contact with
fully developed women, to forget man. He wanted a very beautiful wife
because he imagined her beauty would serve to drive away from him
all thought of man and to focus his libido exclusively upon her. He
wanted to have the prettiest woman in the world: Helen. If his wife’s
appearance pleased other men, this so roused the homosexual component
of his libido that he enjoyed sexual intercourse with her more keenly.
Above all he wanted to avoid the thought of man. The anxiety on account
of man came over him particularly before retiring at night and it was a
morbid anxiety over masturbation at the same time. In his head, within
his brain, man was a living thought, something that threatened him and
demanded release. But this was also something his consciousness refused
to recognize and therefore the thought of man tortured him and he could
not fall asleep. He projected this intruder into his room and it led
him to search his empty closets for a non-existent man, as if saying to
himself: I have no trace of any homosexual leaning whatever! That is
what he actually told me when I referred to the homosexual significance
of his compulsory acts: such a Don Juan as I! I have devoted myself
completely to woman. The thought of man is repulsive to me.
I explained to him that disgust is but a hidden form of longing. If he
were indifferent to the thought of man it would be more convincing.
“Well then, I am indifferent to the thought.”
Thus he tried to convince me that he was not homosexual. But we
conceive that the hairs he discovered upon his wife’s body reminded
him of the fatal homosexuality. He felt so unhappy over it he was
considering a separation on that account. Whatever reminded him of man
was painfully unpleasant to him. He threw himself into love adventures
to forget man. He gave up his clubs and male companions because he
wanted to be all the time in the company of his wife.
I pass over for the present the further significance of his neurosis
as disclosed by the analysis of his dreams. I shall only give an
example illustrating how untrustworthy are the statements of those who
attempt to give an account of their lives and insist that they remember
everything accurately. This or that particular kind of incident, they
are sure, has never occurred in their life. Regarding sexual matters
all men lie consciously, unconsciously and half-consciously.
After further, continuously progressive analysis the subject himself
came to the conclusion that he must have been struggling against
homosexuality. Now he understood his sudden decision to get married,
after having maintained right along that he would remain a bachelor.
He was interested at the time in a laboratory assistant, a young man
with pretty rosy cheeks. He showered gifts upon that young man and
planned to give him an education so as to have a friend always close to
him. The first compulsory acts appeared at the time. He married, felt
unhappy for a time but for a few years he lived at least a relatively
quiet life. Then another man came into his life destroying his peace of
mind, a man who had lived for some time in foreign countries and now
returned to his fatherland. This was an uncle.
Now he recalls something of which he had not thought for many
years—for he was going to keep this from me,—namely, that he had
maintained certain intimacy with this uncle for about a year. They
lived in a boarding house where they occupied a room together. The
uncle always came to lie in his bed and they played with each other
before falling asleep.
His uncle carried out the kind of manipulations which he now required
of his women lovers: manual gratification. During his relations with
his wife, however, he wanted to avoid all thought of homosexuality; she
should not practice this form of gratification for him nor should her
body remind him of homosexuality. She must save him of the burden of
homosexuality which still plagued him under the form of onanism.
After resurrecting this memory a mass of other homosexual data came
trooping forth out of his past.
This man was strongly bisexual from childhood with particular
predisposition towards the male sex. As a child he did crocheting and
showed various female characteristics. After the onset of puberty his
homosexuality was strongly repressed, persisting chiefly under the
guise of onanism. For the act of masturbation takes place just before
falling asleep in a half dreamy state during which he thinks, though
indistinctly, of his uncle and of other men. The latent homosexuality
was the most important factor in his neurosis.
The result of the analysis was most gratifying in this case. The
subject soon abandoned his compulsory acts and was able to sleep
quietly. His life became regular; he ceased being a Don Juan. He
allowed his wife to carry out those manipulations which seemed
essential for his orgasm and for his peace of mind. Occasionally I see
him.
These observations show that in the dynamics of the “polygamic
neurosis,” homosexuality plays a tremendous role. The observation that
every love is really self-love receives new confirmation. Don Juan
seeks himself in woman and finds in her that femininity which has
turned him into a Don Juan.
* * * * *
In his book (_Don Juan, Cassanova and other Erotic Characters_) already
mentioned (Stuttgart, 1906), _Oskar A. H. Schmitz_ states:
“Cassanova would not begrudge woman the possession of all those traits
which are called ‘male,’ through ignorance, just as he himself has
been described as possessing many female traits. The division of
mankind in men and women is a great convenience. But he who undertakes
to investigate erotic problems to their bottom must bear in mind that
there are no absolute male and female persons any more than there are
persons who are purely quick tempered, good-natured, envious, Germans
or Semites. All these designations, like Theophrast’s characters,
represent so many psychic elements which must have a name. But they
are met only in various combinations which may be compared and
contrasted with chemical combinations. I believe it is noticeable that
men of overstressed virility do not necessarily appeal to women, who
find them, instead, partly repulsive, partly amusing. On the other
hand it is certainly true that all female tempters were remarkable
for their intellect and wit—some of them were veritable amazons
intellectually—and we note in our own day with great reason the
disappearance of the “_crampon_” together with the leaning instinct of
Epheus. Even the disappearance of Don Juan may be due partly to his
overstressed virile characteristics. The erotic temperament includes
a number of female traits; such peculiarities as tenderness, vanity,
talkativeness need not interfere with his amorous adventures.”
III
Diagnosis of Satyriasis—Priapism—A case of Satyriasis—A second
case of Satyriasis—A case of Nymphomania—Proof that the cravings
represented by this condition are traceable to the ungratified
homosexual instinct.
_Wenn man die letzten Funken einer Leidenschaft
im Herzen trägt, wird man sich eher einer neuen
hingeben, als wenn man gänzlich geheilt ist._
_La Rochefoucauld._
III
_So long as the last ember of a passion still glows
in the heart it is easier to rouse a new passion than
if the cure is complete._
_La Rochefoucauld._
The last case has shown us that cryptic sexual goals which remain
hidden make for unrest and in spite of frequent sexual experiences
bring about a state of sexual insatiety, endless hunger, longing and
unrest. Man’s unsatisfied instinct drives him like a motor to all sorts
of symbolic acts; it induces him to taste all gratifications which are
not under the sway of inhibition, robbing him of sleep and rest.
All the symptomatic acts we have mentioned, trying the doors,—looking
under the bed, etc.—were due to the subject’s fear of homosexuality.
The doors of his soul must be hermetically sealed so that the terrible
enemy should find no entry.
The subject also displayed a number of other symptomatic acts which
richly symbolized his inversion. He turned around certain objects from
the left to the right. He felt more satisfied after doing so. Why did
he do it? Because in consciousness the right side always stands for
what is permitted, while the left symbolizes the forbidden. Some things
he turned around and upside down to see whether they would keep their
balance. If they tumbled it filled him with uneasiness, if they stood
up, he felt satisfied. Occasionally he found a vessel that kept its
balance when turned upside down. But he was satisfied if it did not
break.
His phantasy played with the possibility of turning sexuality upside
down. If the change involved no mishap it carried to him the meaning:
even if you are homosexual, you need not lose your balance, you
can keep up and stand on your feet. After such a symbolic act he
experienced promptly erection and ran to his wife who only disappointed
him because she did not gratify him enough. These men have a strong
yearning for great heterosexual passion which shall make them forget
their homosexuality. Usually imagination comes to their aid and they
find women who give them so much spiritually, that they overlook the
absence of physical attractiveness. They sublimate their homosexuality,
heighten the meaning of sexuality by endowing it with spiritual
erotism, and by means of spiritual ecstacy they make up for the lack of
physical lure.
If this transposition does not take place, if the flame blazes only
upon the physical sphere, a permanent love hunger becomes established
known as satyriasis. This condition must be differentiated from
priapism which is caused solely by organic conditions and consists of a
more or less continuous state of erection.
Priapism is often brought about by diseases of the _corpora cavernosa_,
by diabetes and diseases of the spinal cord, and is a condition very
unpleasant to the sufferer. Here the instinct is not brought into play,
the excited organ requires nothing,—it is merely unwell. The psychic
impulse is entirely lacking. The subjects feel their condition as
something painfully unpleasant, they cohabit merely to get rid of the
troublesome erection. On the other hand, the victim of satyriasis is
continually impelled to seek gratification and it often happens that
he is unable to carry on intercourse because erection fails him. The
impulse is psychic rather than physical. Satyriasis is an attempt to
exhaust a psychic impulse through the physical channel. A transference
of priapism into the psychical sphere, that is, the establishment of a
disposition along this path on the basis of a priapistic excitation, is
something I have not encountered.
Satyriasis may be produced in a number of ways. We have seen already
that persons with sadistic fancies, necrophiliac tendencies and with
all sorts of infantile misophilias may be addicted to masturbation.
In all these cases, if onanism is given up, a condition develops
resembling satyriasis. What these persons seek is a transference of
their libido upon the normal path. At the same time my observations
enable me to declare that the various conditions mentioned are
overshadowed by the significance of latent homosexuality. The most
important as well as the most powerful driving force is homosexuality.
But I also know of a homosexual in whom the latent heterosexuality has
broken forth as a satyriasis directed along homosexual channels.
* * * * *
We shall now turn our attention to a case which illustrates many of
these points:
Mr. Alfred V., clerk, 26 years of age, complains of a long array of
nervous symptoms. In the first place there is his inability to attend
to his work. He is without employment, because he is unable to hold on
to any place. He cannot concentrate his thoughts as his mind turns all
the time to women.
In the morning, as soon as he wakes up, his first thought is: I could
enjoy a woman now! He thinks this over and finds that, after all, it is
too early in the day. He goes to the restaurant and there looks over
the morning papers. It is almost too much for him to do even that.
Usually he only glances over the news of the day and then turns to the
want ads, particularly those marriage offers and “personals” with more
or less pointed allusions. Several hours pass that way and meanwhile
he looks at the women passing by the window. Then he takes a walk
and tries to talk to the girls he meets and to strike up acquaintance
with them. If he finds that they are after money he breaks up his
talk with them. He would rather take a real prostitute than pay a
half-prostitute. Occasionally he finds a girl who meets his wishes.
Then he goes with her to a hotel, although it is still forenoon. For a
short time after that he is more quiet and he even feels that he could
work an hour or two. But soon his restlessness seizes him again which
is always at first a purely psychic urge. It is not erections that
trouble him, but craving and unrest. He attains erection only when he
is with the _puella_. His _potentia_ varies. Sometimes he is through
very rapidly, sometimes he requires a half hour before he accomplishes
erection and orgasm. Again he may indulge in coitus several times in
succession, although he feels quieted down after the first.
This condition he naturally describes as painful and unpleasant. He
tries to interest himself in art and science, as other men do; he would
also like to carry on intellectual conversations. But he can only think
of “obscenities” to talk about. The more foolish and cynical the better
he likes them. He feels impelled to use the grossest expressions,
especially before prostitutes and doing so brings him great pleasure.
He also has fits of anger during which he is almost beside himself. If
something is not to his liking it makes him raving mad. At such times
he is likely to break out with violence, for instance, destroy a chair,
or hurl things through the window regardless of the danger of striking
some passer-by, and he may say the most awful things to his landlady.
He has had many quarrels and violent scenes have been caused on account
of his uncontrollable temper.
For some months he kept a fairly good job but had to quit because he
talked back to his office chief, using bad language. It always made him
mad to have work piled up on him. Work is a red rag to him. He found
on his desk twenty letters which had to be done. Instead of settling
down to work he began swearing. What did the folks think anyway? How
did they expect one man to do it all? The very impertinence! etc. After
several hours of fuming that way he fell to his work. Then everything
was all right and he got through fast enough for he always finished his
work before all others in the office.
He wondered that he was not dismissed from that office long before. His
chief had the patience of an angel. Finally even that man’s patience
was exhausted and he was discharged. After that he could find no
permanent employment. He kept a job a few days at a time; then the chip
on his shoulder would cause him to be discharged.
He related his sexual life in great detail; of particular importance
is his statement that he never had anything to do with homosexuals;
though he well knew there are homosexuals. Such folks were “beasts” who
inspired him only with disgust....
We allow here Alfred to speak for himself. In the account of his life
there are a number of observations which are characteristic of the
whole man:
“I remember nothing of my early childhood. What happened during that
time I cannot recollect; my earliest memories date from the time when
I was already in school. I only know that both parents were nervous. I
lost one brother early, I know nothing of the circumstances. There were
a number of insanities in our family, especially on father’s side.
“My sexual feelings asserted themselves at a very early age. I remember
that when I was seven years old I played with myself before father,
without any feeling of shame, because I did not know that it was wrong.
Father scolded me and forbade me doing this. But his threats only
had the effect of forcing me to continue under cover what I tried to
do openly before him. I believe that my power of concentration and
my ability to work were impaired already at that time. From playing
I merged quickly into systematic masturbation, a habit in which I
indulged excessively. At ten years of age we had at school a regular
ring of masturbators and we carried on all sorts of things jointly. Nor
did we limit ourselves to manual handling....
“At about that time I had terrible nightmares. I saw wild animals,
was overcome or bitten by them, thieves wanted to kidnap me, and in
my dreams I often saw my father coming after me with a great long
stick. These nightly dreams tortured me considerably, every night I was
feverish and bathed in sweat.
“In the morning I had an ‘all gone’ feeling. I gazed blankly before
me at school always holding my hand on the penis,—in fact, I often
masturbated during class. I became less and less able to concentrate
on the work or to carry on my school tasks. In various ways I
attempted first to keep up with the work and then I tried all sorts of
makeshifts to avoid my school duties. As early as at that age it was
characteristic of me that what interested me I had no difficulty in
doing. I learned easily but only subjects which I was not taught in
school. Thus, for instance, as a boy I became interested in mineralogy,
astronomy and botany, and I acquired quite a fund of information on
these topics. I should have never learned a hundredth part of what I
knew about the subjects if they had been drilled into me at school....
Everything that was a duty seemed unbearable to me. Work was a hard
duty and always unpleasant. Therefore I got along rather poorly in
school. I reached the status of a one-yearling (the privilege to do
but one year military duty) only with the aid of home coaching and by
the use of influence. And I attained that privilege only at the last
moment, during my twentieth year, when I faced the danger of having
to serve three years. In a few weeks I prepared and crammed, so as to
pass my examinations because I knew that, unless I did, I would be in
trouble. I always went to extremes that way, the midway never appealed
to me. I would pour over my astronomical books for five hours at a
stretch or devote myself uninterruptedly to my plants and my collection
of stones, but if I spent a half hour upon my school lessons it made me
mad and in my fury I tore the note book.
“My memory for past events is poor. But some incidents, here and
there, I recall very vividly. For instance, I remember nothing of a
journey through Thuringen which I made with my uncle when I was ten
years of age. I was like in a trance during that journey. I made that
same journey a second time and then I recalled of one spot that I had
already been there. There was a stone there where I had tripped and
fallen during the first journey.
“As a boy I was often punished for my laziness and I was even strapped
for my obstinacy. I thought I was treated unjustly for I considered
my lack of concentration as something I could not help. I was always
restless, perennially moody, sometimes very joyous and again very
depressed.
“Masturbation I carried on excessively. I masturbated daily—seldom a
day passed,—sometimes several times daily, up to the 21st year, when
I first had intercourse. Then I decided to give up onanism. At first
I had only normal intercourse and felt great satisfaction. But I had
to do it very often or my nerves would be all to pieces. During my
military service I felt excellently well. I endured easily all sorts of
physical exertion and I was very proud of my uniform. As I am very tall
and well built I attracted attention in my uniform and the girls looked
at me and this made me very proud. But I continued masturbating at the
time and avoided intercourse. During the service I was often nervous
when I had to carry out an order or if I was kept at one station for
any length of time. I pressed myself forward wherever I could, and
finally a horse kicked me and I used that accident as a chance to
be freed of the service and received for some time the accident pay
granted under the circumstances.
“If I am able to get the best of some one, especially of some one in
authority, it pleases me beyond measure.
“After the military service I took a position. As I had intercourse
daily with women I was in good condition to keep up my work. But I
could not endure to have two tasks piled up on me at the same time. I
could do only one thing at a time. I was not easy to get along with and
had to change positions because I quarreled with my chiefs and because
I always avoided hard work. Then I came to Vienna and got a place which
I kept for some time. The business interested me, because it dealt with
an article which appealed to me. Here I began to grow restless and my
uneasiness increased when we removed to Berlin. Normal intercourse no
longer satisfied me. I became acquainted with a French woman who became
my sweetheart and with whom I practiced all sorts of perversities. I
became more and more unstable in my work, often neglecting it for hours
at a stretch. I do not know whether that was on account of the Berlin
air, which did not agree with me, or because of an accident I met with
on the railway. I gave up my position, that is, my chief advised me
to do so, although it was a responsible position of great trust, of
which I was very proud, especially as my father had bonded me heavily.
But I grew more and more restless, it drove me continually to women.
I had nothing else on my mind and I wracked my brain to think of new,
unheard of perversities to try out. I even tried _podicem lambere_ and
for a time this brought me great satisfaction, but it quieted me only
for a few hours. Then I turned again to Friedrichstrasse looking for
the other girls I kept on string besides my regular sweetheart. These
adventures required a great deal of money, only a part of which I was
able to earn at the time. It was to me always a pleasant thought that
father had to pay for my indulgences.
“My unrest reached its highest point when my father came to Berlin to
see me and I lived in Charlottenburg. I had a formidable anxiety about
meeting him and so it happened that he was mostly alone and saw me
but seldom. He did prevail upon me to see a specialist who promptly
put me in a sanitarium. While there I was much more quiet, but only
outwardly. Within me the old struggle kept on as usual. The physician
ordered me to give up women for a time because I was super-excitable
and indulgence would harm me. I was abstinent for a few weeks but
thoughts troubled me every night and I was plainly afraid of losing
my mind. Then I turned to my old remedy, onanism. I did this in spite
of the fact that the physician and the specialist both declared that
my condition was due to excessive masturbation. I was torn between
conflicting thoughts at the time but noticed that I became more quiet
after masturbating. At any rate after three months of sanitarium
treatment I was still in no condition to work. I am depressed and life
loses its zest the moment I turn to work. After the first few minutes
my mind turns to women and I must interrupt whatever I am doing and
run into the street. Leaving the sanitarium I returned to Vienna where
the old vicious cycle began once more. I made the round of physicians
and was given any quantity of bromides. Neither the medicines nor the
various hydrotherapic courses helped me in any way. Only if I have
intercourse about three times during the night do I feel a little
quieted down in the morning. Then I am a little more alert and can work
for a short while. But already on the following day, usually the first
thing in the morning, the old trouble reasserts itself. I am irritable
and depressed. After a coitus which does not gratify me I feel worse
than ever. Then I am tremendously excited and want right away another
woman who might satisfy me better. Sometimes I long for true love and
for the companionship of a lovely being. I then feel the terror of
loneliness fastening upon me. I literally pant for air and again rush
to the street where temptations meet me. I feel as if something within
me has taken possession of my soul driving me on from one adventure
to another. Personally I am inwardly inclined towards everything that
is noble; but something within me compels me to act as a bad and evil
person.
“I believe I am like a man who is the victim of an insatiable hunger.
I have often thought of poor Prometheus, condemned always to linger in
hunger and thirst. In the same way I feel within me an unquenchable
thirst for love and its pleasures and I have no other thought than to
satisfy this thirst in some way. I feel like a mechanism destined only
to serve the penis in its demand for gratification.
“I have often resolved to change. But I am unable to carry out any
resolution, I cannot undertake a thing. I can only hunt after women.
_Ich kann nur coitieren_, (I can only ——,) every other activity about
me is in a state of suspension. I am uncertain and vaccilating about
everything. Today I feel a little religious twinge, tomorrow I poke
fun at church and priest. Today I decide to learn something new or to
find a job, tomorrow I think something else entirely. I want to buy a
new hat. I decide today to go to a certain store. I go to the place but
linger before the windows, unable to make up my mind to step in. “No,”
I say to myself, “I don’t want to buy a hat just yet.” And meanwhile I
also think about women for that is a subject which never leaves my mind
for a moment. I stroll up and down the street watching the hundreds of
women before I make up my mind to speak to one.
“I draw no distinction between old and young, pretty or plain ones. I
weigh the matter over considerably but in the end I pick up the first
one that comes along. If it only quieted me! But it lasts only an hour,
sometimes, at best, a whole day, then I must rush out again to the
street and hunt. Sometimes I cohabit with three women in a day.
“My worst time was when I had gonorrhea (not yet completely healed). I
was forbidden to have intercourse for a time. But I could not listen
to the doctor, because I was afraid that I would go literally to
pieces. I kept up intercourse right along and was inwardly glad to
think that so many others will also have to suffer what I suffered.
Then I felt remorse over my meanness, I felt myself a reprobate, a
criminal, and resolved that I must change my ways. I fell into a deep
depression and for a few hours I was free of my usual erotic thoughts.
Then they started again and the same thoughts now plague me night and
day as before.” ...
* * * * *
We have listened to the poor man’s terrible confession. His hunt after
gratification has that tragical quality which the poet has so fittingly
expressed: “_Und im Genuss verschmacht’ ich nach Begierde._”—“And
I starved with yearning even while I tasted.” The deep depressions
indicate that this trouble is approaching a crisis. For the depressions
occur at closer intervals and satisfying experiences are more rare.
That is also the reason why he seeks professional advice. He feels that
this cannot go on. He cannot and does not want to endure life under
such conditions. He wants to work like other men and to be capable of
turning his mind to other matters than sexual.
Two things stand out in the patient’s account. First, his complete
amnesia regarding his first journey through Thuringen, as pointed out
by himself—except for the slight accident of tripping—and next, the
fact that his condition became so much more serious during his stay in
Berlin, when he was already on the way to get well. He had given up
masturbation of his own initiative, substituting for it intercourse
with women, he was working, he held a responsible position, and kept
up his work, according to the statement of his superiors in office, in
spite of disturbances ... then suddenly his condition made a turn for
the worse. Some strong impression or unusual experience in Berlin must
have brought on this sudden change.
It is noteworthy that the subject denies having ever carried on any
homosexual act. He claims such men only fill him with extreme disgust.
The childhood experiences, of course, do not count. All children did
the same things; one would conclude that all boys were homosexual. As
a matter of fact they are married and happy, most of them heads of
happy families. “I have a frightful passion,” he says, “exclusively for
women. Men do not exist for me.”
At night he dreams:
_I see a turbulent ocean before me. The waves are in continuous
agitation. I think to myself: it were a pity if the waves ceased their
agitation. A ship passes by, and the boat carries everything that I
love. I believe my mother is also upon that ship. There is an orchestra
playing on board: “Oh, how could I possibly leave you!” I awake feeling
sad and depressed._
Such a dream is a resistance dream and indicates that the subject does
not want to get well. His soul is an ocean, continuously in a state of
agitation. “I think it a pity that the waves should cease,” means: _I
do not want to become quiet at all!_ The boat symbolizes the illness,
the neurosis. His neurosis covers everything he loves, including his
mother; and should he give up all that? Impossible! He cannot renounce
his infantile sexuality. He wants to remain a child and be ill.
The analysis is carried out under very great resistance but
satisfactory progress is made. I want to outline the results limiting
myself to the most important points.
His sexual life comes more and more to light. It appears that in his
free account he covered under silence a important form of pleasurable
gratification because he was ashamed of it. He indulges in a very
curious form of infantile sexuality. The habit must be widespread but
in this form I have met it only twice.
Every two weeks he does as follows: he lies down in bed dressed in his
underclothes and defecates. Then he lies in his stools for several
hours. After that he takes great pains to remove every trace. He washes
the drawers and the shirt or he burns them up. At the baths, where he
is always very excited sexually he does the same thing. He does that
there more readily because the means are at hand for cleaning himself
afterwards. He usually takes along a package of clean linen. At the
public baths every cabin has a couch. He lies down and allows his
bowels to move. There he lies feeling very satisfied and masturbates
or has a spontaneous ejaculation. Then he bathes to clean himself and
the package of soiled linen he throws into a river or anywhere where it
disappears quickly.
In these scenes he reproduces the infant in swaddling clothes. He even
presses the covers tightly around him so that he cannot move, to give
himself the illusion of being tied down. He repeats the infantile
scenes of cleaning by the mother, during which in his fancy he plays
the double role of mother and child.
He struggles with greatest anxiety against this remarkable paraphila
but always submits to it in the end. The longest interval up to
the time of the psychoanalysis was four weeks. After that “orgy of
filth,”—as he calls it—he feels depressed and is ashamed of himself.
He has not mentioned this to a living soul and even the physician at
the sanitarium knew nothing about it. He went through this act several
times not at the sanitarium, but in his room because the baths were not
private. When discussing sexual infantilism we shall learn of several
similar cases. His attitude towards his mother is very changeable but
not so emotionally tense as his relations with his father. He carries
on a quiet and occasionally affectionate exchange of letters with his
mother, but with his father, never. He is to a certain extent fond of
his mother. As he tried masturbation in front of his father as a child
so now he keeps nothing of his sexual life secret before me. He relates
frankly everything. As a child he loved his mother very much and often
wished to be with her. His mother is now an old woman, partially
paralysed. Nevertheless he noticed during his last visit home that
she is still a pretty woman and repeatedly felt impelled to approach
her.... At such times he treats her very roughly and scornfully, and is
inclined to make fun of her and her age. He has had repeatedly affairs
with old women. At his last lodging place there was an elderly woman,
whose face was badly wrinkled, with whom he became intimate but after a
short time he sought a quarrel with her and moved out. That is the way
he behaves with everybody. He quarrels over some trifle, becomes very
excited and makes a terrible scene. Then he is through with that person
for good.
We shall see that this is his way of protecting himself against
temptation. He quarrels only with persons with whom he has pleasant
relations and who play some role in his sexual fancies. That is also
how he parts from his mother, for he usually leaves her after a bitter
quarrel. This is also why his parents let him dwell among strangers,
although they think a great deal of him. His letters are sufficiently
irritating but easier to endure than the scenes he creates when at home.
His attitude towards his father is worse. He is easily moved to anger
when speaking of him. He makes copious use of vile terms when referring
to him. Such expressions as “the old rascal,” the “miserable thief,”
are customary with him when speaking of his father. He knows no reason
why he should feel so bitter towards his father. That is, he gives
a thousand reasons but all trivial and hardly relevant. The father
brought him up badly; the father is responsible for his condition; the
father is wealthy, nevertheless complains always that he has nothing;
the father lives only for his mother and cares nothing for _him_. He
wants to make himself independent and wants to get money from his
father for that purpose. The very thought that his father may deny him
the money makes him angry: “I shall go to him and kill him and shoot
myself.” Such murder fancies are not infrequent about his father.
How close the neurotic is to the criminal! Against his father he raises
all sorts of complaints, equally unreasonable. One day he called on me
to say that, having passed a sleepless night he has figured out at last
the reason for his illness: the father has murdered his brother! The
brother was incurably ill and a burden to his father. He knew it well
and had decided to go home and confront his father with the truth,
then demand his share of the inheritance. Even as a boy it was clear to
him that the father had deliberately put his brother out of the way.
The father always felt uncomfortable when the talk turned to the boy
and always tried to avoid the subject.
He judges his father according to his own inner self. He carries within
himself the soul of a murderer, as the pathologic strength of his
instinctive cravings already indicates. The suspicion directed against
his father is determined psychically by the fact that during his own
youth he wished his brother’s death because he did not want to have any
competitor for household favors and he knew well that the fortune would
have to be divided between them. But he was not the kind of man who
would consent to dividing anything. He wanted everything for himself
exclusively. He wanted his brother out of the way and had actually
indulged in various fanciful dreams how to go about it. Now he shifted
his fancies over to his father, while for himself he conjured up an
attitude of sympathy and regret whenever his brother was mentioned. He
is most unhappy because he has no brother, his father has robbed him of
what was most precious in his life. Had his brother lived he would not
be ill, only the realization of his father’s deed is what brought him
to such a state. The father passes for a prominent person and enjoys
a high position in his community, he has been mayor of the town, but
should he start proceedings against him, the father would land in jail.
He is filled with jealousy because his father has done so well; his own
incapacity he explains away chiefly on the score of his illness.
It takes a long time for the original love of the father to come to
the surface, back of this thick cover of hatred and jealousy. But the
masking layer melts, surely though slowly, and meanwhile explanations
for which the subject is as yet unprepared would do more harm than
good. The art of analysis consists in showing up only so much as
reveals itself from time to time. Our subject is not yet prepared to
see that he is in love with his father. Nevertheless he begins to talk
about his father’s preeminence and other favorable sides, the man’s
knowledge, his great library, etc.
Gradually the father’s picture looms up in terms more and more
favorable. The subject relates pleasant episodes from youth, when he
botanized along with his father who introduced him to the science; he
withdraws his murder notion, admitting at last that it was only part of
his over-heated fancy. At this stage when he takes me for the _locum
tenens_ of his father, he assumes an aggressive attitude towards me
and uses an expression which amounts to an insult. I had already made
clear to him that he sees his father in me. Now he undertakes to treat
me as he would his father. At once I break up the analysis. Three
days later he returns remorsefully and begs forgiveness. It will not
happen again, I must not leave him in the lurch, he cannot stand this
condition any longer, and I must save him. That was the only conflict
I ever had with him; after that he behaved well and to this day he
shows himself appreciative and filled with gratitude. He was ready
to recognize how strongly his homosexuality determined his attitude
towards his superiors, towards his father, as well as towards me. He
now sees it clearly. He admits he practically fell in love with his
last chief and that is why he had to quit the place. He relates a dream
which he had kept to himself till then, and which shows his homosexual
attitude towards me, and admits that during childhood he had idealized
his father and loved him deeply.
We learn more than that. We find out what brought on his turn for the
worse at Berlin. At his lodging house there was a young boy 14 years
of age, very attractive, whom he coached evenings. He began to play
with that boy. He masturbated him and was masturbated by the boy in
turn. The relationship kept up for about three months. These were the
first three months of his stay in Berlin. Then he felt remorse, sought
a quarrel with the landlady and moved out. From that moment began his
insatiable craving for women. It was his last homosexual period. He had
led astray other boys before that one and always gladly introduced
them to the habit. A court case in which the defendant was sentenced
for a similar offence decided him to give up the homosexual practices.
He never repeated them after that Berlin episode.
His satyriasis developed on account of the repression of his homosexual
tendencies. Back of his morbid passion for woman stood his ungratified
longing for man.
The subject now sees clearly that he carried on with the boy the act
which he expected of his father. His hatred of the father is reversed
love. In the chapter devoted to sadism we will describe more fully this
relationship between father and son.
Our subject expected his father to do with him what he did with the
boy. It shows how little credence we should lend a patient’s first
statements. Presently numerous similar episodes come to the forefront
and soon we learn that his greatest desire at one time was to procure
a pretty boy for himself and that boys roused him more than girls.
He seeks the company of women to forget all about his inclination
towards boys and hopes to overcome his homosexual tendencies through
excessive heterosexual experiences. His craving for women, his
obsessive thinking about them, serves only as a means to prevent his
mind from reverting to the other sex. Compulsory thoughts often serve
the purpose of preventing other thoughts from intruding. This is the
law of resistance which plays such a tremendous role in the mental life
of neurotics. In the course of treatment he transfers upon me all his
passion—as was to be expected. He has some dreams,—which he relates
with great difficulty,—during which he sees me naked and handles my
penis or even carries out _fellatio_. He now recalls passionately
watching his father, also how happy he was to go bathing with him,
and how he liked to hide in order to see his father’s phallus. The
dissolution of this transference and reference back to his father he
does not like at first, but it becomes more and more pronounced as we
proceed. He is now abstinent for a week at a stretch and no longer
chases after women although I gave him no particular advice on this
point. The consciously acknowledged homosexual leaning has no need for
this cover. As leaning comes to surface openly it is openly overcome.
He again experiences anxieties. His landlady tells that he is heard
tossing and groaning and even crying out in his sleep. He is now
sentimental and soft, becoming greatly changed in character, to his
advantage. Again he goes to the theatre and reads books,—things he had
not done for years. His letters to his father are more quiet in tone
and sympathetic. He becomes economical and spends less than his father
sends him.
Then something happens which promises to mark a new epoch in his life.
It is a typical experience of these men during treatment. As the
infantile ties are loosened in the course of the analysis they fall in
love.[17]
Our subject is in a state of highest preparedness towards love. His
homosexuality, which had been completely repressed—he no longer took
any interest in boys—was again manifest. He now played his trump card.
He fell in love with a girl who was to replace for him all other women
as well as all thought of man. This happened in so remarkable and
typical a manner that it is worth while to report fully the occurrence.
He was still in the habit of accosting girls on the street, even if
for no other object than sheer amusement. One evening he came across
a demure little girl who looked rather like a young boy, boldly spoke
to her and fell deeply in love with her on the spot. In three days he
declared himself her beau and six days later they became engaged. He
thought of nothing else but his sweetheart. As if bent on revenging
himself on me and on his father he spoke of nothing else but his love
and his new found happiness. The satyriasis was replaced by a psychic
intoxication even more powerful. He picked up a girl belonging to an
ordinary family to punish his parents. He chose that girl although she
was no longer _virgo intacta_ (because this did not interest him). He
told that to his parents and it was, he felt, the strongest revenge and
punishment he could bring upon them. They thought a great deal of their
social position; and now, their son was marrying the daughter of a
motorman, a girl without any education and who served as clerk in some
store. And he threatened his parents that he would take his life unless
he could marry the girl. He would marry her without their consent. His
love was so great,—such a love never had its equal in the world! The
very thought that his father might try to prevent the marriage made him
raving mad and he talked of violence and murder.
I advised the father to disarm the son by placing no opposition in his
path. He should make but one condition: the son must support himself
and his wife. Only a man capable of maintaining a wife has the right
to marry. I took the same attitude explaining to the young man that he
must make himself independent of his father through his own labor. He
perceived plainly that the idea of maintaining himself through his own
labor did not appeal to him. His greatest pleasure was the thought that
his father had to pay every time he went out with a woman and that he
was squandering his father’s money.
At this time he confesses to me that he was about to get married once
before. It was in Berlin, shortly after the homosexual relations
with the young boy. He became acquainted with a girl who kept up
intercourse with him. This girl he wanted to marry and his father
went through the same trial with him. He could not think of a greater
revenge. Such subjects show this trait again and again. It is not the
only case of the kind that I have met. The occurrence is common and
every experienced nerve specialist is called in consultation over
similar problems several times in the course of a year. That girl
was the Frenchwoman who introduced him to all forms of paraphiliac
practices. The father, naturally indignant, threatened to disinherit
the son. That was precisely what our patient was looking for. He was
afraid only of a soft-hearted father and he managed always to rouse his
anger as a sort of protective screen between himself and his father.
The patient also felt that his father scorned him. During the Berlin
episode he clung to his Frenchwoman, did not rest until his father met
her, wanted always to keep in her company and was afraid of being alone
with his father.
At this point the subject’s journey to Thuringen with his father came
up through numerous associations. He accompanied on that journey not
his uncle, but his father, and he now recalls that during the trip he
frequently occupied one bed with his father, and that it made him happy
to think that his father took him along instead of his mother.
It will be recalled that previously he remembered only the incident of
slipping on a stone. That is really a “Deckerinnerung.” The fall covers
other incidents: It stands for a fall into sin. I must point out that
the subject also links the return of the trouble and its aggravation
to an alleged fall. The accident happened in a merry go round. He fell
unconscious but after a short time came fully to himself and returned
to the sport. The accident could hardly have been a serious one. At any
rate the riddle of a fall belonged to the fancies with which he had
beclouded his journey to Thuringen. The fiction established itself in
his mind through his occupying one bed with his father in the course of
that journey and his substituting the father for the mother. His dreamy
mind conceived the companion as a woman, as the mother, and added the
fiction of a fall into sin, symbolically represented by the trivial
incident of an actual fall.
He now finds himself in a new homosexual danger. I see him daily and he
tries by various tricks to induce me to give him a physical examination
and to show me his penis. He thinks he has again gonorrhea, perhaps he
has phthiriasis, I ought to examine him, it would be foolish for him to
go to another physician for that. I explain these symptoms and the man
confesses that he has indulged also openly in fancies in which I played
a role. And now he takes revenge by telling me about his bride and
dwelling on her tenderness for hours. He has no other theme for talk.
He must always have her near him to feel quiet. She must not leave
him for a moment. Day and night he wants to hold her hand ... thus he
insures himself against homosexuality.
Finally I tell him I shall give up the psychoanalysis if there is
nothing else to come up. Then, lo! his talk turns to other matters.
He knows now that his engagement is a defence measure against his
homosexuality and his filthy onanistic acts. But he also sees that in
his bride he has found a surrogate for his mother. He surrounds her
with tenderness like a man who truly loves, and presently his psychic
intoxication turns into a deep and true affection. He still has serious
quarrels with his bride. He still storms against his father and against
all authority. He is an anarchist at war with all authority and assumes
an obstinate attitude towards everybody. But his father, apprised by me
of the true situation, keeps his temper and thus disarms his son. Thus
the engagement no longer serves the object of worrying the parents.
His parents apparently let him have his own way, insisting only that
he should go to work. I doubt his ability to get to work and express
to him my sympathy. He wants to show me that he can work. At every
opportunity I sympathize with his bride, a quiet, brave little woman.
He will surely abandon her. He cannot keep true. Not so! he declares.
He is going to show me that he can be true.
In a few weeks he finds a position and does his work so carefully and
diligently that his condition is greatly improved. Then he marries and
in every sense of the word becomes a new man.
But there was a great deal more to do. His paranoiac notions of
grandeur, his feeling that he could do anything which others may not,
his obstinacy and his rebellion against all authority were gradually
replaced by social tendencies. He became modest and agreeable....
His complete recovery, he learned early, depended on his keeping away
from his parents. A short stay in the old home roused all the old
antagonisms and he resolved to stay away so as to keep on friendly
terms with his parents.
At first all his affection was centered on his bride and he did
not wait for the marriage ceremony.... He attained unbelievable
accomplishments.... But this did not continue for long and soon he
quieted down and had intercourse with his wife at regular intervals....
Pregnancy and childbirth made it necessary for him to keep away from
her for a time and he did so easily enough, without being untrue to her.
I do not know how long this improvement will last. He has kept his
place for the past three years with dignity and honor, and is today
a quiet, brave man who shudders when he thinks of his past. His
parents have reconciled themselves to his marriage and the birth of two
grandchildren has ratified in their eyes the inevitable fact.
The character of satyriasis is richly illustrated by this case. We see
also why the Berlin air did not agree with the subject. There he was
in danger of becoming overtly homosexual. In one Berlin office where
he worked there was a homosexual who wanted to introduce him to his
circle. He took a sudden liking for his chief of whom he grew daily
more fond. The other men in the office made him jealous and he resorted
to quarreling, using vile talk. Finally he broke with his chief as a
defence against the pent-up feelings within himself.
It is interesting to note that during his relations with the young
boy he identified himself with his father. He carried out the act of
seduction which he vainly expected to be acted out by his father. His
identification with the father went so far that he felt himself aged,
tired, played out and he thought he might not live long. During his
coprophiliac acts he played the role of a suckling.
It is interesting to observe what role he assumes now while in love
with his wife. A few remarks on that point may not be out of place here:
During the first stage of his infatuation the subject identified
himself with his mother, while the young woman stood for a boy, mostly
himself. He acted out the love scenes between mother and son and he
was surprised to find himself capable of such motherly feelings. He
emphasized his strong femininity. He had, he thought, womanly hips,
scant beard growth, gynecomasty (full breasts). Organically he was of
that bisexual type which careful examination of the neurotic never
fails to disclose. He was also attentive, gallant, dainty and mannerly.
Sometimes the bride was the mother and he played the role of the child.
He snuggled up in her arms saying: “I should like to crawl in and lie
like a child in its mother’s bosom! That would be bliss.” During coitus
he preferred succubus and once there occurred a strange incident. A
fancy seemed to dawn on him that he was having intercourse with his
mother. This was not a phantasy that I had in any way suggested. I
let the subject relate everything that comes to his mind without
influencing him in one direction or another.
As he improved the identification with his mother disappeared. He made
up with his parents, exchanged friendly letters with his father, and
felt he was making satisfactory progress. For the first time in his
life he was himself.
He became aware of his own personality. Now he loved his wife as a
husband, and felt that he was a father who had a mother of his own.
That may seem self-evident and an irrelevant remark. But the whole
task which I aimed to achieve was to break up his identification with
his parents, destroy his projection upon the old home. Previously
the leading motive in all his conduct was the thought: _what will my
parents say?_ The knowledge that his father would be troubled made him
happy. He wanted to punish the man whom he held responsible for his
sufferings on account of his lack of proper responsiveness and to keep
the father always in trouble. Now he abandoned his infantilism. He was
a child no longer, he was a man. Overcoming all disguises and masks he
came to himself.
His homosexuality persisted as formerly. But he saw this clearly before
his eyes and recognized it openly in his relations with his superiors,
his friends and his psychoanalytic adviser. He could meet the issue and
overcome it. Perhaps he shifted a part of it over to his son. One thing
is certain: he is through with the homosexual longing and so completely
that it no longer troubles him. He is alert and active. Such result
would not be attained without the art of analysis and without the
physician’s educational skill. This man, in the absence of analysis,
would have probably ended his misery in suicide.
I must also point out that his genuine affection for his wife developed
out of an impulsive infatuation. He met the woman, spoke to her, and
fell in love with her at once. Yet the marriage is happier as time
passes. Trifling storms do occur—where do they not—but they blow
lightly over and his home life is one of quiet happiness. The dream
about his great historic mission is gone. He who had once the ambition
to become a Napoleon or a Herostratos, a Satan or a Don Juan, a
bomb-thrower, is now a reliable, efficient and satisfied bookkeeper;
he now sits at his desk in the office dutifully adding long columns of
figures, brings home little presents for his wife and children, and
if his old folks send him a sum of money he is pleasantly surprised
and puts it in the bank for his little daughter. This case illustrates
also the relations of homosexuality to the family and to the problem of
incest. More about that later....
* * * * *
Nymphomania shows the same homosexual basis as satyriasis. In the
study of Sexual Frigidity in Women[18] we shall have occasion to point
out types of women who are undoubtedly nymphomaniac in character,
Messalinas. These women are usually anesthetic, a condition in itself
of considerable significance and one which is often seen also in
ordinary prostitutes. They have a hunger for man similar to Don Juan’s
longing for woman. It is characteristic of them, too, that they never
find satisfaction. These persons in perpetual quest, Ahasuerus, the
Flying Dutchman, Faust and Don Juan, who are condemned to wander and
search and who never find rest, portray the libido which does not find
its proper sexual goal.[19]
There are also among women endless seekers continually dreaming of
man,—some man who shall completely and lastingly gratify them. The
conditions are even more complex in women than in men. For the present
I want to report briefly one case, pointing out merely what may serve
as an illustration of our present theme. We shall take up the whole
subject more fully in connection with our discussion of dyspareunia.
* * * * *
A woman, strikingly beautiful,—we shall call her Adele—comes to me
with a most unusual complaint. She is married to an excellent man
with whom she had fallen in love and she still loves him. She has no
inclination whatever to remain true to him. She lacks completely any
resistance to temptation. She is easily the victim of any man who
comes near her. She is a woman who does not know how to say “no.” Her
husband who has no inkling of her doings worships her. Sometimes she
is conscience stricken, as now, and wishes to find something that
would quiet her so that she would not have to think from morning till
night only of sexual matters. But, what I shall find unbelievable, she
adds, is that she remains cold during a man’s embrace and must always
follow it up with onanism. Only cunnilingus produces an adequate orgasm
in her. She thinks that if a man satisfied her regularly in that way
perhaps she could remain true to him.
From her life history I quote the following data. Already as a child
Adele had gathered certain experiences on the subject of sex. She was
about eight years of age when her brother began to carry out coitus
with her. She was very sensual even at that time and claims that she
experienced great pleasure in the act. The brother was two years
older. All the children in the apartment building where they lived
were introduced early to sexual acts. Often there took place regular
orgies. She was loaned by her brother to other boys when he received
their sisters in exchange. She remembers having been used once by four
boys in succession. These doings went on for over a year. Then another
girl’s mother discovered what was going on and matters came very near
being aired in court. There were scenes and investigations but all the
children lied themselves out of it.
From that time on she masturbated and to this day she cannot give
up the habit. Even as a “flapper” she had no other thought than to
attract men. She was very coquettish and easy going, improved for a
time, becoming very devout as well as retired in her disposition and
even thought of joining a nunnery and taking the vows of chastity.
But this pious attitude did not last long. Soon she flirted again and
turned to all kinds of erotic books, the reading of which so excited
her that she masturbated several times during the night. At 17 years of
age, a pupil of her father’s who was teacher of piano at the musical
high school, took advantage of her. She was alone with the young
man for a few minutes. He kissed her and she accepted this without
resistance. Then he dragged her on top of himself—there was no couch
in that study room—and she lost her virginity. She did not know how it
happened. It was over in a few minutes. She kept away from the young
man after that, although he pursued her, and for a few weeks lived in
terror, afraid that she might be pregnant. But fortunately that was
not the case. She soon noticed that all men were interested in her.
Young and old pursued her. The mother to whom, with tears in her eyes,
she related the incident with the young man and who kept it from the
father (fearing that he would murder the boy) kept careful watch over
her, never left her alone, always saying to her: “Child, you must marry
soon! Your blood is too hot.”
At 19 years of age she found her man, with whom she fell in love so
desperately that she became the laughing stock of the town. During the
very first days of courtship she fell into his arms and offered no
resistance when he tried to possess her completely. He was so excited
that he failed to observe that she was not a virgin. She enjoyed the
experience but little, although she was tremendously excited at the
time.
From the very beginning she was untrue to him. She carried on with a
friend of his, going even to that man’s house. She was unhappy and
wanted to do away with herself. But she soon got over that and again
began flirting.
After the marriage ceremony—three days later—she recalled having
heard that Dr. X., an attractive young single man, was a great Don
Juan. She decided to look him up at once and seduce him. She complained
to him of a red spot upon her privates, claiming it troubled her. Was
that not a sign of some illness? In short, she attained her purpose,
was his sweetheart for a time, and learned then of cunnilingus for the
first time. That she regarded as the highest achievement in the art
of love. Another man required of her the anal form of copulation. All
such things amused her, although she never experienced the orgasm as
satisfactorily as during masturbation.
Before long she felt painful remorse. She had the best of men for a
husband. She tortured herself with the most severe reproaches, daily
saying to herself: “This must be the last time; I must not do it
again.” But the very next day she felt impelled again to go into the
street or to telephone to one of the many men who were at her disposal.
It is interesting to note that on her list of lovers there were
physicians, lawyers, army officers, clerks, nobles and commoners. She
never took payment and never accepted presents. That would put her in a
class with the prostitutes. She also tried coachmen and chauffeurs, but
her disgust afterwards was so great that she gave this up, although she
always felt the temptation.
She acquired a gonorrheal infection and this compelled her to claim
“female trouble” as an excuse to keep her husband away from her for
a time. She was so provoked with the man who had infected her that
she wanted to revenge herself on all men and in her anger thought of
transferring the infection to every man in her circle. She did not
carry out this plan because the gynecologist who treated her forbade
all sexual congress. Nevertheless twice she could not control herself
and she infected two men....
She wanted me to hypnotize her. There was no other thought in her
mind than men and again men! Her mind revolved continually around
sexual scenes; she has even thought of going for a time to a house of
prostitution, and, like Agrippina, allow any number of men to use her
until she shall have had enough. Perhaps then she would quiet down! If
she meets a stranger that night she dreams of intercourse with him!
I ask her about the dreams; whether they lay stress on some special
form of intercourse or portray merely the normal act.
Hesitatingly she answers: “Always the normal. Only I am regularly on
top.... Why is that? I have often thought of it.”
“Did you have such a dream last night?”
“Let me see. Certainly; a foolish dream, though....”
“Please, let me hear it.”
“I am in bed with my brother-in-law. A man of whom I would not even
dream.”
“But you did dream of him.”
“I cannot understand it. I have never given him one minute’s thought.”
“And never anything happened between you?”
“No ... with him, never. Although he is attentive to me and I know he
likes me. I love my sister too dearly to treat her that way, although
my sister is not faithful either, and things like that don’t matter
with her. It seems to be in the family. Still, I would rather have
nothing to do with my brother-in-law. The dream is nonsense, I have
forgotten the most of it. It was much longer.”
Observing that she tries to avoid the dream I insist that she should
try and recall it as nearly as possible. “Well, then,” she continues
her narrative, “the dream was as follows:
”_I am in bed with my brother-in-law. It seems I am the man and he the
woman. He has no mustache and lies under me. Suddenly he changes and it
is my sister and I kiss her passionately. ‘You see,’ she says to me,
‘you should have done this long ago and you would be well.’_”
I inquire about her relations to the sister and learn that she has not
been in touch with her for the past few months and that during this
time she has grown more nervous and her craving for men also grew worse
than ever. “When I am with my sister I seem to forget men more easily.
She is a very spiritual person and extremely charming. If you should
ever meet her you would fall in love with her.”
When one hears such talk, and one hears it rather often, the diagnosis
is easy: the narrator is in love with that person and therefore thinks
it natural that everybody should fall in love with the person in
question.[20]
Further inquiries disclose that she was preoccupied with but one
thought: her sister. She always looks upon her sister as the best
dressed, most spirited and most charming person she had ever known.
Why was the woman no longer on friendly terms with her sister?
Because, she claims, her sister is egotistical and cares nothing for
her. She was lying ill for a few weeks and her sister let her lie there
and took no more notice of her than if she were a dog; she wanted her
sister’s company when she went out, she could not do her shopping alone
but she could not get her sister to go along. So she had to go around
with a woman friend who was a disgusting and vulgar person. She ought
to be ashamed to show herself in such company; if she were in her
husband’s place, she would not tolerate it.... After all, it would not
be so very sinful if she did become intimate with her brother-in-law;
her sister was not true to him and kept up relations with an army
lieutenant but the poor fool does not see it and thinks the army
officer is his best friend....
She keeps up an incessant flow of talk. She wakes up thinking of her
sister, she thinks of her all day and she dreams of her every night. I
have studied her dreams over a period of weeks. There is not a dream
in which her sister fails to figure and none but portrays her erotic
attitude towards the sister.
In the course of the analysis her childhood experiences come to light
and she recalls that for a long time she slept in one bed with her
sister and they performed cunnilingus on one another. That was so long
ago, she had forgotten all about it. That experience discloses her
true nature. She is continually looking for woman; specifically she
is looking for one woman, her sister. She wants to forget her, the
traumatic experience with her she wants to drive out of memory, by
covering it with new experiences.
We see that her latent homosexuality drives her into the arms of
every man she meets. We also note the role of family relations in
homosexuality, a subject which we shall take up specifically later and
illustrate with proper data.
IV
Description of Don Juan Types who are satisfied with conquest and
forego physical possession—An unlucky Hero, whose love adventures
are interfered with by Gastric Derangements—A would-be Messalina who
hesitates on account of vomiting spells—Influence of Religion on
Neurosis.
_Ich wüsste kaum noch etwas Anderes geltend zu machen, das dermassen
zerstörrisch der Gesundheit und Rassenkräftigkeit, namentlich der
Europäer zugesetzt hat als das asketische Ideal; man darf es ohne
Übertreibung das eigentliche Verhängniss in der Gesundheitsgeschichte
des europäischen Menschen nennen._
_Nietzsche._
IV
_I know hardly what other factor could be held so harmful to the health
and racial vigor of European peoples, as the ascetic ideal; without
exaggeration this must be looked upon as the striking fatality in the
health history of the European._
_Nietzsche._
We have spoken thus far of the active Don Juan and of Messalina types
and we have attempted to prove that homosexuality is responsible. Along
the extreme types we find endless varieties of transitional types.
Nature nowhere confounds us through the richness of her varieties and
combinations so much as in the manifestations of human sexuality.
The would-be Don Juan and would-be Messalina are most interesting
types. They behave precisely like the true type. They manifest the same
uncontrollable and restless craving. But somewhere in their development
the capacity to carry out heterosexual adventures fails them. I am not
now speaking of the man who plays Don Juan in his mind’s fancy or of
the Messalina who does not truly possess the courage to try to live up
to her instinctive cravings. There are numberless such cases and a bit
of the type lurks in the breast of every person, a fact we recognize as
the polygamic tendency.
The type which I wish to describe approaches the ascetic. It is plain
that the ascetic ideal would not arise if a strong homosexual tendency
did not depreciate heterosexuality. For every action is the product of
instinct and repression. An overpowerful instinct may overcome even
the strongest inhibitions. But if a portion of the individual’s sexual
energy is anchored homosexually the aggressive sexual acts are endowed
only with a portion of the energy they require. If the energy is
shunted off its proper track entirely we have the ascetic person; and
if the energy is but partially side-tracked and is insufficient for the
accomplishment of the sexual aim, we have the would-be Don Juan type.
There are any number of men who daily dream only of their possible
conquests, begin adventures, and carry them along for a time only to
drop the affairs suddenly ... because they “get cold feet.” They envy
men who are able to pursue their adventures to the end, men fortunate
enough actually to make conquests and they bewail the fate which brings
them so close to the most tempting fruit only to prove elusive just
when the fruit seems ready to fall into their lap,—and to be gone
forever. Better than all generalizations may serve the account of an
actual case, like the following:
* * * * *
Mr. Xaver Z., would like to be a “lively fellow,” like most of his
companions. He claims that his shyness spoils his success. He is 29
years old and has never yet had a “real” affair. When he wakes up
in the morning he thinks: “Will you have luck today to talk up to
a girl and get her?” The whole day he thinks of this so that he is
continually distracted and unable to work. He is also dissatisfied with
his business accomplishments. Others work so easily and accomplish
everything without friction, he is slow and not energetic enough.
He thinks that somehow he lacks initiative. He is always tired and
depressed, and he has already been in sanitaria several times vainly
trying to get well. He can hardly wait for evening to arrive so he
may go into the street in search of adventure. He speaks to a number
of girls but nothing comes of it. He has also tried a “personal” in
the newspaper and corresponds with several women. But they are only
platonic relations. He either lacks the courage to become more intimate
with the women or finds himself repulsed when making a suggestion of
the kind. He thinks he is unlike other men and it discourages him. He
always feels lonely and Sundays are a torture to him. He tries to meet
poor people and pays them occasionally to partake of an evening meal
with them so as not to feel quite so lonely.
He is a travelling salesman. He fears that he is not an efficient
salesman. He lacks the power of influencing his prospective customers,
he seems unable to talk as convincingly to them as other men in his
calling. He acts indifferent and if he sees that the customer does not
intend to buy he goes right off. He is employed by an older brother. He
is lucky. Another employer would have dismissed him long ago. While his
brother does not reproach him in words he can read it in the brother’s
eyes.
Regarding his sexual life he is able to state that sexual matters
began early to interest him. He does not remember the beginning of
it. He does remember that he masturbated at 10 years of age and he
continued the practice till he was 20 years old. Then he heard about
the evil consequences and gradually gave it up. But even after that he
masturbated every two months or so and always felt very worried after
doing it.
He began going to women at twenty years of age. Since that time he
has intercourse about once every two weeks with prostitutes, or
occasionally with some girl whom he picks up on the street and who
usually expects pay; he is strongly potent. He has no particular
pleasure with prostitutes. He goes to them out of a sense of duty
because all his colleagues have intercourse with women and he wants to
be like them. It is a hygienic measure rather than an inner compulsion
with him. But he always fancies that, under the right conditions,
when the girl gives herself out of love, it must be different. He
felt so dissatisfied because he was never lucky enough to have a real
sweetheart. For the girls he picked up on the street were really
nothing more than ordinary prostitutes since they, too, expect some
present if not regular pay.
He was distinctly unlucky. Other young men were always lucky but he,
quite the contrary. There must be something about him that makes
persons keep away when they get to know him more intimately.
If these complaints are looked upon as true facts one would really
think that the young man was unlucky. But as a matter of fact he
himself lays the foundation for his lack of luck, he alone spreads the
bed in which he is to lie. He is a Don Juan who carries on flawlessly
the first part of his adventures; it is only when he tries to bring
the adventures to a head that his luck fails him and then the expected
conquest turns into a deception.[21]
It appears that he has actually brought many of his adventures to a
crisis only to withdraw at the supreme moment on the score of some
triviality or other. These occurrences are all alike except that the
alleged motives for breaking up the adventure differ in every case.
Perhaps it will be best to mention his last adventure as an example,
for it is particularly typical:
It was Sunday. Xaver felt again very lonely and neglected and went out
looking for a girl. An old friend whom he was to meet at a certain
place he neglected to look up. Today he must succeed. He is tired
of loneliness and neglect. Today he will get a girl. He makes a few
attempts but in each case he finds the girl expects pay and that does
not suit him. Finally he sees passing by a fine, sinewy, supple figure.
He hurries after it—she is an elegant, attractive woman. He speaks up,
telling her in one breath that she must not be angry, his intentions
are “entirely honorable.” He merely feels lonely and would like to
spend the evening in pleasant company. The woman is not prudish, she
permits him to accompany her and confesses that she, too, is lonely
and feels terribly depressed. He now worries because he promised her
“an honorable acquaintance” and during the walk tries to make up his
mind whether he ought not to change his tactics. It begins to rain.
They enter a Café where they listen to some music; then they go to a
restaurant for dinner. He shows himself very gallant, pays all expenses
and conducts her home. The woman tells him she has a telephone, as she
conducts a little business and suggests that he may call her up. They
agree to meet the following Sunday and spend their time together.
During the week he plans a line of attack and decides to put an end to
his shyness and come with her to the real object.... He calls her up,
they decide to go to the Opera together and then to a late supper. On
Sunday forenoon he purchases the tickets and intends to put them at her
disposal. Suddenly the thought strikes him, he ought to give up the
relationship. He sends the spare ticket to a friend and telephones the
woman that some of his relatives having arrived unexpectedly he cannot
go to the Opera. Afterwards he is unhappy over it, etc.
The friend was otherwise engaged, he remained alone, the ticket was
wasted. He worried considerably over the matter and returned home
feeling sad. When I pointed out to him next day that he really fled
from the girl, he shook his head and said his sister was really
responsible because “I told her everything and asked her what I should
do. Sister said: ‘she is pulling your leg, it will cost you money and
nothing will come of it.’”
“Do you tell your sister these things?”
“Certainly. We speak very frankly about all sexual matters. Sister has
started the custom and I find it natural. Why should I not advise with
sister?”
I explain to him that he expected her to turn him against the
adventure, that he was really afraid of the relationship and its
possible consequences. I show that the friend was more to him than the
woman and that the sending of the ticket to him meant: _my friend is
more important to me than a woman!_
I have occasion to prove again and again that he paves the way for his
failures very adroitly and sometimes tactlessly because while acting
the role of a “lively” man he wants at the same time to preserve
his inner attitude. The initial stage of conquest satisfies him and
thereafter he voluntarily renounces to its consummation.
That he vehemently denies,—he knows absolutely nothing about any
homosexual leaning! He declares he would be right if he could only
have the right kind of a love affair. He is continually looking for
it. It was really unbelievable to hear how many adventures he was
able to start in the course of a week. He was a handsome interesting
man and found no trouble conquering women’s hearts. But he always
managed affairs so as to break them up before they went too far. At the
last moment he always thought of something or other which prevented
consummation of the adventure.
This was shown typically one New Year’s day. A woman from a distance,
with whom he was in correspondence—they had also exchanged their
photographs—invited herself for that evening. He was to meet her
at the train and they were to celebrate the New Year’s together. He
went to the station but missed her because he “waited at the wrong
place.” Next day he succeeded in tracing her. Naturally she was angry
by that time; then, thinking to make up with her he proposed on the
spot to take the woman to a hotel with him. Naturally she resented the
insult and made him scurry out of her presence. He had provoked this
precipitate dismissal by his sudden proposal. He managed things so that
every promising victory turned into a defeat in the end.
He was late at his appointments or showed himself overanxious and even
coarse at the last moment, when the situation was most delicate, or
made some uncalled-for remark. Thus, to one girl who was already on the
way to a hotel with him he said: “Ah, all women are alike, they all run
after men and when they catch one they are happy!” She looked at him
with lifted brows: “Is that what you think of a girl who goes with you?
Then I want to have nothing to do with you ...” and turning around she
walked off.
That does not prevent him from running again after girls; he even
accosts married women on the street but he always complains about his
poor luck. At the same time his sexual desire is not excessive. His
physical requirements never cause him any uneasiness. It is a psychic
urge that drives him to seek women. At the same time he longs for
friends but then, such friends as he seeks are also not to be found.
Only the last friend was such a one because “he understood him.” They
went to brothels together. That was the first time he experienced a
really strong orgasm. We know this custom on the part of men to be a
convenient mask for homosexuality.
The motives of his conduct are revealed in a dream which throws
considerable light on the significance of homosexuality.
We have recognized for some time that this is a case of latent
homosexuality, repressed on the negative principle of aversion.
Xaver speaks incessantly of women, thinks of them all day long, so as
to avoid thinking of men. He tries to lean on women, but never becomes
intimate with them because the negative force that drives him is not
powerful enough. The better woman is for him a “noli me tangere,” he
suffers from an inhibition which keeps him from every woman who is
not paid. The prostitute is not considered a woman and, besides, her
charm is increased by the fact that she has intercourse with other men.
Through her it is therefore possible to give an outlet to a portion of
the homosexual tendency.
We shall now turn our attention to his dream. _Naecke_[22] justly
remarks that the dream is the best reagent for homosexuality.
Unfortunately he was not familiar at the time with the revelations of
dream analysis and he paid attention only to the manifest content. How
much richer in meaning the dream shows itself when we learn to read it
and to interpret its hidden symbolism.
The Dream:
_I am pursued by men and fear they are about to do something to me. One
man in particular, brandishing a big sword, is very hotly on my trail
and already he touches me from behind with the tip edge of his sword,
a curved thing like the Yatagan used by Turks. I run to the cemetery
to mother’s grave. I find there my cousin (female) who is also afraid
of the robbers. First we try to hide, then we look around carefully
and see that the coast is clear. We leave the cemetery together in a
carriage and we drive upon an endless dark road. I snuggle up to her,
as if for protection against the robbers and I am ashamed of my unmanly
attitude._
Of course it is not proper to conclude that a dreamer is homosexual
merely because the dream carries a homosexual meaning. For, as I have
shown in my _Language of Dreams_, every dream is bisexual, consequently
homosexual traits may be found in every dream. The dream only portrays
once more man’s bisexual nature and even the dreams of homosexuals are,
without exception, bisexual. We see through them merely the degree of
the repressed homosexuality and the dreams enable us to recognize more
easily the motives which impell the subjects to adopt a monosexual
path....[23]
This dream begins with a typical portrayal of a homosexual pursuit.
The subject is really pursued by his homosexual thoughts. The great
curved sword is a well-known phallic symbol. That the sword touches him
from behind is something easily interpreted. Equally obvious is the
reason why the sword appears curved when we learn that his brother has
a hypospadia and a phallus of that shape so that medical advice was
even sought on the matter. The pursuer had a big heavy beard exactly
like his brother and the same figure. Thus we see that the brother, who
stands out of the mass of pursuing males, in a certain measure typifies
the homosexual pursuit.
He flies to his mother’s grave in the cemetery. His mother shall save
him from homosexuality. She, the representative of femininity, is the
one to whom he flies, when pursued by men. The cousin is the wife of
another brother. She represents the typical incest compromise. Many
neurotics who are emotionally fixed upon their family, finally marry a
cousin. The cousin, whom he finds at the grave, is his savior and he
starts with her upon the dark path of life, a half man....
He tells that he was to marry the woman but she became instead his
brother’s wife because he kept hesitating and would not make up his
mind. But he had the fancy that he could be her sweetheart. He is
specially fond of his brothers’ wives and his sisters.... He has
numberless phantasies revolving around incestuous deeds. His two
sisters also figure in these day dreams.... He grew accustomed to talk
over sexual matter with his sister not without reason. He tells her all
his adventures with preconceived watchfulness. Thus he told her also of
the late acquaintance, as mentioned above, and was advised, as she had
previously advised him in a number of similar instances, to keep away.
Unconsciously he was awaiting from her the reply: _Why go out of your
way? Why seek in other women what you can find in me?_ ...
We understand now the inhibition which stands between him and women of
“the better class.” The latter stand for the sister and the mother.
The incest taboo is what stands in his way. He looks for a true
adventure but cannot find it. He looks for his sister and he looks
for the man. His brothers’ wives are the objects of his jealousy and
his yearning at the same time. With his questions and problems he
goes to his sisters-in-law, never to his brothers. His conscience is
uneasy with regard to his brothers. In their presence he is always
timid and ill at ease. He is in love with his older brother though he
does not acknowledge the fact to himself. His brother’s strength and
energy rouse his admiration. Occasionally his brother sang. The voice
lingers in his ears so sweetly that he declares his brother to be the
best singer in the world. He feels that his brother neglects him. The
brother does not seem to notice how ill he is or how much he suffers.
Once he was quite a jolly fellow but now (since giving up masturbation)
he is mostly depressed. But the brother takes no notice of it and never
asks him how he feels or how it goes with his health. If he only could
quit his brother’s business! He belittles himself in order to cling
to the brother more lovingly. He could not endure being away from his
brother. He does poorly during his business trips because it is against
his wish to travel at all and because he is jealous of his brother’s
large business.
His attitude towards the second brother, who was his playmate in
childhood, is even more tense. He never visits that brother and when he
cannot avoid meeting him has but little to say. He shows that peculiar
uneasiness towards the brother which persons manifest when they try to
cover a certain erotic attitude.
The following characteristic dream may be instructive at this point:
_I am in my brother’s store ... He puts before me an assortment of
underwear to mark up. I refuse to do it and step out of the store
saying: “Brother can kiss me....”_
His brother advised him to get married. This is the incentive to
the dream language “underwear to be marked.” But he loves only his
brother. The remark, “_er kann mich gern haben_,” (equivalent to the
colloquialism, “he can kiss me,” and its more vulgar variants) plainly
embodies a reference to a sexual act.
Incidentally anal irritation is one of his strongest paraphilias. He
suffers more or less continually of “anal itching,” which is at times
so unbearable that he cannot sleep. He consulted for this complaint
a physician who found no local trouble and who declared that it was
merely a “nervous” itching.
The fact is this subject is now on the point of becoming a homosexual.
Some precipitating occasion and his homosexuality is bound to become
manifest. His last friend is dearer to him than all the girls.... This
is shown clearly by the fact that he sent him the ticket which he had
bought for his lady friend. A portion of the hidden impulse had broken
forth on that occasion. Usually he covers his homosexual leanings
very cleverly. His friends and colleagues at the office think he is
a lucky Don Juan and have no idea that he never enjoys the ultimate
advantage of the role he plays. They see him always in the company of
girls, always going around with pretty women; he runs after them on the
street, he goes to public places with them; at the office he speaks of
nothing else but his conquests and new adventures.
But not to his brothers. He never mentions any sexual matters
especially in the presence of his younger brother, the one who was his
playmate in childhood.
The analysis did not last long. But during the very first few weeks
there came to light experiences with this brother which explained the
subject’s reticence.
Considering the remarkable fact that Xaver was animated by the desire
to be a regular Don Juan we have something with which to contrast the
extent of his moral qualms. For a long time he was very pious and then
all of a sudden he turned into a free thinker. Analysis discloses that
his religious piety still persists undiminished. Don Juan stands to his
mind only for the unreachable ideal of a free man, a man undisturbed
in his actions by any inhibitory feelings. But he invariably hears an
inner voice calling to him, at the last, supreme moment of action:
_Don’t! It is sinful._
It is the voice of his mother, who never failed to dwell on moral
themes, who warned him against the dangers of the big City, his mother
whom he so loved and honored. How often his dreams lead him to the
cemetery where his mother lies buried, as if to conjure up before his
eyes the dear image and to remind him to avoid all evil and to follow
in the Lord’s righteous path!
This case illustrates the significant role of family environment in the
genesis of that homosexuality which _Hirschfeld_ calls genuine. We find
a fixation upon the sisters, also a fixation upon the mother, and the
passionate love for the brothers, particularly for the older one, with
whose wife he sees himself driving off in a dream. That cousin really
stands for his brother. Through her union with his brother she had
acquired a new attraction for him. Before her marriage he was rather
indifferent towards her. The homosexual experiences with his younger
brother date back to his 16th year.
His craving for love affairs, the impulsion to women, was but a flight
away from the pursuit of man.
* * * * *
The next patient shows an entirely different constellation. Whereas
Xaver was clever enough to free himself from the terrible women through
his peculiar tactlessness, the following subject reassured himself by
conjuring up an ailment which became very troublesome, it is true, but
which proved an effective means of defence.
Mr. Christoph—we shall designate the subject by that name—is a victim
of chronic stomach trouble which, according to the opinion of various
physicians, is of a nervous origin. He has attacks of sharp gastric
pains, and loss of appetite so that he has grown very thin and looks
like an advanced victim of consumption. (Lungs and all other organs
are in excellent condition.) He cannot digest any meat, any attempt to
do so produces intense pain, and if he swallows so much as a mouthful
he is likely to vomit. He denies that he ever masturbated, and claims
that his sexual life is entirely normal. Formerly he was in the habit
of going around with girls, but it gave him no pleasure, probably
because prostitutes are disgusting to him, and with other girls he did
not care to become too intimate for ethical reasons. He would like
to be hypnotized so that he should be cured of his aversion to food.
I decline hypnosis and advise, instead, a complete analysis. Only in
that way may he learn the way to a complete cure. He insists he has not
withheld anything in his talk with me. He has told me everything and
wants hypnosis by all means but this I refuse.
He says he will think it over. My questions took him by surprise. He
was unprepared. He is one of those men who have to think matters over
and don’t make up their mind in a hurry. One of his rules through
which he learned to protect himself against life’s sudden perplexities
is: “Don’t lose your head. Think it over.”
He calls a few times continually talking about his pains. One day he
states that he has about made up his mind to quit. But next day he
returns and brings me a lengthy written document: “You have asked me
repeatedly about my dreams. I have written down my last night’s dreams.
I always dream a lot and my dreams are always lively and about like
those of last night. I have also brought along my true confessions to
let you know what I really am. You will see from the confession of my
life history what brought about my illness. I see I cannot get along
any more trying to keep it all to myself. Let the truth come out.”
I am now giving this life history as it was presented to me in writing,
following it up with the dream report.
_The Story of My Illness and My Biography_
I lived in the parental home up to my 4th year and then I was taken in
charge by my mother’s people. My father’s business compelled him to be
away from home for months, sometimes for a whole year at a stretch.
My grandparents brought me up with much tenderness, and as they were
very religious, my education was also based on piety. They lived in
a very prettily situated village, an old, lovely resort place. The
river flowing nearby was naturally the meeting place for us children.
On account of the danger of drowning I was an object of great concern
to my grandparents, so that they tried to keep me close to them as
much as possible. I went with them to church daily, visited with them,
usually at the homes of elderly people where the conversation was
almost exclusively about religious matters, and on every occasion it
was drilled into me under the most terrible threats and admonitions to
pray and be good.
I heard numerous stories of deeds and miracles attributed to the Holy
Mother and I was shown the places where some of these took place in the
neighborhood.
Then I returned to mother. Soon afterwards I went to school. Sister
taught me the primer and soon I was able to go through my favorite
book, an old large copy of the Bible, whereas formerly I depended on
questioning others.
Frequently I gave up all games preferring to sit in a corner poring
over my Bible. It is customary in the country to undergo a public
examination in the church every half year. My sister two and one half
years older than I prepared herself for that event for some time
because she did not learn easily. I followed her study carefully and
was able to recite everything as well as she.
The examination came up at the church and no one could answer a certain
question. But I knew the answer, because it was part of sister’s
lesson, made signs, the vicar asked me and I surprised everybody by
giving the correct answer. It was the prayer, “Our Father.” My folks
admired me for it, gave me presents and said: “Boy, you will grow up to
be a fine man.” This praise touched me very deeply.
I was about seven and a half when a girl of twelve induced me to join
her in forbidden games, we played with each other’s genitals, etc. This
occurred very often. I liked it very much and the experience became
deeply imprinted on my mind. Then I felt a strong desire to repeat the
same games with other girls. My mother’s sister visited us about a year
later and while she caressed me she roused in me a new feeling and I
could hardly refrain myself from asking her to play with me the games
that the first girl had taught me.
Beginning with the third year of school we had a new teacher. He took
notice of me early because I was a good scholar and soon I became one
of his favorite pupils. This teacher had the horrible habit of calling
me to his desk where he held me by the member until it became stiff,
while talking to me. I wondered a great deal what it meant; but I did
not dare mention it to any one.
At the end of that school year we removed to Vienna permanently. I was
tremendously homesick for the old place; the coolness and indifference
of the new surroundings at Vienna affected me and secretly I resolved
that I would rather starve than stay there. I was threatened that I
would not be allowed to visit the old home if I did not make progress
and I would be sent to a sanitarium; the last threat in particular
scared me especially as I was shown some (false) papers to indicate
that the first steps had already been taken to have me interned. That
and the perpetual anxiety at school where we had a queer teacher who
mistreated horribly the pupils (and I did not know a word of German
at the time), had a serious effect upon me; my physical condition was
impaired, I grew thin and lived in a sort of dream state. During my
solitude I often sought relief in tears.
I lived through the period. In two years, here too, I reached one of
the first places as a scholar. I had a colleague at school, whose
sixteen-year-old brother was compelled to stay at home for a year on
account of illness and we played with him. The two initiated me into
all sorts of nasty practices. The brothers slept together in one bed,
underneath their parents, and had frequent opportunity to see their
parents lying together. They always told me about it and showed me
their mother’s stained shirt. This impressed me very much and I also
began to watch my parents. Till my twelfth year I slept in one bed with
my sister. Then I slept near mother in bed, as father was mostly away.
My fancies grew to such unhealthy dimensions, that I began to think my
uncle, mother’s brother, who was living with us at the time, was guilty
of criminal intimacy with her. Slowly my suspicions were allayed, as I
could observe nothing out of the ordinary, despite watchfulness.
Around thirteen a school boy taught me to masturbate. I did not do
it often because I feared it was sinful and it kept me in continuous
anxiety. Then a book fell into my hands describing the terrible
consequences of the habit. That scared me off completely, and as a
positive protection, when I was about fourteen and a half I swore over
grandfather’s grave that I would have nothing to do with sexual matters
till my twentieth year. I suffered a great deal in consequence on
account of my pent-up desires. But I was fairly faithful to my oath.
At fourteen I joined a higher institution. My preparation was far
below that of my colleagues and one of the teachers warned me that I
might not be able to keep up with the course at that institution. That
worried me a great deal. It affected me considerably to think that in
this way I might be hampered in the free choice of a vocation.
At the first examination it turned out that only I and one other
student passed successfully and I looked upon that as a divine favor,
the more so because my very affectionate grandmother prayed for me
continually.
I was permitted to take the course on condition that I should earn for
myself remission of the school fees, which amounted to a considerable
sum. Only the best scholars received free tuition. I plunged zealously
into the subjects on which my preliminary preparation was weak.
My thrifty zeal was not flawless. I was always confident that God was
with me and I thought that I owed to his intervention, rather than to
my constant application the position of a scholar of the first rank
which I had attained in two years’ time.
During that period I came again into contact with that girl who was
the first to initiate me into sexual matters. Her presence continually
disturbed me.
When I was about seventeen and a half I had some innocent love affairs
with some other girls, but although opportunities for coitus were
frequent, I never took advantage of them. Reason: my fear of immoral
deeds.
I slept with my sister and a girl cousin in one room. I concentrated
my attention upon the girl cousin. The frequent allurements kept me in
a continuous state of agitation the more so because I could see that
the cousin, too, had to struggle hard to suppress her inclinations and
desires. I withstood all temptation and remained innocent.
Towards the end of the school years I came into closer contact with
a girl who had already previously attracted my attention. We became
deeply interested in one another, but we could meet only occasionally
and that under very strict conditions. We had to part in the end; as
I really loved the girl it made me suffer a great deal. During the
occasions when we did steal away to our secret trysting place I felt a
peculiar excitation which settled on my stomach; if I ate it caused me
nausea.
After completing my course of study I entered the employ of a local
business house. I became acquainted with another girl, and strange
enough, we two also had to overcome considerable difficulties when we
tried to meet. After about a year we could meet freely and shortly
after there were no more difficulties in our way. But I lost interest
in her by that time, and decided that I would have nothing to do with
any such foolish love affairs.
Whereas formerly I was kept back from any thought of coitus with a
decent girl because I considered it an unworthy and dishonorable act,
now whenever I was about to meet a girl I was seized with a gastric
discomfort and even vomiting. Once in the girl’s company that would
disappear.
I gave up all affairs of heart, but my condition became gradually
worse. I vomited several times daily, I could not even tolerate a
mouthful of bread on my stomach, even clear soup was hard for me to
take. Every time I swallowed I felt like vomiting and I could not
even drink. Besides that I suffered of sleeplessness and of strong
neurasthenic pains.
Finally I had to give up work for a year and I spent four months of
that time in the country but my condition did not improve very much.
It caused me a great deal of tension to suppress my strong sexual
impulses. Contact with a public woman seemed shameful to me, and with
a good girl I could not enter into any intimate relations partly for
moral reasons and partly on account of lack of favorable opportunity.
I felt inhibited from the moment my illness began. I decided to resort
to public women upon the express advice of a physician.
* * * * *
This remarkable case is as clear as a school problem and richly
illustrates the various factors which determine a person’s attitude
regarding sexual matters. The subject is a simple man who has not
yet mastered completely the German language and he has repressed but
little. His youth and his sexual struggles apparently stretch before
his memory like an open book. He has had many dreams and remembers
them well. We note the genuine religious background. He is no longer
pious and does not care to go to church service. Nevertheless it ought
not to be difficult to perceive that back of his fear of immoral acts
stands the fear of divine punishment,—a consequence of his early
moral training. This man has been brought up with fear in his heart.
This breeding of the germ of fear in his soul was responsible for his
anxiety neurosis. Witches appeared to admonish him, in the school he
was spurred on by dire threats to do his best. Then there was his
powerful sexual craving which he, nevertheless, found possible to
withstand. Whence did he acquire the strength to keep away from his
girl cousin, although she so warmly attracted him and even encouraged
him? Was it the proximity of his sister who occupied the same room?
Some occurrences between him and that sister he had overlooked in his
voluntary account of his life, otherwise fairly accurate. He avoided
incest, but besides the moral and religious inhibitions, there must
have been something more to keep him so effectively away from women.
His trouble which asserts itself before keeping a secret appointment
is nausea. Dislike and fear are protective defences against sinning.
We recognize readily this disgust for woman, so strongly emphasized by
most genuine homosexuals. We know that this aversion covers a repressed
craving, a craving which is unbearable to consciousness for one reason
or another and therefore breaks out in the negative form as disgust.
The latter serves as defence and protection against the very tendencies
which generate the powerful cravings.
The disturbance is a cover for the incest motive. He cannot approach
a woman because he sees in her the grandmother, the mother, or the
sister, a fact of which he was often fully aware. _Quo me vertam?_
There is open before him the homosexual path, since the road to woman
is closed. The episode with the teacher, the “vile doings” with his
school companions were a sort of initiation.... Here repression sets
in. He knows nothing about his homosexuality. But the dream betrays
and tells more than the subject is prepared to see as yet. We shall
therefore begin the analysis with an analysis of the dream.
_That Night’s Dream._
I stand before the door of a dwelling in my home town and gaze upon the
surrounding landscape.
While I am immersed in thought, my uncle comes along; he had helped
through the day working in the field and on his way home stopped near
me in front of the big door; he throws out some jocular allusions;
among other remarks saying: “it would be healthier for you if you
plowed up a few acres instead of idling away.”
I point to the team of horses hitched to the harrow, jocularly saying:
“oh, yes, certainly, but not with so poor a team. These two animals
should have been dumped on the scrap heap long ago, specially this left
one bearing himself so proudly when he is only an old nag.”
I hardly finished my words, when the horse started and broke his traces
madly to jump at me.
I started to run, fled up the first stairway and ran into the kitchen
shutting the door after me. Then I ran into the next room and
barricaded the door with every furniture article I found handy. The
horse was already at the door kicking until he broke through and made
his way into the room.
Meanwhile I ran to another room, again shutting the door but even as I
did so I knew that it wouldn’t be an effective barrier. I looked around
the room for some other means of escape and to my surprise saw my
sister standing behind me.
The horse had broken down the door enough to be able to stretch his
head through into the room and his dilated nostrils snorted angrily.
Sister handed me a small round stove calling out to defend myself with
the stove lids, they will prove an effective weapon.
The horse was ready to jump inside the room so I hurled at him first
the covers then the whole stove as powerfully as I could. At the last
critical moment I caught sight of another door, hurried out ran to the
stairway and woke up.
I went over the whole dream in my mind to make sure that I will
remember to tell it to my psychoanalyst. Shortly after that I fell
again into a light slumber and dreamed that I had gone to the analyst
who treats me:
He occupied a commodious residence with broad stairways. I found myself
face to face with him; he was doing something in a closet. I stood by
and told him the foregoing dream.
He went away for a while to attend to some important matters, as he had
to drive off in about one half hour. Then he called me down to him and
asked me to continue my story while he was lacing his shoes.
When I finished I moved off and through a side door and there I met my
mother. I exchanged a few words with her, opened the door, which led to
a glass-covered veranda and saw a locomotive and open fire.
The engineer moved various levers in vain, he could not start the
engine. Meanwhile the physician arrived, looked at his watch, and
remarked impatiently that it is already late. Suddenly a servant girl
comes running down the steps bringing three carefully tied up paper
packages (or bundles).
In order to raise the required steam pressure it was necessary to feed
the fire lively. The physician decided to help and threw one of the
bundles into the fire. It burned up quickly but produced no effect.
Then mother spoke up from the other side saying, there it must be
all right, took another package and threw it in at that spot without
accomplishing anything, any more than the physician did.
Saying: “That is not the way, look here,” I took hold of the third
package, jumped on a protruding piece of machinery in the midst of the
flame which surrounded it and threw the bundle into the center of the
burning mass. The flames broke forth, the safety valve began to whizz,
a whistling was heard and the engine began ponderously to move.
The physician jumped on, reached out his hand to me as he was moving
off and I barely had time to ask him where he was going. He said he was
going to Brünn. I wondered at that and—woke up again.
After I fell asleep once more I had another dream like the first. I
found myself in an elegantly furnished residence.
The door opened and a young pretty woman came in. She looked at me for
a while, then smiled wickedly but I did not lose my poise and said
something to her. She became more irritable, raised her hand, in which
she held a weapon and threatened me.
I looked on quietly, confident that she could not do a thing to me.
Then she jumped at me. I ran to another room, she pursued me, and thus
the chase continued through several rooms.
I was about to open another door when I felt she was directly behind
me holding in her hands some instrument that looked like a perolin
sprayer. It squirted a white soapy fluid. She gave a few squirts
without touching me, although a few drops fell on my clothes. I thought
it was some caustic fluid and wanted to escape.
While she was preparing for a new attack I quickly shut the door and
the nozzle of the sprayer caught between the door and the frame.
I grasped the nozzle, twisted the sprayer out of her hand, threw it
aside, caught the woman by the throat, and was going to throw her
down. But she caught me also by the throat, kissed me passionately and
staggered towards a sofa, dragging me along. I held her with my left
arm around her body while I pushed my right hand between her legs. I
felt a pleasant sensation; as we looked in each other’s eyes we slid
down together....
She was saying she meant no harm, laughed heartily, pressed me to her
bosom, her face began suddenly to change,—I now saw my sister smiling
at me.
Overcome with affection for her I wanted to press her closely to
me—suddenly the door opened and an elderly woman came storming in. It
scared me and I awoke—pollution.
* * * * *
His first dream carries him to his home town and birthplace. Our
previous analyses have shown us the meaning of this and no Freudian
student will fail to recognize that the birthplace is a symbol for
the mother. We learn that the father’s brother resembles the father
and conclude that the uncle stands for the father in that dream. The
conversation between himself and the uncle is a repetition of old
reproaches. For a long time he was unable to work and at the present
time he is unable to help in his father’s business. He finds a ready
excuse in his illness. The incestuous relation to his mother is fairly
obvious. The inhibitions which developed so that he is unable to make
himself useful in his father’s business, are due partly to his hatred
of the father as a rival. The day before the dream he had a small
controversy with his father, because the latter had made an error in
one of his calculations and was unwilling to acknowledge it. In the
dream he revenges himself for the reproach implied in his unwillingness
to plow (plowing here stands for coitus) by a slurring reference to his
father’s age. He was no longer fit for marital duties. The parental
couple are too old, they have already lived too long (“the pair belong
on the scrap heap”) and the one at the left (the father) is but an old
jade. (In German, _Mähre_, jade, old horse, here is also a play upon
the old home, _Mähren_). This is followed by the revenge of the scorned
father in the form of pursuit by the horse.
The dreamer relates that he was fully aware of his incestuous thoughts
with reference to his mother and sister, only he thought that he had
outgrown them. But he finds that occasionally he still dreams of
contact with his mother and more often with his sister. On the other
hand he did not think the dreams signified anything, believing that
they were but the echoes of a past stage. He does not remember having
ever dreamed of his father in an overt sexual connection.
But we recognize the bipolar attitude towards his father. His trouble
must be intimately linked with an unconquered homosexuality. The
account of his illness now brings up a childhood occurrence which had
made a strong impression on him. There was a teacher in that home
town who had a most peculiar and extraordinary way of recompensing
his worthy pupils. If one did something praiseworthy and the teacher
was pleased, he said: “very well, my boy! You shall be honored for
this,”—and gave the boy his erect penis to hold until ejaculation
followed. This was done openly before the whole class. The teacher
carried on this sort of thing until five years ago without any trouble
and then left the place suddenly, to avoid court trouble as the result
of a complaint. Christoph, who was a special pet of that teacher, was
probably chosen for that honor more often than any other boy. He was
also the prettiest boy in the class.
Beginning with that experience various episodes of homosexual character
are disclosed extending up to the time when he was seventeen years of
age, when they suddenly ceased. But he does not know that these were
homosexual acts and still insists that he always felt only the most
terrible aversion towards “all these homosexual things.” The subject
maintains unconsciously the wish to do with his father what he had done
with his teacher.
He is pursued by homosexual thoughts (the _left_ horse). We are now
turning our attention to the functional significance of the dream. It
represents a pursuit. The attitude displayed towards the physician is
clear. The physician pursues him through all his memories (the flight
through the rooms). This flight through rooms has been interpreted by
_Freud_ as a flight from women (brothel). I have repeatedly pointed out
that rooms represent the compartments of the soul, that the pursuit
is really through all the parts of the brain (the upper story stands
for brain; compare the colloquialism, there is something the matter
with some one’s “upper story”). We see that a certain thought pursues
him past all obstacles and hindrances, and he is unable to elude
that searching thought. His sister is the one who comes to his aid.
She hands him a miniature stove with which to defend himself against
the horse. The stove and the lids represent the sister’s sex.... The
dream means: _only your sister, only a woman can save you from your
homosexual inclination towards your father_. The dream also indicates a
prospective tendency: he throws the sister upon the father and saves
himself through another door. He means to overcome his complexes. The
attitude towards the physician is also clear: he expects to put me off
his trail by confessing to me his incest fancies about his sister,
when I had not asked him about it. The dream indicates his intention
of telling me about his fancies and episodes in which his sister
figures. But he expects to escape thereby any further inquiry into his
wish phantasies and to avoid telling me about his attitude towards his
parents.
Then the patient falls asleep again and repeats the dream so as to
be able to tell it. We may presume that the dream was distorted and
changed somewhat in the course of its first rendition. We really get
but an extract, the chief parts omitted.... In the next dream he
tells me the first dream. Such dreams are seldom remembered. When a
woman dreams that she has told her physician the dream, it means that
she is through with the unpleasant task and the dream vanishes from
memory as in the cases when the patients declare: Today I dreamed
something important; I said to myself in my half slumber: “This is
something I must tell the doctor! I don’t remember what it was. But
it was something really significant.” Thus is the physician thwarted;
the resistance is vicariously overcome in the dream, the wish to tell
the dream is fulfilled but the wish to keep it from the physician
is stronger; during his dream experience both tendencies are given
expression by the subject.
The next dream: Again, an exposition of analysis. I am upstairs busy
with a closet, which represents the brain or his shut-up soul. But
the analysis will not last long. The wild hunting after his secrets
and treasures will cease soon. The physician has to leave (die?).
Here the physician substitutes the father. The dream shows plainly
the transference from the father to the physician. The first dream
dramatizes the pursuit of the father, in the second and third the
father no longer figures. His name is not mentioned at all in the
dream, he is the secret, the unspeakable theme.... The physician laces
his shoes; that is commonly known as a death symbol and shows the clear
wish to be through with the analysis.
An engine has to be started. He is a machinist and has daily to do with
machines. Engine is symbol for his soul which functions so poorly, a
symbol for himself, for all the impulses and energies within him. He
accomplishes through his own powers what his physician and his mother
are unable to bring about. First I try to put the engine in motion. I
take the mysterious paper package and throw it on; the mother attends
to the other side of the fire. But he gets up and takes care of the
fire from above.[24] He is above, he triumphs over me and surpasses
me in the ability to cure him. He recalls a pupil of his who had to
commute to Brünn. It brings to his mind an occasion when he was the
teacher. Thus I am his pupil, I am learning from him how to start
an engine. Though I may know something about sick souls, I don’t
understand a thing about his specialty (he is a machinist), there
he is the master and I am ignorant. This consoling thought serves
to strengthen his feeling of self-regard and prevents a feeling of
inferiority from developing in his relations to me. There are a number
of scornful references to the impotent father and to the equally
unskilful physician. He is with me one half hour daily. He had noticed
that I looked at the watch, to see whether his time was up. The half
hour and the looking at the watch appear in the dream. The day before
he showed his father how a technical problem was solved. In this dream
he also shows me that something must be done a particular way.
We observe that this attitude towards the physician, as representative
of the father, pervades the whole dream. But this does not exhaust the
meaning of the dream. It is a pollution dream (gratification without
responsibility). It is interesting to see how the onanistic act,
represented as pollution, is dramatized in the dreams. In the first
dream he flees from homosexuality and there the relationship between
homosexuality and the hidden mother complex is clearly shown. In the
second dream the mechanism of sexuality is represented in action.
Neither the father (the engineer working around the engine), the mother
nor the physician can do it. He alone is able to accomplish it. This
shows the secret pride of the masturbator, the self-sufficiency of the
autoerotic personality. (The engine’s flame covered running board, a
phallic symbol; later note.) Onanism is shown as a protection against
all sexual perils. The safety valve hisses and relieves itself—an
intimation of the subsequent pollution.
But the fear of onanism, the strong effects, the dread of homosexuality
and incest wake him from his sleep. Consciousness (the engine
conductor) attempts to control the thoughts and to banish the nocturnal
ghosts. The thoughts about a man and about his sister are interrupted
and he falls asleep once more. Three times he dreams of various
situations before the anxiety in him is transformed into wish. First
he fled from the horse and from his sister, then he fled from his
mother and the physician and finally there came his release. He was
strong enough to withstand his homosexuality, strong to overcome the
heterosexual longings. Now the instinct throws forward its highest
and strongest card to overcome the last inhibitions: bisexuality. The
girl with the phallus, his sister, appears ... and pursues him. He is
frankly preoccupied with the thought: give in and masturbate. The
thought itself he avoids, he tries to push out of his mind. He sees
himself in the dream. He sees the womanly side of himself, the woman
with the phallus, and this thought troubles him during the nightly
hours when he should be resting. He jumps at the female person to
strangle her: that is how he fights with his instinct, how he tries
to thwart his autoerotism. The instinct recognizes the weakness of
his defence and suggests that it seeks only his welfare. With the
right hand he seizes his genitals while with the left he carries out
an embrace. He has an orgasm (the sister smiles at him) but it does
not last long; for an old woman appears upon the scene. The door
opens, that is, the door of conscience (the threshold symbolism of
_Silberer_), and remorse seizes his soul. He rouses from his sleep and
the pollution worries him. The old woman may also be a symbol for his
mother (further significance of the old woman as symbol will be shown
later). But I have no proof of that inasmuch as the subject describes
her otherwise.
What is the sense of the dream with reference to its central theme?
Is it a wish-fulfillment, a warning, or a prophecy? Undoubtedly
many wishes are fulfilled in this dream. The subject resists many
temptations, he embraces his sister, he triumphs over his father and
over his physician as well. But the most important feature that the
dream portrays is the pollution as a defence against all sexual
dangers and as successful cover for all inner inhibitions.
Another meaning of the dream should be pointed out. His neurosis must
be represented by some person or object in the dream. Asked what the
engine suggests to his mind the subject answers: my illness. The
glass-covered porch: the transparency of his trouble; the engine: his
neurosis. The subject habitually compares his body to a steam engine,
especially his stomach. He shows various effects of starvation: unable
to eat, he loses weight, and looks like a skeleton because he wants
to starve out his sexual longing and punish himself for his sinful
passions. This man had built for himself a marvelous safety valve in
his neurosis. When he thinks of going to meet a girl, he gets such a
severe attack of gastric pain that he must give up the appointment.
The gastric discomfort is induced beforehand through excitement
and inability to eat. The clever staging of his gastric trouble is
noteworthy. Nausea and vomiting are first induced to prevent the taking
of food. Then hunger supervenes and that gnawing sense of hunger,
spoken of as gastric cramps, becoming so strong as to overshadow the
heart affair. The craving for food becomes more obsessive than the
desire for woman. These episodes are followed by a ravenous appetite.
He recalls that after the first dream he woke up with a terrible
hunger. This hunger was even stronger after the second dream but
disappeared after the pollution.
I have already maintained in my work on _Morbid Anxiety_ that hunger
may stand as a substitute for sexual libido and here this is clearly
shown and illustrated.
Now we understand the firing of the engine with the paper packages.
The caloric value of paper is as small as that of nutrition, when
the latter is substituted for sexual desire. Thus he makes use of
his stomach as a remarkable safety valve. He starves himself out
because the gratification of food serves as a substitute for sexual
gratification. He relates a number of incidents showing how cleverly
his neurosis serves him. Every woman he meets excites him but even when
he goes so far as to arrange an appointment with one and she agrees
to call at his residence or to go to a hotel he stops short of actual
intimacy.
From the standpoint of the analysis the prognosis is unfavorable. He
does not want to give up the neurosis, his safety valve, he wants to
keep up his own way of “firing the engine” and wishes the physician
were out of the way. Indeed, he continues to have recourse to
masturbation, he endures the consequent regrets and self reproaches,
rather than give up his defence.
We observe inwardly a strong “will to power” and formally a decidedly
feminine attitude; the orgasm occurs while he plays the role of woman;
but the highest gratification always depends on the most powerful
inner forces. He does not avoid women because he fears defeat, for
he has repeatedly proven his _potentia_ through intercourse with
prostitutes and feels supremely confident that he could master any
situation involving no moral scruples. What hinders him seems to be the
association of his sister with all decent girls, and of his mother with
all married women. His homosexuality is inhibited by his fixation on
the father. And back of all inhibitions there stands his overstressed
religiosity, which he had cultivated for years although he had
apparently outgrown it. He intended to embrace a religious career but
gave up the idea when he was 14 years of age. It is very likely that
most of his troubles will disappear after marriage, if he should break
away from the parental circle.
I believe that even one who is inexperienced in dream analysis will
readily recognize a phallic symbol in the perolin sprayer which gives
forth a soapy fluid. It was natural that at 16 years of age he should
fall in love with a colleague who resembled a sister. The obvious
incest thoughts kept him from the girl. All girls of good family were
sisters; he treated them like sisters. The prostitutes were not in
the same class with his sister and he could be potent with them. The
homosexual path was closed to him also on account of his sister. In all
young men he saw his sister with a phallus.
It is significant that further analysis discloses a fixation upon
the father to an extent I had not quite suspected before. Back of
the apparent scorn of his father, underneath his tendency to speak
lightly of him there was an unquenchable love which nothing could quite
gratify. The ugly example given by his teacher suggested intimacies
possible only in the realm of phantasy. (His subsequent dreams placed
him with me in a similar situation.) Thus he vacillated between
homosexuality and Don Juanism.
Why do these men hesitate in the end and why do they not become
genuine Don Juans? In large measure this is due to the inner religious
scruples. These rudimentary types are weighted down by an excess of
morality. They like to play at immorality but very carefully see to it
that morality wins in the end.
I wish to add a few remarks about the religious significance of the
dream. It is remarkable that all dream interpreters have overlooked
the obvious import of dreams, from the religious standpoint, in spite
of the fact that they are aware of the great role which religion plays
in man’s mental life and must appreciate that such a force necessarily
finds expression through the dream.
The subject has been for years a very pious young man. Witches and
devils filled his fancies as real tempters. The dream also shows the
fear of the devil who misleads the weak to drink, whoredom, shortly,
into sin. The homosexual tendency is often felt as the work of the
devil.
Our subject who was so very pious for a long time, declaring himself
now an atheist and free thinker. He promised his mother, under oath,
that he would attend church services regularly on Sundays but he gave
this up when he reached the 20th year. At first his mother objected,
and was very angry over it, and desisted only after her son convinced
her that he had no faith. But she said repeatedly: “I feel certain that
the Lord will enlighten you and that some day you will come back to the
faith.” He only smiled at that for on his part he felt certain that he
would never again be a believer. His greatmother, whom he visited every
summer, was even more pious. Two weeks after the dream we analyzed he
had the following dream:
_I am with my grandmother. She goes early in the morning to church and
asks me to go along. I hesitate. Next morning she repeats the request.
I have a strong attack of gastric pains and tell her. I will take a
sunbath, it is the same thing...._
We see that, under the grandmother’s request, the dream portrays the
subject’s childhood disposition. We note a connection between the
hesitation to go to church and the gastric pains and we hear of
sunbaths as a substitute for religion,—a fact which I have repeatedly
observed in other cases as well.
Further inquiry reveals that every evening the patient struggles with
the impulse to recite “Our Father”; he resents the inclination,—“it
is nonsense. I don’t believe any such folly as that.” Nevertheless
sometimes he murmurs portions of the prayer, while in a half dreamy
state, when he has the illusion of being again a child. He carries
around in his pocket, a couple of small “holy mother medallions” which
he bought at a fair: “it is really a superstition; I always carry them
in my coin purse, because I have an idea it is good luck.” He has
presented his prayer book to his younger sister and so the book is
always accessible. He goes to churches because he is “interested in the
church music.” ...
How does the dream show this? The devil appears to him in the shape of
a horse (horse’s hoof is a characteristic sign of the devil) and tries
to seduce him. The horse breaks down doors and all obstacles. At one
time he believed in a personal devil. He attended once a church where
the minister preached considerably about the devil and who said that
there were living witnesses to testify that they had seen the devil.
His grandfather was angry because the minister told believers such
far-fetched stories, and forbade him going to that church. But the
fear of a personal devil had been deeply implanted in him at home. If
he misbehaved, he was threatened with the evil one. If he refused to
pray some one knocked in the next room and he was told that it was the
devil that was after him. He was brought up the same way to believe in
witches. An ugly old woman once came to his room dressed as a witch to
scare him and the other children into better behavior and it affected
him so horribly that he remembered the scare for years. In his dream
the devil pursues him and he eludes the pursuit. In the second part
of the dream he himself is the devil and can do charms. To do magic
was his highest ambition in his youth and he would have gladly given
himself up to the devil for the privilege of learning magic. He starts
the engine by means of a charm. In his childhood his great wish was to
build a magic locomotive with which he could travel wherever he wanted.
The servant girl who brings down three bales of paper (play on
trinity?), (his love letters?), is a symbol of the Holy Virgin, as
it is in all dreams, a fact which I could easily prove. He was a
confirmed admirer of the Holy Mother. He must give this up if he is to
learn magic. But the dream is a compromise between the two tendencies
and expresses a bipolar attitude; he fires the engine with divine
fuel, with faith, which upholds his life along the right path and
protects it. He wishes me to the devil that he may continue secretly
to cling to his religion. But the infantile wish to be a magician
comes foremost to the surface. (The dream does not portray one wish,
but a number of wishes which criss-cross the soul.) The supplementary
portion of the lengthy dream also illustrates the power of magic. The
religious meaning of spraying (with holy water ... Perolin cleanses and
disinfects the air) is readily obvious and so is also the admixture
of religious and sexual motives which play such a tremendous role in
the neuroses and the psychoses.[25] He yields to the temptation, a
she-devil seduces him. The old woman, after all, is the witch of his
childhood, coming to punish him for his sins. (He admits also a strong
gerontophilia and once he fell in love with a 60-year-old woman).
The old and the new testament, his prayer books, his confession slips,
are in the paper packages which he must burn up to free himself of all
religious inhibitions.
The dream thus portrays a prospective tendency,—the overcoming
religious inhibitions, subduing the dread of hell and devil as well as
the fear of witches so as to give himself up to his cravings. He takes
his life in his own hands, fires his own engine,—he will take unto
himself any woman who looks like his sister.
The dream expresses clearly also that his homosexual fixation is due
to the mother and sister Imago which he finds in all women. Finding
himself upon a sexual path which leads away from women and in the
direction of man, he wants to leave that path and become a normal man
by overcoming all inhibitions. He no longer requires the protection
of his neurosis, he is master of himself, scorns the religious
imperatives, becoming magician and God in his own right.
Through the history of this subject we obtain a glimpse into the
mechanism which eventually leads to homosexuality. This subject might
have become a homosexual and would have then presented the usual
homosexual life history: Very tender for a time, girl-like, played with
dolls at his grandmother’s house, liked to be busy in the kitchen and
preferred the company of girls. Such experiences are commonly shared
also by the heterosexual persons but the latter forget them. Later, if
the course of development favors the outbreak of homosexuality, these
recollections, emphasized and fixed through repetition are pointed out
as proof that the condition is inborn.
One episode in our subject’s life might have led him to overt
homosexuality: his experience with the teacher,—the more so as it
took place openly. But what amounts to an inciting factor in one case
may act as a deterrent in another. Every influence may assert itself
either on the negative or positive side. Childhood dreams as carried
out by adults, may generate either a gerontophilia, or a similar
inclination towards children, depending on whether the subject assumes
the role of the adult or of the younger person. Fixation on the mother
may drive a man entirely to homosexuality as I have clearly learned
through the history of a certain case. The homosexuals frequently have
a morbid mother, a woman who suffers of depression and is unwise in her
actions. Unfortunately my observations indicate that the fancies are
generated by parents as often as they are incited by guilty servants
and that such occurrences are far from rare.
In the case under consideration the experience with the teacher and
the latter’s revolting openness about it acted as an inhibition to
homosexuality. The thought, “You may get to be like that teacher,”
acted as a deterrent against the outbreak of a so-called genuine
homosexuality, though all conditions were otherwise favorable. Even the
characteristic dislike of women was there as well as the incestuous
fixation upon the female members of the family.
And although much of his sexual life was perfectly clear to this
subject’s mind, including things which to others appear only in the
dim light of day dreaming or upon the lowered state of threshold
consciousness, there was one thing about which he was entirely
ignorant: his true attitude towards, and relationship to, his father.
He was continually more irritated with his father and avoided to be
alone with him because he knew how easily they break into a quarrel
and how misunderstanding would arise between them on the slightest
provocation. This hypersensitiveness in his relations with his father,
shows that there were feelings at work over which he was not master.
What he demanded and expected of his father I have already indicated.
He wanted to be treated by him as he had been treated by his teacher.
In the course of the analysis he also had a dream during which I was
the one assuming that role. He is homosexually fixed on his father and
heterosexually fixed upon the female members of his family.
It is interesting to see that the homosexual inclination, despite all
childhood experiences, is repressed and masked under the feeling of
disgust. We understand in this light the meaning of the gastric pains.
He thinks only of women and is a typical instance of a would-be Don
Juan. He begins numerous adventures but always meets difficulties.
That is, he starts relations which from the beginning present these
difficulties and in that way there is no danger for him. If the
difficulties (symbol of the unattainable, that is of the incestuous
goal) are overcome, the attraction disappears or else his protective
defence comes to his aid: the gastric attacks. He goes so far as to
take a girl to a room but at the last moment he can do nothing on
account of his gastric pain. The nausea is a sign of disgust. It is
brought about by the homosexual tendency pressing forward as much as
by the subject’s inhibition against heterosexual relationship. At
the most critical time before meeting the girl he is restless, and a
voice within seems to say to him: “you do not really want this woman,
you want a man, like that teacher, or that friend of yours!” As a
protection against these homosexual notions his nausea comes up and
this also acts as a defence against women. For woman, as such, he feels
no dislike, he is able to have intercourse with prostitutes, without
aversion. But homosexual acts are repulsive to him. Thus he remains
hanging midway between homosexuality and heterosexuality. On account of
his religious scruples both pathways are closed to him and the result
is—his ascetic behavior at the end.
His asceticism is back of the rudimentary Don Juan role which he plays
but cannot carry out in accordance with his instinctive promptings on
account of his inhibitions. One step nearer and we have the Don Juan
of day-dreams and ascetic in fact,—if the adventures with women are
not even begun. A step further advanced is represented by the complete
repression of all sexual inclinations. We may define the ascete as a
person who remains in the narcissistic stage of fixation because both
paths of allerotism (that is, homo-, and heterosexuality) are equally
closed to him. An exclusive monosexual goal is incapable of rousing the
instinctive excitation necessary for carrying out a sexual act, because
the religious scruples are oppressive. His perennially unattainable
ideal is a bisexual being, he longs for a passion so strong that it
should be capable of overcoming all obstacles. His asceticism is not
voluntary, but a state induced by his sexual constellation.
Our subject has found his sexual ideal in the dream world. That is a
sister who has a phallus. He, the valiant warrior, struggles against
his instinctive promptings and masturbates. This act acquires in his
conscious mind, as pollution, the character of an involuntary act, an
accidental occurrence which cannot be helped, thus being robbed of its
significance.
_Freud_ points out rightly that the psychologist is particularly
interested in cases showing a late development of homosexuality,—a
condition which _Krafft-Ebing_ has described as “_tardive_” or Late
Homosexuality. In such cases homosexuality develops after a period of
hetero-, or bisexuality. We will describe a number of cases of late
homosexuality elsewhere and then we shall also attempt to trace the
reasons for the occurrence.
The next case also represents a transitional stage showing us a woman
in the throes of a struggle between the two tendencies. We have here a
rudimentary, a would-be Messalina, an interesting female counterpart to
the case described above.
Miss Wanda K. complains of an unfortunate split in her mental make-up
which prevents her from enjoying life as she should. She suffers of
strong and uncontrollable vomiting but the trouble arises only when
she is about to keep an appointment. She holds the most liberal views
that “a modern girl can and should have.” She meets gladly men who
interest her and even those who rouse her sexually. She knows she will
never marry. She is 29 years old and although still very pretty and
attractive,—how long will this last? She wants to enjoy life, she
would not care to die without having tasted the supreme gift and prize
of life, love. But she has a “delicate” stomach which interferes at the
most critical moment. Here is an example:
“Last Sunday I was to take an excursion with a gentleman whom I met in
an unconventional way. I am not at all prudish and do not mind being
spoken to on the street. As I walk downtown often I think to myself:
will someone talk to me this time? I try to attract attention, just a
little, and return home disappointed if no one notices me. A few weeks
ago a very elegant elderly gentleman addressed me on such an occasion.
He is a very intellectual man, which is the chief consideration with
me. I like intercourse only with intellectual persons. Persons lacking
culture are a trial to me. We entertained ourselves very pleasantly and
since then we meet daily. When the store where I am employed closes at
the end of the day, I find him already waiting for me at the street
corner. Then we go for a walk and we talk about all sorts of things.
He has never dared yet mention anything erotic in our conversation.
I have no reason, therefore, to fear him. Nevertheless I am watching
and waiting eagerly for the opportunity to show him that I am a modern
girl, unafraid of anything when she finds a man sympathetic and to
her liking, if he should ever begin. I do not expect anything more.
One cannot fall in love all of a sudden! Now, we promise ourselves an
excursion around Vienna for Sunday. Saturday I feel very excited, and
I picture to myself how he is going to bring up sexual matters, how he
will kiss me in the woods, I already plan what I shall say to him, how
I will resist him, just a little, and finally give in. You will excuse
me. It is high time that I quit being an old maid. Is that not a pity,
at twenty-nine? At the office where I am employed all the girls have a
sweetheart and some have several at once. That keeps going through my
mind. I am very excited and I even whistle a tune. But at the evening
meal I am unable to swallow a morsel of foods. My stomach seems shut
tight. Nothing will go down. I hope it will be over in the morning. I
get up early, put on my excursion suit and want to have my breakfast. I
struggle with nausea, try to eat some breakfast, only to vomit promptly
every particle of the food. Then the terrible nausea continues and
keeps up so that I must stay home while the gentleman waits in vain for
me at the appointed spot. Naturally when this happens a second time he
drops me ... unfortunately it ends just that way every time.”
She relates numberless occurrences of this character which always end
in uncontrollable nausea and vomiting. She has a long list of admirers,
young and old, rich and poor, educated and some less so, every one
thinking he can conquer her as she is very free and open in her talk
and does not avoid sexual topics in her conversations with them. She
is a member of various women’s organizations, like _Mutterschutz_,
which is devoted to the protection of the unmarried mother, she is a
champion for women’s sexual freedom and also a Shannaist. But every
one of the men she dangles on her string who tries to pass from theory
to cold fact discovers, much to his astonishment, that there is quite
a difference between this woman’s views and her practical conduct.
She circumvents all occasions which might prove embarrassing to her.
An office colleague invites her to his home. He is an art collector,
she is interested in painting, and he would like to show her his
collection. She finds all sorts of excuses to postpone accepting his
invitation and finally appears at his house ... accompanied by a girl
friend.... She had dwelt so much on all the possible consequences of a
visit of this kind that at the last moment she lost her courage.
It is interesting that her mental state developed first after an
engagement. Until the age of 23 she was fairly normal, very much like
any other girl. At that age she made the acquaintance of a man of good
standing in whom she became much interested. She became engaged to him
and this made her happy for she was in love as much as any girl could
be who thought she had found her ideal.
The man had but one serious fault. He was tremendously jealous. He
tortured her with questions about her whole past life and she had to
relate to him with particularity everything that she had experienced
as a girl. She frankly told him that once she was in love with her
piano teacher and also with her school teacher, a girl, but that there
was nothing else of any significance in her life. Nevertheless he
kept torturing her with further questionings insisting that she must
tell everything before marriage and he will forgive her absolutely
everything, but he did not want to be deceived, he wanted perfect
candor and truth between them.
One night she woke from a dream in which her brother and she had
figured in a rather intimate role. This brought to her mind an
occurrence she had entirely forgotten. She was visiting her married
brother in the country. His wife had gone to some relatives and he
suggested that she should sleep in his wife’s bed. She did so without
having any particular erotic notions, since this was her brother with
whom she had always been frank, not as she was with her other brothers,
for she had four others. During the night she felt her brother’s hand
touching her. He crawled in to her bed and kissed her. She was sleepy
and thought she was dreaming. He kissed her again and sleepy as she
was, she responded. They embraced warmly. She knows that she took hold
of his _membrum_. She thinks her brother must have exercised wonderful
control over himself after that and that he crawled back in his own
bed. The whole experience of that night is rather unclear. That much
she is certain, no coitus took place.
This remembrance awed her for she knew then that she had lied to her
man. It happened only once for next day she left the place and her own
brother advised her to do it. She went to visit a friend of hers in
the neighborhood and returned only after her sister-in-law was back
home. But since her young man had such complete faith in her, she felt
that she must tell him the whole truth. She told him of the occurrence
relating how it took place as in a dream. He began to investigate and
to question until it drove her to distraction and there were times when
she herself wavered in her recollection as to what really occurred.
But she could only repeat the one thing: she knew positively that
they kissed and touched each other that night, but could not say that
between her brother and herself matters had gone beyond that.
Her bridegroom stayed away a few days. Then she received from him a
note stating that he does not feel that he can take her to the altar
after her confession and he considers himself therefore a free man. He
sent her back the engagement ring and demanded the return of all his
gifts and letters.
This was like a physical blow to her. That was the thanks she received
for her complete candor! She had taken at his word the man whom she
dearly loved. How could she help thinking that he merely sought an
excuse in her eyes, and in his own, a pretext to declare himself free?
For a time after that she hated all men. She made no exception,
including in her hatred even that brother who was responsible for her
misfortune, in the first place.
Then she arrived at a second deduction: “it is not worth while to be
honorable! Better be easy going, like all your women friends!”
Shortly after that she apparently ceased hating all men and her great
yearning began causing her to think continually of nothing but men. At
the same time there began also her uncontrollable vomiting.
It seemed that her tremendous inclination to love was struggling with
an equally powerful antagonism. During that difficult period her only
consolation was a woman friend and her sister to whom she felt herself
very closely attached.
But her dreams show that back of her running after men there was
something else: the homosexual instinct which was struggling powerfully
to come to surface and which she tried to hold back by her love
affairs with men. She showed a number of unmistakable signs. She
dressed simply and rather mannishly; she cut her hair short, and
began smoking cigarettes; her appearance and gait assumed more and
more a mannish form; she lost her mildness and soft nature becoming
hardened and strong. Her whole nature expressed one supreme wish: _I
want to be a man, he has a better life!_ And, strange enough! Now
she does attract men and they dangle after her by the dozen. But she
only played and when it came to a serious issue in the course of any
of her adventures,—for some of the men had earnest intentions,—she
deliberately turned the whole thing into a huge joke.
She was no longer lured by men alone. She was on the point of becoming
overtly homosexual passing through the last phase of the struggle. The
nausea stood more and more clearly as a protection and defence against
the homosexual inclination. Her dreams were filled with homosexual
episodes. She herself was astonished when she began to observe her
dreams. The very first dream she related concerned her sister and her
friend:
_I am with my friend on the_ Gaensehäufel _(a popular promenade on the
Danube embankment in Vienna) and we are naked; I say: How beautiful
you are! You are more beautiful than any man. She embraces me and
kisses me on the breast, on the spot where I am so sensitive. I wake
up with dread,—palpitation of the heart and nausea._
Other dreams represent endless variants of this theme. Men figure in
them but seldom. Occasionally she is pursued by them and flees to her
sister or her friend. Thus her conflict is also shown in her dreams as
a flight away from men, an escape through homosexuality.
This young woman also imagined herself to be a radical although
inwardly she was pious. Sundays she visited the church, to hear the
music, she was not a believer, but occasionally she prayed, because
it was an old habit, she was fond of reading the Bible and she had to
suppress a small inner voice which impelled her to go to confession.
One day she said to me: “Do you know, yesterday it occurred to me that
if I were again a believer and could go to confession, everything would
be all right....”
Here we see a young woman who was at first on the proper path to become
a normal, heterosexual woman. She experiences a serious trauma and
begins to despise all men. She turns away from them. This aversion
is favored by the fact that all men remind her of the love for her
brother, which was repressed and forgotten but which flared up again
on the occasion of her unfortunate experience. That was the reason
why she was able to entertain herself best with elderly gentlemen and
go on excursions with them, etc., without being overcome with nausea.
The danger was not so great and these men were less typical of her
brother.... She turns away from men and her sexuality flows into
another channel. We have therefore a regression back to a childhood
phase, apparently past and gone, in _Freud’s_ sense. She also becomes
more agreeable at home, where during the past years she had been
accustomed to pay no attention to her mother. She again becomes fixed
upon her family and turns once more to her childhood piety. The period
of her nausea represents the last stage in her struggle against
homosexuality.
* * * * *
As we glance over the three cases just analyzed we are impressed in the
first place by the powerful rôle of the inner religiosity, which often
passes unrecognized. Both men stood upon that emotional level which
leads to polygamy as a defence against homosexuality. But they were
unable to overcome their religious scruples. Too weak openly to embrace
asceticism, they wandered through complicated neurotic by-paths in the
attempt to circumvent all the dangers that threatened them. One of them
played very cleverly the rôle of ‘_Pechvogel_,’—a man who would gladly
be a libertine but who was not lucky enough to succeed,—the other was
prevented by his stomach trouble from abandoning the path of virtue.
The counterpart is the “modern girl” who dreams about free love and
mother-rights and at the same time generates a nervous nausea as a
defence against any danger to her virtue. Here again we must admire
the subtlety of the neurotic who finds such clever means to assume a
certain rôle in the eyes of the world no less than before himself,
in order to cover up his true nature. All men who really lack inner
freedom are overanxious to act as if they were free. They apparently
adopt some modern liberal principle while as a matter of fact secretly
they adhere to the religious scruples of their ancestors.
As a great sin and “unnatural” act, it is plain that homosexuality
was out of question in these cases. Religion acts here as protection
and outlet at the same time. But it is also clear that under an other
educational régime these men would have found open to them two
paths neither of which they were able to choose under the existing
inhibitions.
The woman may become overtly homosexual and some late episodes indicate
that her resistance to the homosexual longings may yet be overcome. In
this case the traumatic incident which turned her against all men did
not occur during early childhood. It is a great error to assume that
traumas of late occurrence lose their pathogenic rôle.
There are periods in our life when we are impervious to traumas.
But there are also times during which we are hypersensitive to
any influences which play upon us. Every decennium of our life
has its crises and morbid periods during which we show a peculiar
sensitiveness.
V
Resistance of Homosexuals against Cure and their Pride in their
Condition—Acquired vs. Inherited—Insanity and Alcoholism betray the
Inner Man—Three Cases by Colla illustrating Behavior during Alcoholic
Intoxication—Observations of Numa Praetorius—The case of Hugo
Deutsch—Views of Juliusburger—Two Personal Observations—A case by
Moll—Views of Fleischmann and Naecke—A Personal Observation—Bloch
on Woman Haters.
_Die Kranken sind die grösste Gefahr für die Gesunden; nicht von
den Stärksten kommt das Unheil für die Starken, sondern von den
Schwächsten._
_Nietzsche._
V
_The sick are the greatest danger to the healthy; the mischief done to
the strong comes not from the stronger, but from the weakest._
_Nietzsche._
Experience in the course of psychoanalysis has shown us that the
recollections as told by the subjects are partial and incomplete.
The repressed memories and all those images which the subjects are
unwilling at first to see come to surface only after weeks of analysis.
Then the subjects are astonished to discover that they did not really
know themselves. The solution of our problem appears to depend on the
successful analysis of a large number of homosexuals. Meanwhile there
are a number of striking facts which every psychoanalyst can verify
and which those who uphold the theory that homosexuality is inborn
look upon as proof of their contention that homosexuality is truly
hereditary: most homosexuals are apparently well satisfied with their
condition and do not particularly care to be cured of it. They call on
the analyst only after they come into conflict with the law or if they
fear such a conflict. They do not want to have heterosexual feelings,
they are proud of their condition and they always insist that social
ostracism alone is what makes their status an unhappy one. They belong
to those remarkable persons who refuse to appreciate their plight.
Hence the customary statement: since I began homosexual relations I am
happy. I desire nothing else! Only a small number retain any desire for
“wife and child” and for normal relations, but even those fear it as
much as the “manly hero,” proud of his homosexuality.
We must not forget that exclusive homosexuality is the end result of a
long and tortuous psychic process, a sort of self-healing process in
the midst of a quasi-insoluble conflict. The dangerous heterosexual
path is apparently blocked altogether, because certain inhibitions
stand actively in the way. The removal of the inhibitions renews the
acute character of the conflict,—it means changing a state of truce
for a state of active warfare. The homosexual finds in his condition
a makeshift for peace and quiet. It is a poor peace, to be sure, for
the heterosexual inclinations are still powerful enough to generate
neurotic symptoms. But it is a safety outlet and anxiety prevents
its abandon. Just as the woman seized with fear of open spaces
(agoraphobia) finally refuses to leave the house and thus avoids her
anxiety only to experience the attacks of anxiety again the moment she
endeavors to step out of the circumscribed area of peace,—the moment
she endeavors to go beyond the sphere within which her inner voice
keeps quiet,—so the homosexual feels once more the full strength of
his revulsion whenever he attempts heterosexual activity. His customary
attitude towards woman is one of dislike or disgust, she may leave
him indifferent, but never will he admit that—he is afraid of woman.
He would rather assume the mask of indifference; he may be willing
to approach woman but only upon intellectual grounds, he may even
appreciate her as a friend, but he flees from her as a possible lover.
The homosexual resembles the fetichist in this regard: he has found his
compromise, he has become accustomed to his limitation and willingly
puts up with his limitation as being something organic, final,
inherited. That is why we usually hear that the homosexual felt his
peculiarity already in his childhood, that he was from the first unlike
the other children, that he was always “different.”
_The pride over his condition, the continually repeated and stressed
notion that he is exceptional, the attitude of contrariness towards
what is normal, all these things render difficult a subsequent
correction of the trouble._[26]
How may the homosexual be cured? If he is made heterosexual he
represses his homosexuality and becomes neurotic for that reason; the
endeavor to turn him bisexual meets the course of social development.
The proper therapic course would be to remove the inhibitions which
stand between him and woman, to make him de facto again bisexual and
heterosexual for all practical purposes. That is certainly possible
and it may be attained through analysis provided the subjects have the
patience and perseverance to carry it out. Where the will is lacking no
therapist can accomplish anything. Unfortunately in most instances the
will is absent.
Analysis has taught us how misleading the first accounts are as
obtained from the subjects, how much they recollect their past in a
spirit of partizanship. Every person carries out a one-sided choice of
remembrances recalling merely what suits a particular occasion. This
came to me as a great surprise when I first undertook the analysis
of a homosexual especially as at the time my experience was limited
and my knowledge of the technique and my understanding of resistance
very imperfect. At the time I still believed that the patient wills
to get well; I am convinced today that the will to be ill is the
strongest force which we must fight against. That first homosexual
gave me the usual history,—the development from early childhood of
feelings exclusively homosexual. My surprise was great when the subject
recalled a large number of heterosexual experiences in the course of
the following three weeks, all dating from his childhood. I learned
then in one lesson that homosexuality is _developmental_ and not
something _inborn_; _an acquired, not an inherited character_. I was
much impressed with _Hirschfeld’s_ theory of the intermediary stage
(_Zwischenstufentheorie_) but placed no credence in this theory and
awaited further proofs. At the First Psychoanalytic Congress, _Sadger_
reported similar experiences based on psychoanalysis. To be sure,
_Sadger_ conceived the psychogenesis of homosexuality in rather narrow
terms and for a time, I must confess, I too looked upon the repression
of the mother Imago, which every woman is alleged to reproduce, as the
sole cause of homosexuality.[27]
But my diligent researches extending over a period of years have since
convinced me that this problem is very complicated and that there are
clearly a number of genetic factors, and that several of them must and
do cooperate in every instance to bring about the thwarting of the
heterosexual and the enlargement of the homosexual craving.
It occurred to me at first that in many cases the inhibitions may
disappear also in the homosexual leading him to become again a
heterosexual person. Every one who has had any experience with the
homosexual knows that occasionally a genuine homosexual may change and
fall in love unexpectedly with a woman or he even marries and after
that continues as a normal person. Thus, for instance, _Tarnovsky_,
in his work, “_The Morbid Manifestations of the Sexual Instinct_,”
states:[28] “I know a pederast who maintained relations almost
exclusively with young boys; at a relatively advanced age he fell
passionately in love with a young girl, whom he married and with whom
he had children. He was able to carry out sexual relations with his
wife only because her face resembled that of a young man whom he once
loved.” A rationalisation of that kind, such a transformation, may
be seen here and there. It is quite likely that the young man, whom
_Tarnovsky’s_ patient once loved, in turn resembled the homosexual’s
sister or some other beloved female person and that the subject took
that step to return at last to his first heterosexual ideal. Only a few
days ago there called on me a “confirmed” homosexual who had suddenly
fallen in love with a cabaret singer whom he wanted to marry. She
was the exact image of a sister of his who had died long ago. Before
this he did not want to hear of contact with women. Cases of this
kind—without any treatment, of course,—are discussed very heatedly
in homosexual circles and the news is rapidly spread. The deserter is
spoken of as traitor to the holy cause, he is counted out and banished
from the circle. Anathema sit! Such cases are not infrequent. But they
do not come to the attention of the physician and if they attract the
specialist’s attention, the latter invariably declares them instances
of “_pseudo-homosexuality_.” No “genuine” homosexual would do such a
thing! Homosexual physicians, unfortunately, only add to the confusion
on this subject. They constitute themselves judge and jury at the same
time, but claim to be objective in their judgment,—they have tried the
experiment in their own case, etc.—Oh, those wonderful psychologists
who know all about their own soul! What have I not endured from those
enthusiasts who imagine that they have really penetrated the depths
of their own psyche! But any one who has opportunity to analyze a
psychoanalyst is invariably amazed at the degree of blindness possible
where one’s own attitude is concerned. The practice of psychoanalysis
on others does not prevent ignorance where self is concerned. I have
analyzed dozens of psychoanalysts and found “analytic scotoma” an
appropriate designation for their mental state. Every one is blind
about those complexes which he has not yet conquered, whether he meets
them in himself or in others. The homosexual physician is also blind
about his own condition and should never undertake to furnish testimony
on the question whether homosexuality is inherited or acquired.
There are occasions when the cover which screens from view our inner
attitude, the repressions and transferences, the metamorphoses and
changes, is torn aside by more powerful forces and then we obtain a
view of the forces which act behind the setting of consciousness. These
occasions are the intervals during which our inhibitions are lifted.
_Insanity permits us occasionally to see truths which reason timidly
keeps under cover. But alcohol also tears aside the screen which covers
the inner man._ Many physicians know of persons apparently heterosexual
in every respect and who never think of homosexuality, but who have
been guilty while drunk of carrying out homosexual deeds such as are
entirely repulsive to them in the sober state. I had under my care a
teacher who while intoxicated—the first time in his life—attacked
a boy and was guilty of committing a crime. When he came to himself
he felt so disconsolate, his remorse was so great, that he wanted to
take his life and it was only with the greatest difficulty that he was
prevented from turning himself over to the authorities. Later he was
denounced by some one. But I was able to squash the inquiry for lack
of positive evidence. In his favor stood his exemplary previous life
history and the fact that he had always been an admirer of ladies and
had never taken any interest in men or boys. I have already remarked
before that a large number of those who uphold temperance or abstinence
are really afraid of alcohol because it releases inhibitions and
permits the aggressive outbreak of repressed sensuousness.
I. E. Colla has reported on “_Three instances of homosexual deeds
during drunkenness_,” in the _Vierteljahrschrift für gerichtliche
Medizin und öffentliches Sanitätswesen_,[29] as follows:
The first case was a 29 year old inebriate who had had a wide
experience with women and carousals; after a prolonged period of
abstinence he became intoxicated while in a sanitarium, was seduced
by a homosexual, and immediately after that, while in an intoxicated
state, he attempted to attack a servant. Repetition of similar episodes
when under the influence of drink but when sober exclusive breaking
forth of heterosexual feelings. A clear proof in favor of my view about
the relations of latent homosexuality to satyriasis.
In the second case a controlled homosexual leaning breaks forth
overpowering the subject when drunk. A similar picture in the third
case: A protestant minister, 37 years of age, drinker, loses his
self-control while drunk and by his offensive behavior in a public
place attracts the attention of the authorities.
_Numa Praetorius_, that thorough expert on homosexuality, relates:
“In many cases homosexual deeds are committed under the influence
of alcohol. Thus, for instance, I know a former police officer, a
homosexual, who when drunk attempts homosexual deeds upon heterosexual
comrades, who excite him, although he is acquainted with the homosexual
circle, is intimate with many homosexuals, and in his sober state
he carries out relations only with persons with whom he is safe. On
account of these attacks on heterosexual persons during his drunken
condition he has lost his position as police officer as well as his
later position in a factory.
“Another homosexual, a merchant, thirty years of age, when drunk
finds this inclination uncontrollable and has tackled the wrong
persons while in that state. There is a great deal of truth in the
contention that during the inebriate state man’s true character comes
to surface,—at any rate his true sexual character certainly reveals
itself in that state, since the customary inhibitions are curtailed.
Here ‘_in vino veritas_’ certainly holds true.” (_Jahrbuch f. Sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, Vol. VIII.)
These cases, with the exception of the first, show only an increase of
an already existing homosexual inclination otherwise under control. But
frequently it happens that heterosexual persons carry out their first
homosexual aggression during the inebriate state.
Thus _Praetorius_ remarks in another passage: “As is disclosed in
various published biographies as well as in certain communications
which have reached me orally, there are young persons, otherwise
apparently normal in feeling and conduct, who when drunk are attracted
to their own sex with a great feeling of pleasure thus disclosing more
than a pseudo-homosexual attitude. But their proper heterosexual nature
does not appear to be changed materially by these occasional homosexual
episodes and emotional sprees.”
_Hugo Deutsch_[30] has reported a very instructive case, which,
although far from unique, as the author believes, may be mentioned in
this connection:
“An intelligent workingman, 39 years of age, appeals for advice and
information to the clinic for alcoholics. As a child he suffered
of rachitis and began walking only at four years of age; excessive
masturbation as a small boy and young man; later, occasional
intercourse with girls; he married two years ago and is the father of
two children. No illness, with the exception of minor complaints. Uses
alcohol moderately, drinks now and then one-half to one litre of beer
on the occasion of some reunion or meeting. But this always excites his
sexual passion; specifically he feels impelled to take advantage of
young male persons[31] so as to touch and feel their sexual parts. He
has been able to withstand this desire but once while on his way home
from a meeting where he had again taken a couple of glasses of beer he
met a young boy whom he invited to have a drink with him and while they
were sitting at a table in the saloon he touched the boy’s genitals.
A customer saw this and denounced him to an officer who arrested him.
He was in despair over the occurrence and only the thought of his wife
and children prevented him from committing suicide. He has not touched
a drop of alcoholic drink since because he recognizes how dangerous
even a small amount of drink may be for him. So long as he is sober his
libido is directed exclusively to women, in fact he feels only _disgust
and aversion for any homosexual deeds_. When the contrary feeling first
arose in connection with drink he cannot recall. There is nothing
relevant in this connection in his family history and there is nothing
“womanly” in his physical appearance.”
_Deutsch_ believes that this is a case of bisexuality brought to
surface because the use of even moderate doses of alcohol suspends the
existing inhibitions.
_Hirschfeld_, too, has also made a few pertinent remarks on this
subject (l. c. p. 209). He mentions the case of a government official
who attacked a baker’s apprentice after a “heavy celebration” of the
Kaiser’s birthday; also the case of an apparently heterosexual high
school teacher who during a prolonged carousal attacked a waiter. He
also mentions a report he was requested to make about an officer who
after a carousal requested his servant boy to help him take an enema
and used that opportunity to seduce him. In his report _Hirschfeld_
found this complaint, if it be true, contrary to the defendant’s whole
personality, and recommended annulling the complaint because at the
time of the alleged misdeed the accused was in a peculiar and morbid
mental state. But we must look upon these occurrences as proofs of
man’s bisexual nature and as outbreaks of latent homosexuality made
possible through the removal of customary inhibitions.
_Otto Juliusburger_, in his _Psychology of Alcoholism_,[32] has given
us an exhaustive and masterly exposition of this problem. That author
reports that he has been able definitely to trace the outbreak of
unconscious homosexuality in cases of dipsomania and discusses most
instructively the relations between alcohol and homosexuality.
_Juliusburger_ describes the case of a dipsomaniac who during the drink
episodes betrayed most clearly his homosexual love for his uncle.
During those episodes the subject felt impelled to accost men—and
only men—ordering for them anything they wished,—“frankly a symbol,
to show his affection.” “One source of the anxiety and unrest which
ushers in the so-called dipsomaniac episode or which may entirely
replace the attack,” states _Juliusburger_, “I see in the struggle and
the resulting intrapsychic tension between the various psychosexual
components of the individual.” I shall have occasion to refer to
_Juliusburger’s_ views concerning the relationship of the jealousy
episodes of the alcoholics and sadism in the chapter on “Jealousy.”
It is even more interesting in connection with our present subject to
find that homosexuals are easily induced to carry on heterosexual
deeds while under the influence of alcohol. Of course this is not the
case in every instance but the fact is undeniable. Neither do all
heterosexuals lend themselves to homosexual acts when drunk. Often the
inhibitions are more powerful than the releasing effect of alcohol.
I have made inquiries of about one hundred homosexuals regarding the
circumstances under which they indulged in intercourse with women. Many
hesitated to answer, but I have found that a high percentage of cases
have had the experience. Some answered saying, practically: “I can do
this only if I am under the influence of drink;” or, “while I was drunk
a girl seduced me.” We must not suppose that homosexuals are impotent
with women. There are among them many more bisexually disposed than are
willing to recognize this fact, because they prefer as a rule to assume
the rôle of innocents before others and for that reason they claim that
intercourse with a woman is positively impossible for them. I have had
circulated in the Viennese homosexual circle a small questionnaire
which contained also a question covering this point. Many confessed
dislike for woman, others admitted a platonic attitude, but there were
also such answers as: “In my 34 years I have had intercourse with a
woman, this I found very pleasurable, but after four months I turned
again exclusively homosexual;” or, “now and then I have intercourse
with a woman”; further, “after pleasant personal relations lasting for
some time I am able to have intercourse with a woman”; another writes:
“Once I had intercourse with a woman and it was a very pleasurable
experience but never repeated it since that time;”—Others write as
follows:
“Have had intercourse previously; do so no longer.”
“No intercourse; presumably would be impotent with woman.”
“Intercourse previously pleasurable; sudden disappearance of feeling
now makes intercourse impossible.”
Another writes laconically: “bisexual.”
At least one-fourth of my overt homosexuals are really bisexual with
subsequent modifications of their bisexuality brought about through
causes which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter of this work.[33]
We now turn our attention to the next case. It shows clearly that
heterosexual tendencies arise in the homosexual under the influence
of alcohol and it also proves that under the pressure of danger the
homosexual craving by drawing on the greater libido turns into the
heterosexual channel:
D. S., a clerk, 35 years of age, has been homosexual for the past
fifteen years. His father died when he was 7 years of age. He hardly
remembers his father. His mother was always very severe, and very
energetic as well as exceedingly nervous,—she had to go frequently to
sanitaria to recuperate. He admits having had feelings predominatingly
homosexual ever since childhood. He interested himself only in boys and
his mother brought him up in girlish ways. He began masturbating at an
early age and already at the age of 12 he carried on mutual pederasty
with his comrades. At 17 years of age he attempted intercourse with
girls. That was not easy, his _potentia_ had to be roused by them
first through manual stimulation, then he felt some pleasure, which
was curbed partly because he could not help thinking of the possible
danger of venereal disease, of which he had seen some illustrations
in a museum of wax figures. He was also thinking about his mother
reflecting, what would she say if she knew what he was doing! From
that time on and until he was about 21 years of age he had intercourse
with women regularly about every month. Then he fell in love with his
office chief, who was an extraordinarily attractive man. (He gives a
romantic description of his first ideal. This account, of course, is
not trustworthy. In fact the photo of his latest ideal, also praised by
him as an Adonis, shows the stolid, expressionless, rather common face
of a very ordinary man, a soldier in the artillery branch of the army).
His chief was a homosexual who easily seduced him and brought him
into the homosexual circle. Then he became aware of his condition and
maintained relations only with adult and well educated men. He had a
delicate taste and not every man could please him (here he shows me
the photo of the soldier, mentioned above). Unfortunately he had the
misfortune to be caught in a park in the act of taking hold of the
_membrum virile_ of a driver. His case is now pending in the court. He
would be happy if he could return to his former mode of gratification.
When asked if he had had no intercourse with women during the whole
period from the 22nd to the 35th year he becomes uneasy and confesses
that this has happened a few times but when he did so he was always
under the influence of drink. While he kept sober it never happened.
And every time after intercourse with a woman he had such a terrible
after-effect that _his own mother to whom he always confessed
everything had advised him to seek intercourse with men, because she
noticed that he was always feeling fresh after doing so, while if
he went with women he was always depressed for days_. Experienced
psychoanalysts need not be reminded that the mother used this means to
keep her son from contact with other women because she was jealous of
them and therefore she drove him to men. She was never jealous of men.
That was something else.
This occurrence is far from rare. The mother of a homosexual once told
me: “I am never jealous when O. finds a new friend, although he falls
romantically in love with them. But the thought of his giving himself
up to a woman is something I cannot bear....”
D. S. listened to his mother’s advice. He says: “I gave up drink after
that and became a fanatic homosexual.”
As the subject, a high governmental employee, could easily lose his
position, I advised him to have intercourse only with women and in view
of his desire to free himself of the trouble through psychoanalysis I
was able to wrestle him out of the clutches of the law. He attempted
contact with women, always after partaking of small quantities of
drink, and he gradually improved so that he finally married, his wife
being, in fact, a woman 20 years older than he. That woman was a _locum
tenens_ for his mother! Further observations on the psychology of
similar cases will be recorded in subsequent pages. Here I propose to
draw attention merely to the influence of alcohol. Drink enabled him to
adopt the heterosexual path.
In the last case the heterosexual act was possible only after
neutralizing the inhibitions. Similar influences are responsible for
the well-known morning erections of those who are psychically impotent.
Homosexuals, too, have heterosexual dreams before awakening in the
morning but they cannot—or will not—remember those dreams. I need
mention here merely that every night the dream operates in the sense of
lifting the inhibitions and that the inhibitions are fully suspended
only towards morning. During the first sleep hours the dreams are full
of inhibitions appearing as “warnings,” but towards morning the dreams
are relatively free of these inhibitions. That is why we often hear
that “genuine” homosexuals are able to have intercourse with women, if
at all, only towards morning. At that time most inhibitions which stand
between them and woman have been overcome in the dream! This obvious
fact is given a different interpretation by _Hirschfeld_ who states:
“The erection of the _membrum_ with which many men wake up during the
early morning hours has nothing to do with the sexual instinct, but is
due solely to the mechanical effect of pressure by the full bladder.
Some time ago I was consulted by a homosexual, married, father of six
children and expecting the arrival of a seventh. I asked him how
that was possible. ‘That is very simple,’ he answered, not without a
certain feeling of self-consciousness, ‘I always took advantage of my
morning erections.’ Thus the children owe their existence not to the
father’s sexual instinct, but to the operation of his full bladder.
The much-praised aphrodisiacs, are probably also nothing more than
diuretics; in other words it may well be that the renown which certain
remedies and articles of diet have acquired as stimulants of the
_potentia coeundi_ may well be due to their stimulating effect upon the
bladder function and its genital reflex.
“Alcoholic drinks, when taken in small quantities have a similar effect
and rouse the sexual function. Excesses _in Baccho_ and venereal
excesses have always been looked upon as belonging together. This is
so because alcohol has the effect of lowering the inhibitions and at
the same time it appears to weaken the mental acuity. We may thus see
why occasionally heterosexuals confess that they have taken up with
some man under the influence of drink, and homosexuals that, _when
intoxicated_, they can have intercourse with women.” (_Hirschfeld_,
l.c., p. 189.)
But the fact that homosexuals are capable of heterosexual activity
under the influence of drink is for me a proof of their bisexuality, a
proof that that they have repressed the heterosexual component of their
sexual instinct.
The hypothesis that the morning erections are due to a full bladder
will be discussed more fully in my work on _Male Impotence_. I do not
believe that erection is due to reflex action from the bladder.[34]
_But it is an incontestable fact that the dream operates until the
existing psychic inhibitions are overcome._ _Hirschfeld’s_ patient is
able to have sexual intercourse with his wife only mornings, because
through the day and evenings he is under the domination of inhibitions
which make him impotent with women.
* * * * *
That the impotence in such cases does not always denote weakness is
illustrated by the following case:
C. H., a homosexual physician, tells me that he abstains from touching
all drinks because he fears he might commit criminal acts. He is
homosexual since childhood and had never felt any inclination towards
women. Masturbation began at 9 years of age. It began when his uncle
once lifted him upon the shoulder. That gave him a strong pleasurable
feeling and soon after that he began rubbing his genitals and while
doing so he always fancied that his uncle or some other man was
carrying him. He had never felt any desire to be carried similarly by
a woman. Such a thing would strike him as degrading and vulgar. His
experience in houses of prostitution, from 19 to 24 years of age,
filled him with disgust for all women who can be hired. Perhaps he
might have been able to have intercourse with a girl of better class
but a certain timidity prevented him from ever approaching such a
girl. Emancipated women fill him with horror. He maintained relations
with a certain colleague for some time. _Coitus inter femora._ At 28
years of age, after a carousal, he met a girl whom he took to a hotel.
Powerful erection and prompt coitus. _But with the onset of the orgasm
he felt an overwhelming inclination to strangle the girl._ Suddenly
a tremendous hatred mounted in his soul against the poor creature.
He hurried away from the scene as rapidly as possible. He thought
he wanted to revenge himself because through the act of coitus she
degraded him.
* * * * *
Here we see a sadistic attitude towards woman under the cover of
timidity. He really feared himself, his criminal tendencies. Problems
rising out of the struggle between the sexes (specifically, out of
man’s instinctive sex hatred of woman) play a certain role in this
case. The significance of this attitude will be explained fully later.
This case shows the outbreak of a heterosexual-sadistic instinct under
the influence of alcoholic drink. Alcohol seems to dissolve here the
defences raised by consciousness against the sadistic tendencies.
Very interesting is the case reported by _Moll_ in his work on _The
Contrary Sexual Feeling_ (3rd edition). I give here the case in brief
extracts from its history, as it contains points of significance in
connection with our present subject:
Miss X. is 26 years of age. Her father she describes as a healthy
but very irritable man. Already at the age of 5 she had carried on
certain sexual plays _with a small boy_. She admits having attempted
intercourse at the time with the boy who was four years of age. The
intercourse consisted of _mutual cunnilingus_. At six years of age she
was sent to school and here she soon began intimate relations with
small girls. With a number of them she carried on mutual _cunnilingus_
as she had done with the boy. From the time when she first began this
with the girls her heterosexual inclination disappeared completely;
after that she never again went through a similar experience with
a boy. We shall see that later she did allow herself to be used
occasionally by men; but we must note in that connection that the
heterosexual acts took place without the cooperation of sexual feelings
on her part. At 12 years of age she began to menstruate. At that time
she had as playmates the children of a neighborly family who had a
governess with whom she soon entered into close intimacy. The governess
prevailed upon her to carry on sexual acts, particularly _cunnilingus_,
and the active part was taken now by each in turn from time to time.
In the course of these relations she experienced for the first time
sexual gratification, so far as she is able to recall. Their intimacy
lasted for some time. Miss X. differs from other women of her type in
that she is not averse to other forms of gratification. Soon she sought
also _anus feminarum amatarum lambere_, in addition to the genitals.
The thought of carrying out such an act with a man was repulsive to
her. Just as we know that occasionally perverse men want _urinam feminæ
dilectæ in os proprium immittere_ so we see that Miss X. likes to
have the same thing done to her by other girls. For a number of years
already Miss X. has been in the habit of allowing _fæces amicæ in os
proprium iniciire_; the act produces in her gratification and orgasm.
She had first indulged in these acts during her intercourse with the
governess above mentioned, which lasted several years. Miss X. is also
tremendously roused when she _sanguinem menstruationis amicæ lambit
et devorat_; but, she explains that she is able to carry out these
disgusting acts only when there is complete mutual confidence and only
if the relationship has endured for some time. She declares further
that she is sexually roused also when she is struck with a whip. When
asked how she came to acquire this habit she answered that she knew
a man who required to be thus treated by a former sweetheart. But,
to secure her any sexual excitement the whiplashes must fall upon
her from the hands of a woman. She has allowed herself very often to
be flagellated by her friend with whom she has also been carrying on
the disgusting acts mentioned above. It may be mentioned also that
when they kiss each other Miss X. wants to be bitten by her friend,
preferably upon the ear lobe. This may be carried so far as to actually
cause pain and swelling of the ear.
It is necessary to delineate more clearly the attitude of Miss X.
towards the male sex. She does not remember having ever felt any
attraction towards the male. But during a celebration where much
drinking was had a man prevailed upon her to spend the night with him.
She had always wondered why she never felt any attraction towards the
male sex and the desire to find out definitely about this as well as
the don’t-care-attitude brought on by drink induced her to spend that
night with the man. Coitus brought her no satisfaction. Some time later
another man became interested in her and fell in love with her but she
did not reciprocate his feeling in the least. Nevertheless she wanted
to try once more whether she could learn to care for a man’s embrace.
She therefore permitted herself to be induced by that man to have
intercourse a few times; again she found that ordinary coitus did not
rouse the least sexual feeling in her. She requested the man to carry
on _cunnilingus_ with her. This roused her sexually and thereupon she
experienced gratification; but, without being asked specifically about
it, she declares at the same time, that it was necessary for her to
imagine that the person performing _cunnilingus_ on her was a woman;
otherwise even _cunnilingus_ would have yielded her no satisfaction.
The thought of carrying on any of the disgusting acts mentioned above
with a man, Miss X. found in the highest degree repulsive. (_Moll_,
l.c, p. 565.)
This case appears to me very noteworthy. It supports my contentions
regarding the influence of alcohol upon the homosexual. Miss X.
beclouds the fact and thinks she was actuated by the desire to find out
definitely whether man had any attraction for her. Absence of orgasm
during her intercourse with the first man shows clearly that even
indulgence in alcohol was unable that time to release the inhibitions.
But she allows herself the experience a second time and this time
_cunnilingus_ by the man yields her gratification. It is interesting
that her first experience of this kind was with a boy. This corresponds
exactly with my observations. In other ways, too, man plays in her
condition a greater role than she is willing to recognize. Flagellation
she adopts because she knew a man who was treated that way by his
previous sweetheart. The relationship of this paraphilia to the strong,
irritable father is fairly obvious. Her misophilic acts with women show
that _she does not want to belittle herself before man, but that she
looks upon subjecting herself to woman as a manner of paying homage to
her sex._ In my study on _Masochism_ I go further into this subject.
The other acts indicate a sexual infantilism, rarely seen in a more
discreet polymorph-perverse form.
* * * * *
_Fleischmann_[35] also records a few cases showing homosexual seduction
carried out during a state of intoxication. He relates also the case
of a homosexual who when intoxicated was able to have intercourse with
women. “At 28 years of age,” relates the author about this subject, “he
visited a house of prostitution for the first time and, animated by
drink, he was able to carry out coitus once with a woman; when sober a
twenty-horse team could not drag him into such a place,” according to
the urning. But after drinking he was always able to have coitus.
We see that the incentive to drink is obviously due to an ungratified
craving. Psychoanalytic experience reiterates again and again that
almost every craving to become drunk or otherwise to lose one’s
senses betrays an ungratified sexuality. Among the inebriates, the
morphine and cocaine addicts, we always find pronounced paraphiliacs
and bisexuals who have repressed a portion of their sexual instinct.
In the same way every unprejudiced investigator will find a similar
condition true of homosexuals who, according to my experience, are
bisexuals who have repressed the heterosexual component of their
instinct. I cannot agree with _Naecke_,[36] who contends that urning
as such is a moderate drinker and seldom inebriate. Nor do I believe
that in homosexual circles moderation in drink is the rule. Of course,
I do know a number of temperate homosexuals, but the data under my
observation as a whole and the material supplied through the objective
accounts of physicians, reveal an entirely different situation.
A great deal of what takes place during states of intoxication never
comes to the attention of those not immediately concerned. Possibly
infantile experiences with drunken parents may have a greater role in
the psychogenesis of homosexuality than we are aware of at the present
time.
Now and then it happens that parents, drunken or otherwise debauched,
attack their own children. I have had occasion to observe that some
very curious habits are still prevalent in the nursery, here and there.
One subject related to me that his mother had the habit of playing
with his penis until he was six years of age. His wife also found this
a convenient way to lull their child to sleep. He thought it was as
harmless a practice as it seemed efficacious in quieting the child.
* * * * *
H. T., a homosexual chemist by profession, who has a theoretic interest
in psychoanalysis, writes me: “The contribution that I am able to make
may be of some use to you. I have often tried to think whether dreams
have had any influence upon the development of my sexual life. But I
could recall no experience which I could correlate to my condition. I
have felt early an interest in the _membrum virile_ and this interest
abides with me to this day. The sight of the penis in a state of
erection is enough to rouse in me the strongest feelings of pleasure.
While walking on the street I always try to observe the respective
region in passers-by and I try to estimate the size of the organ by
outward appearances,—my fancies are full of such reflections. I have
always masturbated in front of the mirror watching my penis during the
act. But it took a very long time for me to overcome my shyness enough
to find companions for these acts.
A few days ago I had a dream in which I saw my father who has been dead
for ten years. He was the best man in the world, but unfortunately a
periodic drinker. When in the inebriate state he treated mother very
roughly. I dreamed a scene which scared me so that I awoke. I saw my
father give me in hand his _membrum erectum_. And suddenly there
flashed through my mind the recollection that he had done repeatedly
this very thing when he was drunk. But with every fibre of my being I
cling to my mother who is for me the ideal of womanhood such as I shall
never again find the equal of in all this world! Beyond that my love
is directed only to the male and specifically I am attracted to common
men. Can you explain my riddle? I feel myself attracted to ordinary
drivers, men of vulgar tastes such as one finds in the dram shops. Only
once was I able to have intercourse with a girl. I was so “soused” at
the time that I then did something which I could never carry out while
in my ordinary senses....”
I emphasize once more: The outbreak of heterosexual excitations after
indulgence in alcohol proves the presence of that tendency and shows
that under ordinary conditions the heterosexual tendency, though
continually present, is subjected to suppression. The tendency is
preserved in some closed-in compartment of the soul, the door to which
may gape open under certain circumstances. Occasionally alcohol acts as
a master key which opens up every enclosure.
It is interesting also to observe the sublimation which the
heterosexual love undergoes among homosexuals. They endeavor to
de-sexualize the other sex, at the same time have recourse to
heterosexual friendships by preference. I know quite a number of
homosexuals of this class, men who maintain motherly, sisterly, or even
grandmotherly friendships and to whom these friendships are positively
indispensable. We psychoanalysts are in a position to appreciate the
source of these sexual attachments. They are due to repression and are
also the result of an inhibition which extends merely over sexuality
but allows the _sublimated_ eroticism to manifest itself. Among the
homosexuals there are many women haters (misogynists).
They often hate all women with but one exception: their mother.
Occasionally some sister, aunt, or some friend of their mother’s is
also exempted. They never fail to emphasize: this is an exception!
But the law of bipolarity teaches us that alongside this tremendous
hatred there exists an equally powerful love. Occasionally the dislike
is hidden and the homosexuals pose as completely indifferent towards
the other sex. A little close analysis shows that this attitude is an
artefact, that the assumed indifference really covers the fear that
the true attitude will be betrayed otherwise. Beyond the apparent
indifference stands the fear of woman and back of that fear there may
be hidden, in its turn, a sadistic attitude towards woman. It is thus
that the homosexual learns to cover his feelings with one another, to
change them, or else he transforms, substitutes, overstresses here
and assumes indifference there, until his actual state of feelings is
completely hidden from view. Superficial observers merely remark of
some man: he hates women!...
What stands back of such a dislike has been pointed out by _Bloch_
(l.c.) with considerable insight. He mentions the famous misogynist
of Classical Greece, Euripides, and in that connection makes a very
appropriate observation. He states:
“The strongest invectives against the female sex are found in _Ion_,
_Hippolytos_, _Hekate_, and _Kyklops_ of _Euripides_. (_Verses_
602-637, 650-655.) (Here he introduces the actual quotation.)
“These verses contain the whole quintessence of modern misogyny. But
_Euripides_ also discloses the ultimate background for this attitude:
‘The most wanton creature,’ he says in a fragment, ‘is woman.’ _Hinc
illæ lacrimæ!_ Only men who are not accustomed to woman, men who cannot
endure to have her act with them as a free personality, and who are so
little certain of themselves that they fear an inroad into their own
personality, some irreparable damage or possibly complete annihilation,
only such men are genuine women haters.” (_Bloch_, l.c., p. 533.)
Here _Bloch_ has come close to a solution of the problem having plainly
adopted the view developed later by _Adler_, who traces homosexuality
to the fear of the sexual partner. Unfortunately he has failed to draw
the further inferences which this excellent observation is capable of
yielding.
_Hate, fear, disgust and shame are the inhibitions which keep the
homosexual away from the sexual partner._
Let us examine first the feeling of disgust. How does the feeling
arise? In my study of _Anxiety States_ I have explained this matter
more fully. But there is a form of disgust whose action is positive.
Disgust need not always be necessarily repressed desire. If I should
see today a woman covered all over with furuncles it may inspire me
with disgust to hear that she is an old aunt whom I must greet with a
kiss. In a case of this kind only the super-analyst in his folly might
be able to discover suppressed components of the libido.
But we do know that occasionally homosexuality may be aroused through
episodes which enlist the negative reactions (hate, fear, disgust,
shame). These revulsive effects then protect the individual against
their own positive tendencies. Disgust covers craving, hate covers
love, fear covers longing; and shame—boldness.
But indulgence in alcohol is capable of turning revulsive effects into
positive. Disgust is turned into desire, hate into love, fear into
longing and shame turns into daring. If the fearful, repressed sadism
is also added to this transformation of the negative into positive
affects, when it cannot be sublimated into lasting love, the moral man
is turned into a criminal who represents but a stage in the development
of the human race.
VI
May Disgust Produce the Homosexual Attitude? Cases by Krafft-Ebing,
Fleischmann, Liemcke—Observation (personal) and Case by Bloch.—Late
Trauma as Cause of Homosexuality—Personal Observation of a case of
Late Homosexuality—Two Cases of Bloch—Further Discussion of the
Problem—A Case of Pfister’s with the Analysis of several Dreams.
_Wären nicht die Details unseres geschlechtlichen Lebens so unendlich
mannigfaltig und läge es nicht bei den meisten Menschen fast in allen
wichtigen Erscheinungen und Fragen unterhalb des Bewusstseins, und
wäre es nicht eine Wesenheit der Liebe, immer wieder die Schleier
des Mysteriums über unsere sexuellen Empfindungen zu werfen, so dass
allen stark empfindenden unverdorbenen Menschen, namentlich in der
wichtigen Periode der Geschlechtsreife, Zynismen und Offenheiten über
das geschlechtliche Leben sogar als unwahr erscheinen (Frauen und
keusche Jünglinge sind schon beleidigt, wenn man über die Liebe auch
nur wissenschaftlich anders als schwärmerisch, allgemein oder poetisch
metaphorisch redet) und hätten wir nicht endlich mit der grossen
Heuchelei und Verlogenheit der Gesellschaft in erotischen Dingen zu
rechnen, so dass sogar die Anomalen und Perversen von ihr angesteckt
werden, die es gar nicht mehr nötig haben, zu lügen und unwissend zu
bleiben; kurz könnten wir unsere Erotik in seelischer und körperlicher
Hinsicht bis zu den letzten Zusammenhängen analysieren, dann würden wir
vielleicht mit Schauder erfahren, einen wie kleinen Bruchteil unseres
Lebens wir unserem eigentlichen Geschlecht angehören._
_Leo Berg._
VI
_If the details of our sexual life were not so endlessly manifold;
if they did not belong for the most part and in their most important
aspects to the realm beyond ordinary consciousness; if it were not a
peculiarity of love continually to throw the cover of mystery over
our sexual feelings, so that all normal persons of strong feeling,
particularly during the period of their sexual ripeness look upon
frankness in sexual matters as untruth (women and shy young men feel
insulted if one speaks about love even scientifically, in other than
romantic or poetic and false, metaphorically veiled, language); and if
we did not have to consider the tremendous hypocrisy, and falsehood of
society in all matters pertaining to sex, so that even the abnormal
and the perverse, who no longer need to lie and assume ignorance, are
inspired to assume a similar ‘chaste’ attitude; in short, if we could
analyze our eroticism in its physical as well as in its psychic aspects
down to the last details, we should then probably discover with horror
to what a small extent we truly belong to our own sex._
_Leo Berg._
The form of homosexuality which develops late in life is perhaps
best suited to serve as an introduction to our inquiry into the
psychogenesis of homosexuality and may help us understand the origin of
the more complicated cases.
There are, in fact, a number of cases, in which homosexuality appears
to have developed in consequence of a feeling of dislike for the other
sex. Many authors consider the development of homosexuality among
prostitutes as due to this cause. _Bloch_, for instance, writes:
“The naturally heterosexual prostitutes are driven to homosexuality for
one of two reasons: First through the contact with and the influence
of their truly Lesbian comrades, which strengthens the inner feeling
of solidarity common among all prostitutes; Second, through their
dislike of intercourse with men which grows with their experience and
with the passage of time, the more so because they see man only in his
brutal and raw aspect. The continual compulsion under which they find
themselves of satisfying the animal sensuousness of oversophisticated
men often by means of disgusting procedures, rouses in them eventually
an unconquerable dislike of the male sex, and therefore they devote
to their own sex the nobler feelings of which they may be capable.
The homosexual relationship appears to them as something ‘higher,
something nobler and more innocent,’ something pertaining to a purer
realm than sexual contact with men, a fact which _Eulenburg_ (_Sexuelle
Neuropathie_, p. 143-144) has rightly observed.” (_Bloch_, l.c., p.
603.)
_Krafft-Ebing_ (_Neue Studien_, l.c.) also holds this view and thinks
that, “many prostitutes endowed with great sensuousness, repelled by
contact with perverse or impotent men who misuse them in connection
with detestable sexual deeds, turn to pleasing members of their own
sex.”
In connection with my discussion of the Messalina type I have
already shown that latent homosexuality is what drives many women to
prostitution. They run away from woman and into the arms of man, into
the arms of a great number of men! They expect quantity to replace what
quality fails to supply them. We have additional reasons to assume
that the women who lean most strongly towards the homosexual side are
those who supply the ranks of prostitutes. That of course is true of
the largest number though by no means holding true of every case. For
there are prostitutes who are attached to their lover (cadet), and who
experience orgasm only during intercourse with him, while the embraces
of other men leave them unaffected. Here and there the factors pointed
out by _Bloch_ and _Krafft-Ebing_ may also enter into the situation.
In the presence of an already avowed homosexual inclination disgust
brought about through a number of possible circumstances may act as an
effective barrier against heterosexuality.
This is revealed to us through the life histories of certain
homosexuals. We often come across the statement that certain men,
and women too, became homosexual after an infection, particularly
gonorrhea. The fear of infection also plays an important role in the
psychogenesis of homosexuality.[37]
_Krafft-Ebing_ mentions (_Late Homosexuality_, etc.) the case of a
young man, 27 years of age, who after masturbating since 7 years of
age, at 19 years had intercourse with women and enjoyed it. After
a gonorrheal infection he became so disgusted with women that when
frequenting houses of prostitution he found himself impotent. Old
masochistic-homosexual phantasies reappeared and before long he was
attracted to the respective circle and seduced.[38] I must draw
attention particularly to the fact that this man was able to experience
orgasm during intercourse with women. Nevertheless his experience
was so impressive that it intensified his revulsive attitude towards
heterosexuality by generating a feeling of disgust. (In other cases
under similar circumstances there arises a dislike for prostitutes, and
the subject seeks as sexual partner a healthy woman.) The infection
often becomes the root of a phantastic hatred of women without leading
all the way to the development of a manifest homosexuality.[39] The
next case which has come under my own observation belongs to this
category:
* * * * *
I. P., engineer, 30 years of age, appears to me a typical anxiety
neurotic. He is unable to leave his room, a personal servant must
accompany him wherever he goes. For the past ten years has been
sexually abstinent, because he had the misfortune to acquire a very
serious luetic infection from a so-called “respectable” woman. Since
that experience he feels a tremendous hatred for the sex. He reads with
interest _Strindberg_, gloats over _Weininger_ and he has translated
into a foreign language _Moebius’_ “_Der physiologische Schwachsinn
des Weibes._” Homosexual activity does not inspire him with disgust
but he claims that it has no attraction for him. Analysis discloses
that the anxiety attacks appear as a defence against homosexual deeds.
After the syphilitic infection he was for a time in danger of becoming
homosexual. Now he protects himself against that tendency by various
defensive measures. The path to woman is effectively blocked for him
through his disgust and hatred of the sex.
The cure of his anxiety state was not very difficult. A few years
later I found him a married man. He had married a woman who was 10
years older than he and who lacked every womanly characteristic. He is
entirely potent in his marital relations, claims to experience orgasm
satisfactorily, and believes his orgasm would be even greater if he
did not have to use precautionary measures against pregnancy. As a
syphilitic he wants to avoid bringing sickly children into the world.
For coitus he prefers the _a posteriori_ position and _situs inversus_
and justifies this theoretically on the basis of the structure of the
female genitalia....
* * * * *
Concerning the relationship between sexual infection and homosexuality
we also have an illuminating observation by _Fleischmann_.[40] This
case is an _urlind_ (homosexual woman):
She is an illegitimate child. Father a heavy drinker. She was badly
brought up, neglected and persecuted. As a child she avoided work and
was unruly. Prison experience. “At 16 years of age I had to earn my own
living. My first position was in a restaurant serving beer. There I met
Mr. X., the man who seduced me and gave me a sexual disease.
“At the hospital I saw and heard things that opened my eyes. From that
time on I worked no longer. Years passed in struggle with suffering
and want; prison life; house of correction; solitary confinement. In
the house of correction most girls handled one another at night and
from that time on no man could interest me any more. I have intercourse
only with girls who are pretty. For the past year I have been a
prostitute,—mostly drunk,—for I wanted to forget what has become of
me and the morbid inclination to which I have fallen a victim.”
The first sexual experience of the poor girl an infection! Then
followed the homosexual seduction and the heterosexual channel
was blocked. We see here the characteristic homosexuality of the
prostitute, already mentioned; then alcoholism, obviously to forget her
longing after true love. It must be clear also that her hatred of the
father played a certain role and that this feeling towards the drunkard
who brought her into the world a bastard she transferred towards all
men.
The two cases reported by _Ziemke_[41] are also fairly clear:
An artist; between the age of 16 and 17 years a relative taught him
to masturbate and he kept up the practice regularly every week. At
18 years of age first intercourse with woman; acquired gonorrhea;
later, once more coitus, this time with a prostitute; never took any
particular interest in the female sex; on the other hand as a boy
9 years of age he already was pleased at the sight of the _membrum
virile_ so much that it brought on erection. First sexual dreams were
definitely of homosexual import, according to his own declaration, and
continued of that character. Later has had repeated sexual experiences
with other men, always feels fresh and well after that, while normal
sexual intercourse fills him with disgust. His sexual partner he
seeks among men of middle age; he is familiar with the literature on
homosexuality.
* * * * *
Another case: Former officer, 38 years of age, mother said to have been
a very nervous woman. Very shy and bashful as a child in the presence
of older persons or strangers. At high school had to repeat the same
class twice, was coached and succeeded at last to pass the army
examination for officer. After a few years was dismissed from the army
because he had mishandled his man-servant, went to South-West Africa,
there settled as a farmer, and as a volunteer participated in several
small riots.
His first sexual feelings arose around the 12th year; he contends
that till that time he knew absolutely nothing about sexual matters.
At that age an experience brought his attention to the subject of sex
for the first time; he played circus with a younger sister and with
his 10-year old uncle and sat on the latter’s back. While imitating a
rider’s movements he noticed that his penis became stiff and he had
a pleasurable sensation wetting himself in front. He did not know
the meaning of this occurrence but was too shy to tell anyone about
it. Shortly after that he tried deliberately to reproduce similar
situations; whenever he succeeded he also tried to attain ejaculation.
He insists that he was not attracted particularly to his uncle, whom
alone he had used for this form of gratification, nor to any other
boy or man, his only desire at the time was to achieve ejaculation.
Later during his high school years, when he had opportunity to gratify
himself in the same way, he met a young colleague of his own age,
a strong and beautiful boy, who appealed to him very strongly and
with that boy playing the passive role he indulged more and more
frequently in sexual deeds. In fact as soon as he met that particular
boy the thought occurred to him that he would like to have him for
the gratification of his sexual feelings in the manner peculiar to
himself. During play he used all manner of excuses to climb upon his
friend’s back and to imitate a rider’s galloping movements until
he had ejaculation. Subsequently he found frequent occasion to use
other colleagues in the same way. After drinking it was particularly
difficult for him to restrain himself; that is why he frequently had
to do with soldiers while intoxicated and one day he was caught and
this led to his dismissal from the army. In order to get rid of his
unnatural inclination he took up a girl, had normal intercourse with
her a few times but without any pleasurable feeling on his part,
although in order to accomplish this he had to suppose himself riding
a man in the manner customary with him, and eventually he acquired a
gonorrheal infection. Then he migrated to South-West Africa, but even
there was unable to master his inclination, felt himself impelled to
maintain relations with young Hottentots, was caught at it, sentenced
to jail, and finally banished from the Country.
In this case the gonorrheal infection seems to have put an end to his
heterosexual period.
* * * * *
I recall a number of other cases in which homosexuality broke out after
gonorrhea, according to the testimony obtained during my consultation
hours. In fact, there was a time when I was a firm believer in the
theory of inherited homosexuality, in _Hirschfeld’s_ sense, so
that I turned down all these cases and did not care to undertake
a psychoanalysis of them. In the homosexual circles I had quite a
reputation at the time as a man worthy of their confidence. But since
I have found that homosexuals are really bisexual neurotics who have
repressed their heterosexuality, these men come to me more rarely
and consult me chiefly when they get into conflict with the law. The
solidarity of homosexuals and their will to hold on to the notion that
their condition is inborn goes hand in hand. Their secret organisation
is thorough, and even where formal organisations are lacking,
homosexuals know each other and they are always ready to introduce to
one another their friends and colleagues.
* * * * *
Dr. S. K., physician, 32 years of age, relates that he has a pronounced
heterosexual past. At any rate his longing previously was purely
physical and psychically he was completely indifferent. As ship surgeon
he acquired a severe gonorrhea in a port and this trouble lasted some
six months. He suffered all possible complications: epididymitis, a
posterior prostatitis and finally, a gonorrheal rheumatism of the
joints. Since that trouble he has felt a terrific disgust for women. In
Alexandria while entering a cabin he saw one of the ship lieutenants
committing pederasty with a local boy. He knew that at the various
ports young boys visited the ships and offered themselves to the
homosexual officers. The scene evoked in him a terrific nausea and
he wanted to drop that officer from among his acquaintances. But
the latter spoke up frankly confessing that he became homosexual
after being seduced and since then he was completely impotent in the
company of a woman. He begged the physician to keep his secret and
not to betray him. He was the only intellectual man on board that
ship with whom it was pleasant to have relations. In a few weeks the
two men became intimate with each other: “Then, for the first time, I
learned what love was and I had never before been as happy as that. My
heterosexual past now seemed unbelievable. But in _Platen’s_ diary I
came across a passage telling that as a young man he too had been in
love with a girl named Euphrasia and that he learned only later the
true direction of his sexual instinct. It was the same with me. I was
born a homosexual although I had to go through some experiences before
my eyes opened.”
In this case the gonorrheal infection and the trivial incident
during the journey through the Orient furnished the occasion for the
outbreak of homosexuality. But is not the subject in error regarding
the strength of his homosexual predisposition? It is interesting to
note that his homosexual attitude is promptly beatified and idealized
through the addition of psychic factors. Indeed, the homosexuals
display a greater love intoxication than the heterosexuals. Such a
degree of love frenzy as is displayed by the homosexuals is hardly
ever seen among the heterosexuals. Homosexuality represents a harbor
of refuge, an attempt to lose one’s self exclusively in one direction,
which must be conceived as an attempt on the part of the psyche to
neutralize all other tendencies by the overemphasis of that supreme
passion.
We find frequently that the homosexuals contend that their previous
heterosexual leanings were exclusively physical.[42] Psychically their
love relations must be exclusively homosexual. In fact it is common
to find men sublimating into friendship their craving for psychic
love while woman remains with them merely an instrument for sin
(_instrumentum diaboli_).
* * * * *
A certain homosexual whose history is of particular interest because he
recalls clearly his heterosexual period told _Bloch_:
“At what age my sexual feelings first arose I am unable to recall. My
sexual desires are directed towards the male. _Before and during my
puberty the actual direction of my desire was not clear, in fact I
believe I did entertain at the time a wish to have once intercourse
with a girl._ But it was not love, what I felt was merely a physical
longing,—the psychic counterpart of the instinct was entirely absent
at the time. Now I feel myself inclined exclusively towards young boys.
I have had no intercourse thus far either with males or females, but I
believe I would be able to carry out the sexual act in a normal way;
I know, however, that it would not be pleasurable to me, it would not
amount to more than masturbation so far as I am concerned. Towards the
female sex I am completely indifferent, I feel neither disgust nor any
dislike. My love dreams are always concerned with persons of my own
sex.” (_Bloch_, l.c., p. 566.)
* * * * *
Homosexuality often develops also in women following an infection:
Miss Erna, 42 years of age, writer, shows preeminent male features,
behaves peculiarly like a male, smokes, drinks, is a preeminent
champion of women’s rights. She claims to be innately homosexual, even
as a child she assumed a male role, and was wilder than her brothers.
She always passed for an uncontrollable tomboy. Had no intimation
about her homosexual condition. Masturbated very early and already
at the age of 15 she maintained clandestine relations with an army
officer who had seduced her. But she claims that her experience was
exclusively physical. She has experienced orgasm with men. At 19
years of age another army officer gave her a venereal disease. _Since
that time she feels a tremendous dislike for all men._ At 22 years of
age she conceived a romantic love for a woman friend. They kept up
a relationship during which she maintained the male role. She even
procured for herself an artificial phallus and wore male clothes in the
house. It was like a genuine marriage. “I know only since then what
love really means. Formerly I only felt a liking for men. It was merely
a physical attraction. But for the past 20 years my love has been
exclusively for women.” After the first “homosexual marriage,” which
lasted only three years because her friend deserted her and married,
she had numerous relations with other women.
* * * * *
Very convincing are the cases in which the homosexual outbreak occurs
first after some powerful trauma! It is not always gonorrhea. Often
various other experiences furnish the inciting moment as I can easily
prove on the basis of my own observations. But first I must quote a
case reported by _Krafft-Ebing_ which is illuminating on this score:
Miss X., 22 years of age, is considered a beauty, men flock around her
whenever she appears in society; she is decidedly of a sensuous nature,
seems born to be an _Aspasia_, but rejects all advances. One of her
admirers, however, a young scientist, she looks upon with some favor,
becomes intimate with him, allows herself to be kissed by him, _but not
like a loving woman_; and when the young man believes himself close
to the consummation of his supreme desire she begs him with tears in
her eyes to desist because she is utterly unable to yield to him, not
on account of moral grounds so much as for deeper psychic reasons. In
the course of the exchange of written confidences which followed that
unsuccessful meeting between the two the homosexual character of her
inclination was clearly revealed to her.
Miss X. had a father who was addicted to drink and a hysteropathic
mother. She herself is of a neuropathic constitution; has full breasts,
and generally the outward appearance of an unusually attractive woman
but reveals boyish ways about her and various male peculiarities,—she
fences, rides horseback, smokes and has a decidedly mannish way of
standing and walking. Lately her romantic attachment to young women has
become quite noticeable. She has a young woman with her sharing her
apartment.
Miss X. claims that up to the time of puberty she was sexually
indifferent. At 17 years of age she became acquainted at a summer
resort with a young foreigner whose “majestic” figure made a tremendous
impression upon her. The privilege of dancing a whole evening with
him made her happy. _The following evening, at twilight, she witnessed
a horrible scene—from her window she saw that wonderful man in the
bushes futuare more bestiarum mulierem quandam inter menstruationem._
_Adspectu sanguinis currentis et libidinis quasi bestialis viri Miss
X. felt shocked, she seemed powerless and crushed, could hardly
recover her psychic equilibrium and for some time after that could
neither sleep nor eat; from that time on man stood in her mind for the
quintessence of bestiality._
Two years later a young woman approached her in a public garden, smiled
and glanced at her with a very peculiar look which penetrated deeply
into her soul. The following day Miss X. felt impelled to visit again
that public garden. The woman was there, in fact, she seemed to have
been expecting her. They greeted one another like old acquaintances;
they talked and joked pleasantly and thereafter met by appointment
daily, first in the garden, and later, when the weather became
unpleasant, in the woman’s living apartment. “One day,” Miss X. relates
confidentially “the woman led me up to her divan and allowed me to
glide to the floor while she seated herself. She lifted her shy eyes
at me, stroked the hair off my forehead softly with her hand, saying:
‘Oh, if I could once love you the real way, may I?’ I consented, and
as we sat close by gazing into each other’s eyes, before we knew it
we passed to that love from which there is no drawing back.... She
was bewitchingly beautiful. For me the whole experience was something
new and intoxicating.... I do not believe that man is ever able to
feel such delicate, bewitching, exquisite intoxication.... Man is
not sufficiently sensitive, he is not delicate enough for that....
Our foolish abandon lasted until I fell back exhausted, helpless,
intoxicated. In this exhausted state I was lying on her bed when
suddenly an exquisite feeling thrilled through me and awoke me from
my half dreamy state, something unspeakably sweet and unlike anything
I had ever experienced before; I found J. on top of me, _cunnilingus
perficiens_—that was her highest pleasure, _tandem mihi non licebat
altrum quam osculos dare ad mammas_—and with every motion she shook
convulsively.”
Miss X. acknowledged further that during her homosexual relations she
always assumed the male attitude towards her womanly companion and that
once, _faute de mieux_, she allowed one of her male admirers to perform
_cunnilingus_ on her. (_Krafft-Ebing_, l.c., Obs. 165.)
Let us consider closely the case of an exalted nature like that girl.
She goes through her first graceful love fever, she is about to become
a true woman, she thinks “him” a princely man, a “majestic” personality
when unexpectedly she undergoes the experience of witnessing that very
God-like man behave like a common beast.... Jealousy and a revulsion
of feeling unite in her at the terrible sight rousing such a tremendous
affect that forever after she feels an unspeakable horror of all men.
Many women must have become _urlinds_ as a result of just such
experiences. One must also take into account that among many women
homosexual love shows itself merely in kisses and embraces and that
it seems to them something nobler and much more esthetic than the
manifestations of heterosexual love. Fear of the phallus is something
that may be roused by a relatively slight infantile occurrence. In her
homosexual indulgences Miss X. is not particularly esthetic by any
means, nevertheless even she remarks: “man is not delicate enough!”
This highly interesting case illustrates the development of
homosexuality following a trauma which must have had a tremendous
effect upon so sensitive and romantic a nature as this young woman
and which could not but strengthen the existing predisposition to
homosexuality. But in spite of all she is still bisexual and I do not
think it impossible that she should yet overcome her tremendous horror
of man. We must consider that the father was a drinker and that she had
probably witnessed in the parental home scenes like the one she has
described. What a pity that the case has not been analyzed. _Traumatic
incidents during later life are particularly powerful in their effect
if they resemble and therefore re-echo infantile memories of similar
childhood experiences._ It may even be possible that the woman did
not actually witness the scene at the time she states but that she
experienced merely a hallucination, repeating in her mind a scene which
she may have witnessed only during her childhood.
* * * * *
A remarkable parallel is furnished by the next case which I record from
among my own observations:
Miss K. S. is 32 years of age and calls to consult me about her various
compulsions. She confesses that she is an _urlind_ and that she had
never felt herself attracted to men. Her father, a heavy drinker, died
three years ago; her mother lives quietly and is not neurotic.
Our subject has had a number of chances to get married but she
withdraws coyly from every man the moment one comes close to her.
She feels a certain inclination towards older married men and she
understands in consequence how a woman might become interested in a
friend’s husband. “When I did find a man whom I liked, I was unlucky,”
she declares, “for I discovered that he was already engaged to a
friend of mine.” Truly she fell in love only with girls and women. Her
first romantic attachment was to a woman school teacher, whom she also
visited at her home. That teacher wanted this wealthy girl to marry
her brother and brought the two into contact as often as possible.
She liked the brother because he looked so very much like her beloved
friend. But if the sister was not in the room their conversation lagged
and she could talk only in monosyllables. She sent flowers and costly
gifts to her teacher. Her supreme desire was to sleep once in the same
bed with that teacher and she often dreamed of it. She even proposed
to take her on a journey. The teacher could not go and hesitated also
because she found her pupil’s attentions too oppressive. The teacher
actually suffered on account of her admirer’s deep jealousy, for the
girl turned ill if she so much as found other girls visiting her. At
any rate, quite a circle of girls in the class admired the teacher.
Later she fell in love with a girl friend whom she embraced and kissed
warmly numberless times because it gave her a wonderful warm feeling to
do so. On the other hand the kisses of an uncle made no impression on
her whatever. No man interested her in the least. For a long time she
did not know that she was homosexual, but she was well aware since her
childhood that she was unlike other children. She was always as wild
as a boy and her mother frequently said to her: “there are ten rough
boys in you!” She climbed trees, ran around wildly and always preferred
to play with boys, did not care for dolls, coaxed to be given a saddle
horse and a gun until her father was driven to despair over her and
exclaimed sometimes: “you are really a spoiled boy!”
During the analysis she recalled a number of homosexual and
heterosexual experiences. Already at 12 years of age she had an
experience with an uncle who came to her in bed and played with her.
She could not recall whether they indulged in coitus that time. With
girl friends she also had various adventures. She confesses in fact
that she has been in the habit of masturbating since her 12th year,
when she was taught by a girl, and that at one time she often indulged
in the phantasy that a man was having coitus with her. In fact, as late
as her 16th year she fell “heels-over-head” in love with a friend of
her father’s. He was much younger than her father but belonged to the
same circle.
While she talks at first only in favorable terms about her father
(his drinking habit was not so very excessive) and dwells mostly on
his lovely qualities, his mild character, his imposing appearance,
etc., at the same time she begins to show underneath a growing hatred.
The father had in fact left her in critical circumstances. Every one
considered them millionaires, because her father had kept up a very
big house. After his death it turned out that he had been spending his
capital and that there had been left practically only her share which
was, however, large enough to permit her and her mother to live in
comfort. Her mother had always endured the life of a martyr. The father
had maintained relations with the cook in the house during the last
ten years. She was a fat, shapeless vulgar person. In fact, mother and
daughter were just tolerated in their home. Once her mother endeavored
to dismiss the cook and the father was mad and grew almost violent
showing her mother the door threatening that she might leave and take
along her daughter if she did not like it in the house. After that
the cook was naturally more arrogant and unbearable than ever so that
the poor mother passed her days weeping until finally she reconciled
herself to that state of things. It was possible to throw that cook out
of the house only after her father was lying ill in bed. That daring
woman started a law suit claiming that the father had promised to
settle on her a home and an income.... She lost that suit because the
father testified upon his death-bed that the woman’s contentions were
false. The subject relates a number of other relevant incidents but
does not recall having ever witnessed any intimacies between her father
and the cook.
However, her dreams seem to point in that sense. Thus, for instance,
among others she had the following dream:
* * * * *
_I go carefully into the kitchen and do not find the cook there. Then I
tiptoe slowly up the back stairs to the garret and through the key hole
I see the cook lying in bed with the driver._
She recalls that that particular driver was in their service when the
cook was a younger woman and that her father had dismissed him. He
watched for her father once, as he was coming out of a restaurant to
waylay him. But her father was stronger and threw the servant to the
ground with such force that the fellow fractured a bone. But she thinks
that the neighborhood did not know the true reason for the battle,
every one naturally thinking that the servant planned the attack out of
revenge.
Finally she confessed to me that there was one experience of which she
had not thought before for a long time which she must tell me about.
She wanted to tell me about it for some time but an inexplicable
shyness prevented her. She was 16 years of age when she once heard
her father leaving his study room to steal upstairs to the garret.
It was the maid’s day out and her mother was lying down not feeling
well. She took her shoes off and followed him quietly up the stairs.
The door to the servants’ room stood open. The father was somewhat
under the influence of drink and so was also the cook, who always
managed to secure some liquor for herself on the sly. A candle was
burning in the room and the stairway was dark. She could see plainly
everything that was going on. She now saw _pater membrum suum in os
ancillæ immisit_. The sight of his reddish face now distorted under
the influence of passion was so repulsive to her and struck her so
powerfully that she could never forget it in her life. Even to this
day when she thinks of it she feels nauseated. (While she is telling
the incident she is struggling against the impulse to vomit.) After
that episode she developed a nervous complaint of the stomach, chiefly
a nervous vomiting. Even during the year just passed there were times
when she could not swallow a morsel of meat and she had attacks of
uncontrollable vomiting.
It was after that occurrence that she fell in love with her teacher.
That episode was what had determined the course of her sexual
development and what drove her to homosexuality because it made her
look at all men in the light in which she had seen her father. Her
inclination towards elderly married men (always platonic) is also
traceable to her father _Imago_. She was aiming to find a nobler and
more delicate father.
Whenever a man tried to get closer to her it reminded her of the
painful incident she had witnessed, which summed up in her mind all the
misery in her home, the whole outrageous situation, the humiliation of
her mother, and her father’s morbid passion. For her father who did
have some splendid qualities and who enjoyed an enviable position in
society she once had as great a love and as deep a respect as for her
noble mother. Then she had to go through the disastrous situation in
the house. That experience could but serve her as a warning against
men, a warning and a lesson! It could not but implant deeply in
her soul a lasting dread of man and of man’s terrible passion. She
naturally shrank back from any close contact with man for there was
always a picture before her mind which plainly carried the message: “do
not trust any man lest you should go through what your mother did!”
What might have been the future of this brave girl if the father had
not acted in that way, if the marriage of the parents had been a happy
one, if she had not witnessed that terrible scene which impressed
her the more painfully because she had no inkling whatever of the
brutal side of sexuality? I make bold to assert that she would have
developed into a quiet pleasant housewife and she would have given
vent to her homosexual tendencies along quiet and innocent paths.
But as it was she devoted herself to girls and avoided men more and
more. She did permit herself to be attracted by men. But they had to
be married and unattainable. Thus there could be no danger for her.
When the husband of a friend of hers of whom she also was very fond
declared that for her sake he would be willing to divorce his wife,
she fled and presently found some other unreachable ideal to which she
attached herself. All her ideals were practically desexualized while
her sexuality she exercised exclusively on women. _The love among women
loomed up in her mind as pure and elevating, while the love of men she
considered brutal. Even coitus seemed to her a disgusting brutal act._
The traumatic incident occurred after puberty yet it had a very
tremendous effect. The question rises whether the traumas occurring
during childhood may also influence the particular direction of sexual
development. This question has long since been solved in harmony with
_Binet’s_ view and psychoanalysis has taught us some additional facts
regarding the influence of traumas. The narrower Freudian school
has gone so far as to overvalue the influence of traumas and has
designated as traumas certain relatively trivial experiences which
do not deserve that designation. I want to sound again a warning
against underestimating the role of traumas. Certain minor fetichistic
tendencies are easily and sometimes fairly satisfactorily explained
on that basis, although the more complicated forms of fetichism,
such as we shall study later, are not to be explained solely upon
the theory of traumatic causation. Here the association hypothesis
of _Binet_ completely breaks down. We must bear in mind that the
neurotics conceive many traumas which in reality did not occur and
that their phantasy turns innocent incidents into alleged traumas
whenever it suits the trend of their emotions to do so. The neurotic’s
memory serves him poorly and that is also true of the homosexuals who
construct a purely homosexual life history for themselves.
But are not first impressions of fundamental determinative value for
future development? _Jean Paul_ very appropriately declares: “_All
first impressions persist forever in the child!_”
* * * * *
I wish to add here a couple of observations which we owe to _Bloch_ and
which illustrate very well the influence of first sexual impressions:
“I was about five years of age when during a walk accompanied by the
nursemaid I saw at some distance a man in the act of masturbating;
without knowing what it was, the picture persisted in my mind for
years. In my dreams until my fourteenth year a playmate occupied the
chief role. At thirteen years of age I fell in love with a school
comrade who took but little interest in me; what roused my interest
in him in particular was probably the fact that he was the one who
brought to the class information about sexual matters. We removed to
another City and I lost sight of the boy. Although I knew nothing
specific about sex at the time I sought contact with those who roused
my feelings.
“A stranger, a man of about 35 years of age, enticed me and as soon
as he had me he carried on pederasty with me. I felt that there was
something repulsive in what he was doing, but I was too weak to oppose
myself against his influence. In about three months he disappeared. Now
I knew what masturbation was especially as there had occurred a number
of orgies at school.
“At eighteen years of age I left school, and while the others among
my comrades began showing an inclination towards the female sex I
found myself attracted in every way exclusively to man. Often at the
insistence of some of my friends I tried to come into contact with
women of the half world but every time the attempt filled me only with
disgust and aversion. When I see a woman taking an interest in me I am
filled with a horrible feeling. That was one more reason why I felt
attracted to the male sex. When I love a man I do not think (only) of
sexual attraction, but I seek to find in him precisely what I, in turn,
feel myself ready to give; exclusive devotion, loyalty, tenderness;
when I love a man, everything else pales into insignificance for me.”
(_Bloch_, l.c., p. 565.)
It would seem that in this instance the memory of the masturbating man,
an incident which the boy had witnessed during childhood, determined
for him the actual course of his sexual development. In the previous
case the trauma acted as a warning. In this case it seems to have acted
like a perpetual stimulus, since a child does not possess the usual
moral scruples, and the first excitation (the sight of the erect organ)
must have been tremendous. That picture stayed in his memory for years,
it fixed itself and persisted permanently in that young man’s memory.
In the K. S. case, mentioned above, the trauma was associated with
disgust; it served as a revulsion against heterosexuality.[43]
In this particular case the memory of the incident was associated
with desire. It was utilized in positive form as an inciter to
homosexuality. Thus we find that the problem is rather complicated.
I confess that for some time I was unable to see my way clear in
the midst of these facts so long as I was one-sided in my views and
thought that the condition arises exclusively in one way. But I know
now that a number of paths may lead equally to homosexuality and that
this is a subject which requires a much more thorough study. We must
find out whether psychic factors are invariably at work behind every
case of homosexuality or whether there is an exclusively psychic
and a specially organic homosexuality. Such cases could be called
pseudo-homosexuality.
As a contribution to this question I find of interest the following
case, reported by Bloch, as the history reveals the trauma and the
bearing of the trauma upon the development of the condition. It is a
case of male homosexuality:
“From my early childhood I was aware of something peculiarly girlish
in my whole nature outwardly as well as inwardly (the latter in
particular). Sexual excitation I experienced also very early. _I was
about 6 years of age when I remember that a private instructor seated
himself on the edge of the bed where I was lying ill with fever,
petted me and then membrum meum tetigit with his hand; the pleasurable
sensation which thus arose was so intense that I cannot get it out
of my mind to this day._ At school where my conduct and studies were
always excellent I indulged occasionally in mutual ‘touching games’
with other boys. I do not know on what side of the family I may have
inherited the unusual intensity of my sexual desire, but I remember
that around my 12th year the flaring up of the instinct caused me
a great deal of unrest and when a comrade once showed me how to
masturbate it proved a welcome relief. This ‘paradisaic’ state did not
last long and when I learned about the dangers and forbidden features
of my habit I had a terrific and useless struggle with myself.
“I remember that as far back as my memory goes I had the habit of
_gazing at older, vigorous men_ almost involuntarily and with
a feeling full of longing, without knowing what it meant. As to
masturbation I thought that I fell into the habit because I had no
chance to come into contact with women. As a matter of fact I did
occasionally entertain friendly relations with certain girls who
appeared to be strongly attached to me; _but I always saw to it that
these love excitations were ‘nipped in the bud’_ because I was _afraid
I should be unable to carry out my role_ to the end. Finally I decided
to seek relief among prostitutes, who were otherwise repellent to my
esthetic and moral sense, but the attempts proved useless: either I
found myself unable to carry out the normal sexual act at all or if
I did it, I experienced no satisfaction and thereafter I was also
plagued with the fear of infection. I did have rather frequently
the opportunity to enter into amorous relations with married women
but I never did so even though I inwardly scorned my shyness and my
oversensitive conscience. Although these facts are true, I must not
omit to mention the chief thing responsible for the whole situation,
namely, the fact that I am homosexual in my inclination and that the
other sex has hardly any attraction for me.
“I believed myself totally unfit for ordinary sexual relations when
I found one day that the sight of the _membrum virile_ alone made
the blood boil in me with excitement. I then recalled that this had
occasionally happened before, although not to such a remarkable
extent. Secretly I had to face the plain fact that I was ‘not like
others.’ This fact which I had previously suspected and of which I grew
more and more convinced, brought me to the brink of despair.
“Then it happened that a simple little girl fell deeply in love with
me, and I made up my mind to start relations with her. During the time
while this lasted, a period of several months, my inclination towards
the male sex persisted though occasionally I tried to subdue it; but
to overcome it completely was for me, I found, impossible. I was still
keeping up my relations with the girl when I once noticed in a public
lavatory an elderly gentleman who appealed to me very strongly; he
scrutinized me carefully and bent over in order _membrum meum videre_,
came close by, moved forward his hand shaking with excitement and ...
_membrum meum tetigit_. I was so surprised and scared that I ran off
at once and for some time after that I avoided passing by that place.
But my impulsion was the greater on that account to meet that man
again; this was not at all difficult.... In this continuous struggle,
so meaningless and so useless, against an instinct which was at least
partly inborn in me, I have squandered my best energies, although
I have long ago reached the point of realizing that in itself the
instinct is neither morbid nor sinful.” (_Bloch_, l.c., P. 545.)
Does not this case illustrate clearly the influence of first
impressions and the significance of the bisexual foundation in the
homosexual attitude? The man is seduced by an elderly man and after
that he longs continually to be seduced by an elderly man, in a manner
recalling that unforgettable scene. Although capable of heterosexual
acts, this side of his nature persists as a sort of compulsory tendency
and drives him again into the arms of elderly men to seek that form
gratification which was the first he had ever experienced in his life.
His heterosexual leanings are repressed. He himself admits that he
always saw to it that all such love affairs were nipped in the bud. In
other words he is deliberately fighting off all heterosexual stimuli
and encouraging the homosexual excitations. Then he arrives at the
realisation that he is not like others.... In fact he is bisexual and
has the capacity to act as a bisexual being. A careful analysis would
have disclosed many interesting features. We wanted only to show how
this young man was continually seeking to find his teacher (father?),
and what a great deal of neurotic overgrowth stood back of this desire.
* * * * *
The next case quoted from _Krafft-Ebing_ is also very remarkable:
A merchant, 34 years of age, mother neuropathic; at 9 years of age was
taught masturbation by a schoolmate; also, homosexual relations with
a brother; fellatio; urolagnia; at 14 years of age first love for a
school colleague.
_At 17 years of age his love ideal changes completely. He is no longer
attracted by young, beautiful boys, but by decrepit old men._
_T. traces this back to the fact that he had once overheard his father
in the next room uttering pleasurable exclamations after he retired
for the night and this excited him tremendously because he thought his
father was ... (weil er sich den Vater coitierend dachte)._
Since that time old men carrying on various homosexual deeds play a
predominant role in his dream pollutions and during masturbation. But
even through the day the sight of an old man is enough to excite him,
especially if the man is very old and decrepit when his excitement may
be so tremendous as to end in ejaculation. Attempts at intercourse with
women in houses of prostitution proved unsuccessful and ordinary men
and boys do not rouse him. From the age of 22 years on he carried on
a platonic love towards an old gentleman whom he met on the latter’s
daily walks. During these walks T. had ejaculation. In order to free
himself of this peculiar dependence after several unsuccessful attempts
at intercourse with prostitutes _he took along with him a decrepit
old man whom he induced to have coitus before his eyes. The scene
so excited him that he in turn proved potent. Later on he was able
to dispense with the old man’s presence and could carry out the act
successfully without that aid. But this improvement did not last long;
soon he became impotent once more._
This case is in every way interesting and of great significance for our
problem. It proves to us the great determinative role of a childish
reminiscence and the persistence of a scene which is continually
repeated in memory. The whole of that young man’s libido is centered
around that particular scene. He stages it also in the brothel when
he hires an old man to have intercourse in his presence. That old man
assumes then the role of the father, the prostitute is the mother,
while he is once more the onlooking child. The act of looking on
so excites his passion that with that aid he proves potent in his
intercourse with the prostitute. But that continues only so long as the
exciting influence of the scene persists. After that he reverts to his
former impotence and he again ... seeks his father. It is perfectly
plain, and only the blind could fail to see that T. seeks his father.
His wish was obviously that his father should also start something
sexual with him. It is possible that he had identified himself with
his mother. But we have no direct proof of that. This is particularly
significant because _Sadger_ and the others who belong to _Freud’s_
narrower circle place great emphasis upon the role of the mother in the
genesis of genuine homosexuality while neglecting ruefully the role of
the father. This case shows us a “Japhet, who seeks his father.” The
promenades with the respectable old gentleman are repetitions of the
walks with his father.
This patient does not recall any heterosexual experiences during
his youth, probably because the memory of them has been repressed
from consciousness. In the other case which I shall now quote from
_Krafft-Ebing_ the heterosexual period is clearly recalled. I refer the
reader to that author’s _Observation 144_. Here I quote the first part
of the history of that case:
“I am at the present time 31 years of age, lean yet well built, devoted
to male love, therefore unmarried. My relatives were in good health,
mentally normal, there were two suicides in our family, on mother’s
side. My sexual feelings arose when I was about seven years of age, the
sight of the naked abdomen being particularly exciting. I gratified
my instinct by allowing my sputum to trickle down the abdomen. When I
was eight years old we had in our house a little nurse maid of about
thirteen years. I found it very pleasurable to rub my genitals against
hers, but there could be no coitus on my part at that time. During the
ninth year I went to live among strangers and went to the gymnasium. A
colleague showed me his genitals and that filled me with disgust. But
in the family where my parents arranged for me to board there was a
very beautiful girl who prevailed upon me—I was but little over nine
years old at the time—to sleep with her. I found the experience most
pleasurable. My penis, though small, was already capable of erection
and I had intercourse with her almost daily. This continued for several
months. Then my parents transferred me to another gymnasium; I missed
the girl very much and during my tenth year I began to masturbate. But
the act inspired me only with disgust. I masturbated but moderately,
always felt deeply remorseful afterwards, although I could discover no
bad consequences.”
Here is a man who actually felt disgust at the sight of a friend’s
genitals and who found intercourse with women pleasurable. He is
excellently on the way to become a heterosexual. At fourteen he falls
in love with a school colleague, an experience which every person goes
through at about that age, the “normal,” no less than the homosexual.
After the final examination (high school) he has intercourse with
girls and great pleasure in the act, but he is already making use of
some homosexual makeshifts. Soldiers must precede him in the act of
using the prostitutes and the thought of having access to a vagina
which had just been in contact with another penis, stimulates him. “At
the same time I can never kiss women without feeling disgust; _even
my relatives I kiss only on the cheek_.” ... _Hinc illæ lacrimæ!_ He
protects himself against the sexual excitations emanating from his
family circle. His homosexuality is somehow linked to his family. The
peculiar action of a boy who allows sputum to trickle down his abdomen,
imagining that it is spermatic fluid could probably be traced by means
of analysis to a definite childhood trauma. Particularly clear in
this case is the heterosexual attitude which under certain influences
and inhibitions merges almost imperceptibly into the bisexual and
homosexual.
* * * * *
Whether late homosexuality is determined every time through definite
traumatic incidents, I am unable to state, because I have not had the
opportunity thoroughly to analyze such a case. The next case seems to
me to show that strong emotionally toned episodes may turn a latent
into manifest homosexuality:
An army officer, 46 years of age, consults me for complete impotence
with women. The impotence is of four years’ duration. He has become
acquainted with a lady of whom he is very fond and who enjoys an
excellent financial status. He could now be a happy man, if he only
were a complete man. Asked about his morning erections he blushes. The
trouble is not with erections, they do not fail him on other occasions.
He is impotent only in contact with women. Finally he admits that since
his 38th year he has been carrying on homosexual relations. Since
that time his interest in women gradually vanished and he has become
impotent. His anamnesis reveals some significant facts. He recalls no
homosexual deeds or excitations during childhood and before puberty. He
was sexually precocious, masturbated already during the primary school
period and was attracted by girls. First coitus at seventeen in a house
of prostitution. After that he felt he wanted women very badly but had
no homosexual inclination. Then a tremendous experience came into his
life which agitated him and after that he was depressed for some time.
That was just before his first homosexual act.
“Can you tell me something about the nature of that agitation?”
“I find it painful to speak of it.”
“But you expect help in a rather difficult situation. How should I
appraise the situation in its true light if you won’t furnish me the
necessary information?”
“You are right. But there are things of which it is almost impossible
to speak. It is about my mother. But I suppose I cannot help myself
otherwise. I must tell you all.
“I have always honored and respected my mother. I was 38 years of age
when I received a telegram calling me to her sick bed. She passed
away shortly after my arrival. As the only son it was my duty to put
everything in order after her. I went through her old correspondence
and in a box I came across a mass of love letters. First I was not
going to read them. But curiosity got the best of me. I said to myself:
‘every married person loves once in his or in her life some one else,
why should not that be permitted to my mother when father died while
she was still very young.’ If I only had not done that! I found not
one letter, I found hundreds of letters and ... they were not all
from one man. The letters were so vulgar, so plain, so cynical, so
revolting that I wished myself dead. I lost the holiest thing in my
life. Before then I always dreamed of finding a woman like mother, and
her type of womanhood always stood before me as the ideal. Now I found
that she could be bought and she was to be had for ordinary degrading
purposes. The tone which her lovers assumed in those letters was so
revolting that I imagined the worst. Since then I feel a deep scorn for
all womanhood. Shortly after that I yielded to the temptations of a
homosexual friend....
“Do you believe that my impotence has some relation to that occurrence?
I have often thought of it. Whenever I go to a woman I cannot help
thinking of the box in which I found mother’s letters. After such an
experience how is it possible for one still to consider marriage?”
* * * * *
A late homosexuality induced by a very tragic experience. Naturally
the man was always latently homosexual. But it was that experience
which turned him into a manifest homosexual. Unfortunately I am unable
to state whether he married the woman and became heterosexual again or
not, because I never saw him after that.
The reader will observe that in this chapter I have quoted quite a
number of cases culled from the reports of other practitioners. I do
this for a double reason. First, I want to prove, on the basis of
other material than my own, that homosexuality has its psychogenesis;
and, in the second place, I aim by this means to disprove the
contention unfortunately rather widespread in some circles and actually
expressed by some critics, that my case histories correspond to the
“genius loci.” As if the Viennese differed in sexual matters from the
North-German or from the Englishman! My material is derived from the
world at large. _I have been unable to discover thus far any difference
with respect to sexual matters between any two nations, except that one
may keep things under cover more cleverly than the other._
* * * * *
This series of cases aiming to illustrate the rôle of psychic trauma
in sexuality may be concluded with the following case, reported by
_Pfister_ (l. c. p. 169):
A 28-year-old woman, member of an educational institution, of high
moral repute, is in despair because she fears she is no longer able
to control her homosexual longings. If she meets a young girl she is
nearly overpowered with the impulse to kiss her then and there. The
unknown girl’s face haunts her for weeks afterwards and she can not
sleep tortured with regret because she did not gratify her impulse to
kiss the girl as she does with her acquaintances. She is particularly
distracted at the thought that with her tendernesses and attentions,
she may mislead into homosexual counter-affection a fourteen-year-old
girl who is close to her, although nothing out of the way has happened
between them. But the little friend already trembles with excitement
when she is embraced and her great affection leads her to tears if she
does not see her beloved often enough.
Our homosexual girl had a physically attractive but otherwise
insignificant, nervous father who left the conduct of his business to
the capable hands of his energetic and intelligent wife. The little
daughter learned early to admire her mother and to look upon her father
as a “light weight.” As a small girl she was normal. She played equally
with boys and girls. With her playmates of both sexes she underwent
various sexual experiences: the girls played the game of doctor and
this gave them an opportunity to touch the sexual parts, and a small,
ailing boy who was one of the girl’s playmates between her seventh and
ninth years, did the same thing. Around the age of eight years she fell
in love with an uncle who had the habit of throwing her playfully
into the air, a game which always gave her a very peculiar feeling.
_At ten or eleven years of age a 40-year old housekeeper abused her
repeatedly._ Definitely homosexuality broke out when the girl was
thirteen. She was at the time a great deal in the company of a teacher
who resembled her mother in many ways but who was better educated.
That passionate woman was distinctly homosexual and for two years
she treated the girl with greatest affection. During that time her
passion for kissing developed while the grossly sexual cravings which
the sensuous housekeeper had roused in her gradually quieted down. A
few love affairs with boys also led to kisses but she experienced no
particular passion in that connection. Those affairs she took up as a
pastime and to be in fashion rather than because she was interested.
At the boarding school her one-sided erotic inclination was further
developed in the course of passionate friendships. At the age of
nineteen she made a couple of heterosexual erotic attempts but they
proved unsuccessful. The first affair was with a hot-blooded artist of
womanly appearance. Her love was deep, the young girl floated in ideal
conversations and gladly exchanged kisses with the young man. After his
departure they maintained a warm correspondence full of tenderness but
without giving one another any formal promise.
Five or six weeks after parting from the beloved friend she became
engaged to a smart young man because she was in despair and she had
given up the plan of a higher education for herself as she was not
getting along at all well with a relative at home. She thought she
loved her young man but soon after the engagement she began fearing
that she had perhaps undertaken more than she intended to carry out.
The soft, shy young man apparently resembled her father. For seven
months she played at being in love, vomitted every morning and wished
she were dead. Finally she gave up her engagement and concentrated
all her feelings upon members of her own sex. She maintained however
her delicate womanly sensitiveness throughout and always gave the
impression of a girlish creature. So long as she found homosexual
gratification, she took little interests in a career, or in nature, art
and religion; but as soon as her inclinations were thwarted, her ideal
interests came strongly to the foreground. She herself compared these
vacillations with the movements of a pair of scales.
When she felt deeply in love she was fairly free of grossly sexual
excitations. But during her loveless engagement _she felt herself
sexually roused a number of times when the young man played with her in
a thoroughly respectable manner_.
_Pfister_ then relates that the young woman interrupted the analysis
just as she was making rapid progress towards recovery. But he adds
a number of interesting details, including her first dream, which
usually contains the nucleus of the neurosis.
* * * * *
The first dream is as follows:
_A cat bit me on the left index finger and held on to it for some time.
The finger swelled and burst down to the bone. The tendon was broken
and a great deal of fluid was oozing out. It meant I shall always have
a stiff finger. I said to myself: “What a pity! Now I won’t be able
ever to play the piano again.”_
_I woke up and found my finger so fast asleep that I could not move it._
Just before the dream the girl in her despair had offered a fervent
prayer which made her feel a little easier. Before the analysis the
girl was extremely restless and longed for her beloved, but she said to
herself that she would only bring misfortune upon that poor girl’s head.
The analysis of this dream, which _Pfister_ unfortunately, did not
carry out with complete success, shows that her whole emotional life is
governed by the infantile experience with that housekeeper. The first
recollection brought up by the free associations with this dream relate
to the housekeeper, who in the dream is represented by the cat.
I have discussed elsewhere in a lengthy contribution, the
_Representation of the Neurosis in Dreams_.[44] In this dream the
trouble is symbolized by a stiff finger. “Playing the piano” is
again a symbol for sexual intercourse as well as for masturbation.
Probably the symbol here has acquired its emotional coloring from the
masturbation habit. But the heterosexual meaning is also obvious (piano
playing—coitus). If we interpret the dream we have:
The housekeeper, that false cat who played a dependent rôle towards
my parents, made me ill with her long-continued tendernesses (A cat
bit me on the left index finger and held on for a long time). The
trouble grew worse, something valuable tore in me (the ability to love
a man) and the homosexual form of love established itself permanently
(stiffening). Now I am incapable of loving a man, I cannot be a mother
or raise a family of my own,—a wish that has already cost me so many
tears (the water flowing out of the wound).
* * * * *
Perhaps this interpretation will be doubted as something artificial and
rather forced. But the subject recalls further details of the dream
and relates them subsequently. Such additions are of extraordinary
significance because usually they contain the censured, the repressed
material. She recalls that the cat was going to bite her at first on
the foot (significant because of the proximity of the sexual parts).
Further on she relates a continuation of the dream:
_The water flowed down the steps. I ran to a friendly woman physician
for aid to my wound. On the way I met her unexpectedly in the
neighborhood of a merry-go-round. Then my sister speaks up saying: “She
will fix your finger in good shape right away.” The woman physician
retorts: “I am sorry, but I do not operate.” She sends me instead to a
surgeon (male)._
The interpretation is not difficult. There is a great deal of weeping.
Her tears inundate her whole soul (House as symbol of soul). At first
she is looking for a woman healer. A woman shall cure her trouble.
Life is a merry-go-round, everything in life revolves, she may yet be
happy. But the woman physician gave her the correct answer. You need a
surgeon. _Only a man can heal thee._ I do not operate. I am not the one
to awaken your femininity (defloration?).
A further supplementary account shows that the finger became the muzzle
of a repeating revolver. _Pfister’s_ interpretation that this is a
phallic symbol and that it shows the dreamer’s phantasy that she was
a male with a phallus, may be correct. Every homosexual woman has the
wish to transpose the psychic state into an actual physical condition.
But another possible meaning of the repeating fire arm seems to me
more plausible. The subject’s traumatic incident had the effect of
facilitating subsequently other homosexual experiences. _The traumatic
experience required repetition._
I pass over for the present the other meanings of the dream
(over-determination), which _Pfister_ discloses with keen insight. I
am concerned here merely with pointing out the determining influence
of a trauma. Naturally there are other factors at work along with the
traumatic incident, it would be necessary to find out why the incident
influenced her in that particular manner, the precise constellation of
her family circle ought to be taken into consideration, etc. But the
dream points so clearly to the cause of the psychic trauma that the
cross section it furnishes enables us to reconstruct the whole picture
of her trouble.
The case is convincing also from another standpoint. The subject gave
up early her psychoanalysis because she felt in a short time that she
was well. These apparent cures which serve to circumvent the danger of
a thorough psychoanalysis, are well known occurrences. The subject is
unwilling to acknowledge that she is also heterosexually predisposed,
that her whole longing, in fact, is directed towards the fulfilment
of motherhood. The dream says plainly: _“I want to be a woman, like
all other women, I want to bear children! Save me from the danger of
homosexuality!”_
But her consciousness is unprepared to acknowledge this desire. She
meets difficulties upon the heterosexual path. _Pfister_ believes that
she identified herself with her father. In that sense the kissing
episodes (with girls) signify: _I let father_ (who was a very handsome
and well appearing man) _kiss me_! But her mother was also in the habit
of kissing her with great show of affection. It appears thus that the
most varied forces were at work to determine the fixation (stiffening)
of her emotional attitude.
In fact homosexuality does resemble ankylosis. The free operation of
sexuality appears to be restricted, a single point is fixed and every
movement takes place thereafter only within the range of that point of
fixation.
Is it possible for psychoanalysis to loosen up such psychic ankyloses
and to free once more the bound-down energies? In this particular case
can psychoanalysis remove the fear of man and the woman’s doubt whether
she can fill a woman’s rôle? How far reaching are the possibilities of
psychic orthopedics in the case of homosexuals?
I must ask the reader to follow me patiently through the complex
inquiries which follow before attempting to answer these questions.
VII
Erotism and Sexuality—The Motive Power of Unfulfilled
Wishes—The Male Protest—The Relations of the Homosexual
to his Mother—Hirschfeld’s Schematic Outline—Infantile
Impressions—Influence of the Stronger Parent—Letter of an Expert.
_Die Knabenliebe ist so alt wie die Menschheit und man könnte daher
sagen sie liege in der Natur, ob sie gleich gegen die Natur sei._
_Goethe._
VII
_Boy love is as old as the race and therefore it may be said to be part
of nature, although against nature._
_Goethe._
Investigators interested in the problem of homosexuality point out that
the condition occurs in families and see therein a support for the
contention that this condition is inborn. Homosexuals usually have a
homosexual brother or sister, or one or the other of their parents is
similarly afflicted, in spite of marriage. But if we think of neurosis
and of homosexuality (which is a particular form of neurosis) as a
retrogression, if we bear in mind that all neurotics show a marked
overemphasis of sexual traits, the reason for these facts is plain.
What is inherited is not the homosexuality but the powerful bisexual
disposition which leads to morbid tendencies. Furthermore we must bear
in mind that the influence of family life is practically the same for
all children. Yet one child escapes lasting injury while another is
tremendously handicapped.
Before looking more closely into the influence of family life upon the
development of homosexuality we must point out two very significant
considerations.
One of these is the division of all love into spiritual and physical;
the next point is the double attitude of every homosexual as male and
female. For the present I need only emphasize the fact that persons
readily adjust themselves so that one sexual component is expressed on
the spiritual, the other upon the physical plane. Let us call spiritual
love, “erotism,” and physical love, “sexuality.” The average homosexual
applies his erotism to male friendships and his sexuality he places
in the service of heterosexual love; the progress of culture consists
therein that heterosexual love is also gradually sublimated, that
is, turned more and more into erotism. The homosexual, for instance,
turns his erotism towards women, and applies his sexuality in his
relation with men. But at times he may turn his whole erotism into the
homosexual channel and suppress his whole sexuality. Or he may endeavor
to find certain spiritual qualities in his sexual ideal, trying to turn
also part of his erotism into the homosexual path. Thus we meet most
remarkable variations. For an example we may mention the homosexual
who is interested only in coachmen, soldiers, servants and peasants.
His sexual ideal he finds only among the lower orders. Such a man has
turned his whole erotism towards women. He seeks the friendship of
mature women, sometimes also the company of fine men, but sexually he
can be active only in contact with men of low order.
This peculiarity already indicates a judgment-attitude in sexual
matters. Sexuality is perceived as degrading, as compelling a return
to the first aspects of “natural” life. The attitude is further
complicated by the homosexual’s overemphasis of one or the other
sex during his acts. If he is an active homosexual he preserves his
individuality, identifying his selfhood with some male ideal, the
father, the brother, the teacher, etc. On the other hand, if he plays
a passive rôle, he identifies himself with a woman, the mother, or her
polar obverse, the prostitute. Occasionally he carries on both rôles
and the relations between sexuality and erotism become reversed and
transposed. That is what complicates the problem so tremendously. The
urning transfers his erotism to men and his sexuality is roused in
relation with women only, but the latter is soon turned into disgust.
Or the urlind loves spiritually only women and finds all men repulsive,
unbearable and disgusting.
In order to acquire a psychologic insight into every case as it
presents itself, and to judge of its significance, it is necessary to
answer the question: what does the homosexual aim to accomplish with
his actions? What does the homosexual act represent in the subject’s
fancy. In most cases of this character reality does not enter into
consideration.
Some obscure and baffling paraphilias lose their extraordinary
character once we get at the specific act which the subject repeats
vicariously through his overt action. For _Nietzsche’s_ law of the
eternal return of sameness applies to the neurotic.
The acts which the neurotic carries out are either something
experienced or something wished, some unreached yearning. It is part
of human nature that the unattained experience exercises a stronger
driving power than what has been experienced. Experience acts as
a retrospective tendency, craving is prospective. (One might say,
therefore: the most severe traumas are those which have never been
experienced.) The unsatisfied craving is the motive power of most
neuroses. The “world pain” of all those who are weary of life and who
struggle in vain to accomplish the impossible is due to the eternal
craving, the _eternally Lost_, the _perennially Unreachable_. All the
dream fancies of the neurotic are shattered in contact with reality.
For that reason the neurotic overlooks the world’s standards and builds
a world of his own, wherein he is master and attains all his wishes
as dreams. The _unattained experiences_ furnish the material for
_perennial dreams_.
The formation of man’s character traits begins during the first years
of life. He tests his powers upon the surroundings and his environment
furnish him the picture of life. In the eyes of children who are
not self-reliant the father must be a giant because he overawes them
with his genial appearance and his image generates in their soul a
feeling of inferiority which marks them for life. Every child has an
ambition: to excel his father. This wish may express itself first in
the desire to attain father’s size, to be as strong and big as he. But
later the wish shows itself in that quiet but determined competitive
struggle which has always existed between father and son, or mother and
daughter. The strong son takes after the powerful father. But suppose
the father is weak and the mother is the one who dominates the house?
What sort of picture of life becomes imprinted upon the child’s mind
under the circumstances? Can it help believing that women dominate
the world, can he escape taking the attitude either of wishing to be
a woman and rule, or of fleeing from woman when she clashes with his
“will to power” as man?
In the conflict that follows, sexuality becomes mixed up with erotism,
the soul of the child is bewildered, a definite outcome is delayed and
meanwhile the child’s soul is filled with anxiety and doubt.
* * * * *
_Alfred Adler_, who has followed this line of inquiry with great
keenness, has conceived it an important factor in the dynamics of the
neuroses and he has described this picture as “_the male protest_.” All
reactions and protective constructions or fictions of the neurotic,
according to him, lead back to the desire to be “_a complete man_.”
Homosexuality displays this protest under a peculiarly cryptic form.
The homosexual cries out: _I want to be a woman!_ He may even go so far
as to dress himself like a woman and become a transvestite. _Adler_
here gives a far fetched explanation, saying: _this is a male protest
under the use of female means_! He holds that the homosexual attempts
to heighten by this means his feeling of personality; the latter turns
away from woman because he fears his inferiority, he avoids decisions.
That is true of some aspects but not of the whole picture. The problem
of homosexuality as a whole shows _Adler’s_ position to be untenable.
The important thing is that there arises in the child’s soul a wish
which gravitates in the direction of the parallelogram of forces
exhibited within the family circle. If the mother plays the upper rôle,
the wish becomes: _I should like to be like mother! I should like to
dominate and rule as she does!_ Love for the mother increases this
tendency to become identified with her and turns it into a directive
ideal. The child begins at a tender age to imitate its mother, acts
womanly, wants to play with dolls and cook, wears gladly girls’
clothes. The child may overcome these tendencies or it may grow up with
them or return to them later and become a pronounced homosexual. (_Late
Homosexuality._)
For the sake of simplicity I am now speaking of boys. The same effect
may be brought about when a brutal father trods down the mother, the
child sees its mother suffer and comes to look upon his father as an
abhorrent example. Under such circumstances the child’s “_will to
power_” may turn into “_ethical will_.” The child’s wish then is: _I
would not rule and be like father; I would rather be like mother!_ If
the child loves his tyrannical father he may become homosexual and
passive: a woman and a strong man.
These are a few examples taken at random from life. I have brought them
out, because one often hears that homosexuals have had an energetic
mother, and a father who played a submissive rôle. Of course, the
contrary may also be the case. Frequently we hear that the mother was
strongly neurotic.... There are no definite rules in the psychogenesis
of homosexuality. Each case requires an individual solution. That is
why _Sadger’s_ statements on the subject cannot be taken as absolute
axioms. Every third case or so disproves his notions.
_Many paths lead to homosexuality._ It would be impossible to describe
all. We can only get at a few typical examples.
We turn our attention now to the important question: what is the
attitude of the neurotic towards his mother? We have seen that
psychoanalysts correlate homosexuality to the repressed love for the
mother. Let us give a glimpse at my few statistical data. The question:
“Are you specially fond of your mother or your father? Or are you
partial to some brother or sister?” was answered by my 20 homosexuals
as follows:
“Only of mother—mother—no particular preference—both
alike—mother—father—no preference—on the whole, more fond of
mother—love the whole family passionately—father—mother—my
father mother—mother—mother—mother—specially fond of a brother
(indifferent to all the others)—father—mother.”
Approximately one-half confess a greater fondness for the mother.
I have mentioned the preferences in these cases because in one of
them, at least, I am able positively to prove that back of love for
the mother is hidden really a powerful aversion against the father;
another subject had failed to mention his fondness for his sister which
played a tremendous rôle in the development of his homosexuality.
Such a statistical inquiry really requires documentation through
psychoanalysis. But even on the face of the statistical figures we
find a certain percentage of cases showing a greater fondness for the
mother. This is also true of some of the cases in which the predominant
love had been declared in favor of the father.
_Hirschfeld_ holds that the attachment of the urning to his mother is a
common occurrence. He states:
“The homosexual is attracted to one woman with particular tenderness;
_this is his mother_; and here we also find the analogy of a
particularly intimate relationship between the urning daughter and
her father. The homosexual’s attachment to his mother is so typical,
that the _Freudian_ school has described this mother-complex as the
cause of homosexuality. _I hold this deduction for a false one._ The
homosexual does not become an urning because he was so passionately
attached to his mother as a child; on the contrary, he leans towards
the mother instinctively rather than knowingly, at first, this being
the direction of his weakness and peculiarity and often his mother,
also instinctively, makes him her favorite child....”
This conclusion of _Hirschfeld’s_ I find myself unable to accept. The
urning is often the mother’s favorite child before his birth. The
child responds with the most tender love for his mother with whom he
identifies himself in the end. Sometimes the mother wishes a girl and
brings up her boy as one. I know one urning who was never dressed in
pantelets by his mother, who was always kept by her side and whose
mother was in the habit of folding his external genital over with
his skin, saying: _you are a girl_! Even as a grown up boy he was
frequently put in girl’s clothes and he preserved for some time a
tendency to transvestism.
Undoubtedly there are many cases, in which direct love for the mother
has absorbed all love for the female sex.
One urning, for instance, as quoted by _Hirschfeld_, states:
“My mother was everything to me, she was my one best friend, the
_alpha_ and _omega_ of my existence. I had built many pretty plans
for her, desiring to make her comfortable in her old age.... Then,
there came the terrible catastrophe, which nearly wiped out my whole
existence, death robbed me of my much-beloved mother. The report of her
illness, which made me fear the worst, found me in the North of Ireland
and the tortures which I endured during the two days and two nights
that it took me to reach home, could not be described in mere words. On
the train folks avoided me suspecting that I was insane.... For three
weary weeks I took care of my mother day and night, then God took her
from me, and I remained a lonely wanderer, broken in mind and body. It
was a blow from which I could never recover. In the endeavor to forget
I returned to my England to take up my former work but it was useless.
Forget I could not, day and night I was a prey to mental and physical
suffering. I could not stand it any longer. So I returned to the old
home where my people had lived for 100 years. Sometimes I was nearly
insane and felt a little more quiet only when visiting the cemetery
and hovering around my parents’ resting place. Unable to find peace I
decided to travel. In the churches and cathedrals of every City and in
the chapels of every village through which I passed I prayed to God for
the soul of my beloved mother. The gnawing anguish in my heart over the
death of my beloved mother had shattered my nerves all to pieces....
I felt myself paralyzed on account of my deep depression, I could no
longer think, I fell into melancholy although I sometimes tried to
rouse myself. I abandoned all correspondence because no one could write
me a consoling word. When the world which existed between mother and
myself shattered, life ceased to have any interest for me.”
The relationship of the urlind to the father and of the urning to the
mother _Hirschfeld_ summarizes in the following table:
I. _Urning boy_ _Urlind girl_
Prefers girls’ games, avoids Prefers boys’ games, dislikes
characteristic boys’ games, has handwork, confections, is
many girlish features in his ‘boy-like’ in behavior, in acts
character and behavior, Sometimes and, often, in appearance.
also in his appearance. Observers Remark: “She is like a boy!”
remark: “He is like a girl.”
II. _Attitude towards the other sex_
Prefers the company of girls. Preferably plays rough games with
boys.
Emotional fixation on the mother. Attachment greater to father.
III. _Attitude towards own sex_ (as erotically colored in the
unconscious)
Instinctively inhibited and Greater bashfulness in the
bashful in relation to boys. presence of girls.
Dreamy attachment to teacher Similarly attached in dreams
or some school mate. to some female person—teacher
or school mate.
The powerful influence of the mother in bringing up the child is
illustrated by the following passage from one history:
“A young lieutenant relates: as soon as I was out of the school room I
used to rush to my girl friends. My mother was fond of taking me along
when she went shopping and always asked me how I liked this thing and
that, before making a purchase. For every new hat which mother bought I
served as a model, that is, every hat was tried on my head, and mother
purchased for herself the hat that looked best when tried on me. ‘You
look like a little girl,’ mother often would say to me while the hats
were tried on, ‘too bad, that you are not a real girl!’” (_Hirschfeld_,
l. c., p. 113.)
The expression, “too bad, you are not a real girl,” shows how the
mother influenced the child’s soul at a time when it is so very
plastic. But _Hirschfeld_ maintains that the conditions were reversed;
that the parents had suspected the child’s homosexual inclination and
treated it accordingly:
“Often the disposition towards homosexuality is fostered in children
by their elders who treat them according to that leaning. The fathers
feel specially attracted to the urning daughters—the mothers fondly
give their urning boys girlish tasks about the house. The feminine
and the virile peculiarities are not brought out through training at
first; the mother would not expect girlish tasks of a boy who was not
in the first place inclined that way. When _Krafft-Ebing_ relates in
his description of the case of the _Countess Sarolta Vay_: ‘it was her
father’s whim to bring up S. as a boy; he let her ride, drive, hunt,
admired her virile energy, called her Sandor. On the other hand this
foolish parent allowed his second son to be dressed like a girl and to
be brought up very much like one’—we must credit the father with the
intention of meeting deliberately an outspoken tendency on the part of
his children.” (_Hirschfeld_, l. c., p. 112.)
Naturally when one explains everything so arbitrarily and tries to
interpret in the parent’s favor, suggesting that the father displayed
great psychic insight, anything may be proven.
But when one looks with open eyes at this observation and at another
case of _Hirschfeld’s_,—an important contribution because it
illustrates the whole inner condition of the homosexual,—it is not
difficult to draw one’s own conclusions. One urning relates about his
mother:
“In the midst of his worries he was suddenly embraced and kissed—his
mother held him tightly in her arms; she drew his little face to her
cheek and their tears mingled while she consoled him until his eyes
again mirrored a smile. These were unforgettable experiences in the
life of the homosexual child. He felt that his mother was his truest
friend, and in his grateful heart he planned to recompense her above
all other mothers. His whole life and hope was centered in her; it was
for her sake that he was willing to prepare his school lessons, and
because of her he avoided arousing his father’s wrath; he did not want
her to be scolded on his account. To make her happy was his ambition in
life. Because she was not happy, he felt as if it were his fault and
with redoubled tenderness he clung to her, the quiet sufferer.
“He reached 16 years of age, he became sexually ripe and a perplexing
unrest troubled him. His comrades told him about their gallant
adventures. But he remained unresponsive to everything that seemed
to make them so happy. On the contrary, he was terribly distressed
when his best friend ‘betrayed’ him in favor of a girl. He began to be
aware of his peculiarity and the terrible thought that he must hide
his awful feelings made him tremble. He tried very hard to turn into
the right path. But he could not live at home while harboring his
secret; his mother, whom he loved above all else, he wanted to spare;
he felt he had to leave; so he abandoned his home and went into the
world trying to direct properly his sexual feelings. While away he
received most tender messages from his mother to whom he wrote as to
a beloved. After an absence of two years he returned home. From that
time on his life developed _under the eyes of his mother, in whom he
saw the highest quintessence of all womanhood_. His relations with
women were marked by timidity. He adored them and felt he would like to
serve them. He became early their confessor for his womanly soul made
him their natural comrade. But in the midst of all he was very unhappy,
his feelings for them never turned into physical love—_the sexual
attraction was absent_.” (_Hirschfeld_, l. c., p. 105.)
This urning actually confessed, in his own words, that in his mother
he saw the quintessence of all womanhood. The condition is obvious.
Every woman represents the mother, in part. At first I had occasion
to observe cases of this kind and that is how I came to the hasty
conclusion that every homosexual is emotionally fixed upon his mother
and avoids women because his inhibition towards them is due to the
mother _Imago_ which he carries within him.[45]
* * * * *
Another observation of _Hirschfeld’s_ seems to me of very great
interest:
“The great attachment of homosexuals to their mother as pointed out
by _Sadger_ and other followers of _Freud_ is really a fact and holds
true of nearly all homosexuals, the attachment reaching far back into
their own childhood and extending over the mother’s whole life. We have
seen that many who lost their mother at an advanced age, for a long
time were unable to recover from the blow. But it seems more proper
not to look upon this great attachment to the mother as the cause of
homosexuality, but as a consequence thereof. Aside from this more
feminine nature, absence of a home of his own keeps the homosexual
for a longer time than usual close to his mother, especially when she
possesses a more pronounced personality, which is rather not unusual
where the children are homosexual. Urnings who contract marriage are
not wound up emotionally in their mother quite to such an extent and
often their love is transferred to their wife.” (_Hirschfeld_, l. c.,
p. 344.)
With these words and the admission of the transference of the love for
the mother to some other female person _Hirschfeld_ recognizes the
possibility of healing the condition, which is the psychoanalyst’s
task. But I must warn against any tendency to solve the problem of
homosexuality on the basis of any single finding.
In the first place I must point out that the history of these cases
discloses two types of motherhood: the strong mother and the weak
mother. Both types are common and either or both may determine the
growth of the child. _Hirschfeld_ states that the urning becomes
readily attached to the mother who is strong. This corresponds with
my practical observations and shows one type of homosexuality which
I shall presently describe. The strong mother dominates a weak child
throughout his life, he never escapes her and she determines his
relations to other women.
* * * * *
It will be of interest to record on this question the opinion of a man
who is looked upon as the spiritual leader of the homosexual circle
in a cosmopolitan city, a man who has organized them and who has had
considerable experience. This gentleman writes me:
“My Dear Doctor:
“In conformity with your wish I am sending you herewith a number of
life histories.
“First I wish to report to you the result of a questionnaire; I have
reached with the questionnaire 800 persons. It is noteworthy that none
of them knew that the answer to the question was of any particular
interest to me, for the question and the answer came up unobtrusively
in the course of ordinary conversation. This disposes of the criticism
sometimes heard in medical circles that the answers to interrogatories
are of little or no worth because the respondents unconsciously report
things in a manner to favor themselves if they do not deliberately tell
falsehoods with that end in view.
“Among the 800 persons interrogated 65% stated that the mother was
unusually energetic and self-reliant, while the father was mild and
easy going, as well as diffident and easily influenced.
“In my opinion these 65% represent the hereditary cases; there may be
some also among the other 35% due to hereditary transmission but this,
of course, I am unable to ascertain and it would be interesting to
conduct a medical inquiry into the subject.
“In favor of a hereditary predisposition as the most general factor
stands also the fact that in many families the homosexual’s sisters or
brothers show a similar tendency.”
_Illustrations_
U. Sch., 26 years of age, a merchant. The mother extraordinarily
self-reliant and the one who determines the course of action in every
family emergency. Father good-natured fellow, easily influenced. U.
Sch. has been several years ago under the care of Prof. Pilz. At the
time he had some intercourse with women, but the act always caused him
disgust and did not diminish his need to get into contact with men. At
first he tried to oppose this leaning towards men, but after two months
of struggle—during which he lost considerable weight—he had to give
in again and today he maintains relations exclusively with men. His
brother, six years younger than he, is an actor and is also homosexual.
An older brother, also a merchant, is completely normal in his sexual
life, but far from self reliant and very moody. His sister is also
heterosexual, but has male traits and physical features, hairy growth
on the face and a bass voice which would be considered very low even in
a man.
* * * * *
Count X., 25 years old; a very energetic mother. His gait and movements
are exceedingly feminine, he is careless and has been mixed up already
in a number of unpleasant affairs from which the writer successfully
helped him extricate himself. Two of his three brothers are also
homosexual, and of his family circle in the wider sense, two uncles.
Karl W., 28 years of age, bank clerk. For the past six years has
maintained relations with his older colleagues. He is very strikingly
feminine and anxiety appears to lend zest to life in his case. He is
continually living in dread lest some one in his family should find out
about his peculiar inclination, although he is a stranger here and has
no relative living nearby. But if he has no reason to fear anything on
this score he finds some other reason to keep his mind in torment. For
instance, he fears he will be run over by an automobile, even when he
strolls along the safe side of a side walk, etc. As he is otherwise
mentally normal I conclude that he has a strong masochistic tendency
which he satisfies thus by conjuring up absurd fears. There is no
expression of the masochistic tendency in any overt acts. On the other
hand K. has relations only with persons belonging to the lowest social
stratum (plasterers, drivers, etc.) and it is probable that the greater
danger in that connection serves as a stimulant for him.
His mother is normal, but a very energetic woman, always taking care of
her own affairs and when a couple of thieves once broke in at her home
she grappled with them, threw them to the ground and held them. She
has married a second time, has a slight downy beard growth, and in her
house often puts on male clothing.
We need not be surprised that the expert emphasizes the fact that in
many instances homosexuality occurs in groups in the same family. The
same conditions bring about similar effects. Even the fact that 65%
of homosexuals have a very energetic mother need not be in itself
of any particular significance as typical of the psychogenesis of
homosexuality. The expert really means that these are mannish women so
that they naturally bring into the world womanly boys.
INDEX
Abstinence, 249
Abuse, 322
Act, specific, 334
Acquired, 245
Adler, 273, 335
_Adspectu sanguinis currentis_, 295
Affect, 274
Aggression, 59, 73, 85, 150, 176, 250
_Ahasuerus_ type, 163, 164
Alcoholism, 248 _passim_, 255, 261, 269, 271, 274, 285, 288
“All gone” feeling, 136
Allerotism, 53 _passim_, 277
Ambition, 344
Amnesia, 143
Anal irritation, 189
Analysis, _vid._ Psychoanalysis
“Analytic scotoma,” 248
Androgyny, 24
Anesthesia, sexual, 76, 163
Anger, 133
Antifetichism, 102, 118
Anxiety, 23, 40, 68, 96, 121, 140, 153, 196, 201, 213, 242, 283
Aphrodisiac, 261
Ascetic ideal, 176
Asceticism, 226
Attitude (neurotic), 146, 148, 188, 209, 212, 217, 337 _passim_, 342
Attraction (sexual), 345
Autoerotism, _vid._ Masturbation
Aversion, 201, 253, 304
Azoospermia, 24
Bashfulness, 342
Belief in devil, 220
Bestiality, 295, 304
_Binet_, 41, 42, 305
Bipolar attitude, 208, 221
Bipolarity, 272
Birthplace symbolism, 207
Bisexuality, 27, 28, 34, 40, 41, 49, 54, 68, 69, 79, 120, 161, 185,
213, 255, 261, 268, 289, 312, 317
_Bloch_, 22, 26, 30, 33, 34, 99, 100, 273, 280, 281, 283, 291, 306,
309
_Blüher, H._, 26, 28, 79
Boy love, 331
Brain, 31
Brother, 148, 149, 188
Brutality, 337
_Burchard_, 12
_Cassanova_ type, 66, 98, 111, 124
_Chamisso_, 65
Character, 335
_Chevalier_, 41
Childhood, 27, 47, 172, 208, 245, 305, 308, 317
Children, bisexuality of, 61
Choice of lovers, 104
Climacterium (male), 87, 90
Clothing, 80
Complex, 210, 248
Compromise, 59, 80, 94, 243
Compulsion, 19, 68, 90, 91, 111, 117, 298
Compulsory tendency, 312
Compulsory thought, 152
“Conditioned reflex,” 35
Confession, 236, 258
Conflict, 242, 335
Consciousness, 213, 224
Consolation, 234
Constellation, psychic, 191
Constellation, sexual, 227
Contact, incestuous, 268
Contempt, 103
Contrary feeling, 19, 264
Conquest, 182
Coprophilia, 160
_Copulatio analis_, 167, 282
_Corpora cavernosa_, 131
Cousin, 187
Cravings, 39, 43 _passim_, 46, 49, 66, 149, 151, 170, 191, 201, 222,
257, 268, 291, 327, 334
Criminality, 43, 64, 263
Crisis, 143, 238
“Critical period” _vid._ Climacterium (male)
Cryptic, _vid._ Masks
Culture, 33, 44, 45, 332
Cunnilingus, 165, 167, 172, 264, 266
Curiosity, 319
Danger, 159
Death symbol, 211
_Deckerrinerung_, 157
Defence, 160, 214, 226, 237, 260, 270, 300, 334
Degeneration, 16, 18, 29
Depression, 141, 188, 224, 341
Desexualization, 271, 304
Desire, 274, 291, 308, 328
_Dessoir, M._, 30, 34, 54
_Deutsch, H._, 251, 253
Deviation, 29
Diagnosis, 25, 26, 170
Differentiation, sexual, 20
Dipsomania _vid._ Alcoholism
Disgust, 102, 121, 144, 201, 225, 243, 274, 281 _passim_, 286, 305,
315
Dislike, 280, 293
Dissolution (of transference), 153
Distortion, 210
_Don Juan_ type, 90, 97, 98, 104, 111, 116, 124, 163, 175, 179, 190,
225
Doubt, 59
Dread, _vid._ Fear
Dream, 61, 77, 110, 144, 160, 169, 185, 189, 193, 202, 214, 219, 231,
237, 260, 270, 300, 334
Drink, _vid._ Alcoholism
Drug addiction, 268
Dyspareunia, 164
Ecstasy, 130
_Eichendorff_, 171
_Ejaculatio_, 146
Energy, sexual, 56, 176
Environment, 13, 29
Epilepsy, 48
Erection, 130, 131
Eroticism, 272, 332, 333
“Eternal seekers,” 164
“Ethical” will, 337
Etiology, 15, 42
_Eulenburg_, 281
Eunuchoid, 24
_Euripides_, 273
Excess of morality, 218
Excitement, 167
Experience, 241, 334, 344
Exposition of Ps.-A. (in dream), 211
Factors, psychic, 35, 42
Falsehood, 27
Family life, 331
Fancies, 147, 149, 224, 270
Father, 148, 303, 335
_Faust_, 163, 164
Fear of immoral deed, 198
marriage, 323
sexual partner, 273
syphilis, 95
tuberculosis, 91
woman, 272
Feeling, 25, 315
Fellatio, 153, 313
Fetichism, 243, 305
Fiction, neurotic, 335
Fire symbolism, 211
First impressions, 306, 312
Fixation, 54, 110, 191, 217, 224, 225, 328
Flagellation, 266, 267
_Fleischmann_, 12, 268, 284
_Fliess_, 14
Flight, 90, 181, 191, 209, 235
Fore-pleasure, 56
Form of intercourse, 63
Foot fetichism, 111
“Flying Dutchman,” 100, 163, 164
Freedom, 237
_Freimark, H._, 222, 243
_Frenssen_, 64
_Freud, S._, 28, 39, 42, 53, 56, 57, 90, 209, 227, 236, 314, 346
Friendship, 272, 332
Frigidity, 74
_Fuchs, A._, 12
Gastric disorder, 192, 215
Genetic factors, 246
Genital glands, 31
“Genuine” Don Juan, 218
Homosexual, 260
Gerontophilia, 61, 107, 224
Grandeur, 159
Gratification, 90, 107
“without guilt,” 212
“Great historic mission,” 163
Greeks, 40
_Grillparzer_, 80
Gonorrhea, 142, 168, 282, 286, 288
Gynandry, 24
Hallucination, 298
Hatred, 152, 233, 263, 273, 285, 300
_Havelock Ellis_, 20, 22, 27, 56
Healing, 326
_Hebbel_, 46
Heredity, 13, 20, 29, 32, 42,331, 338
Hermaphroditism, 25, 41
Heterosexual capacity, 175
excitation, 271
longing, 213
period, 291
persons, 223
stimuli, 312
_Hirschfeld_, 12, 17, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 34, 36, 41, 61, 69, 70,
79, 81, 89, 186, 191, 245, 253, 256, 260, 261, 289, 308, 338,
339 _passim_, 346
Homage, 268
“Homosexual marriage,” 293
House symbolism, 326
Hypnotism, 168, 192
Hypothesis, 35
Hunger, 215, 216
Ideal, 55, 56, 129, 231, 332, 333
Identification, 35, 160, 161, 314, 328, 336
Imago, 246, 303
Impotence, psychic, 67, 260, 262, 317
Impulse, 131
Inborn, 20, 23, 41, 72, 80, 245
Incest, 96, 163, 201, 207, 210, 217, 224
Indifference, 33, 54, 244, 272, 289
Inebriety, _vid._ Alcoholism
Infantilism, 63, 145, 154, 162, 222, 269
Infatuation, 160, 162
Infection, 282, 284, 292
Inferiority, feeling of, 212, 336
Influence, maternal, 342
Inhibition, 49, 108, 176, 184, 187, 190, 200, 207, 213, 233, 236, 238,
242, 244, 260, 262, 274
Initiation, 202
Insanity, 248
Instability, 29
Instinct, 28, 44, 48, 311
“_Instrumentum Diaboli_,” 291
“Intermediate Sex,” 89, 245
Interpretation (dreams), 209, 325
Intoxication, psychic, 154, 158
Inversion, 69, 129
Isolation, 23
Jealousy, 188, 254, 259, 296, 299
Joint suicide, 63
Judgment-attitude, 333
_Juliusburger, O._, 254
_Krafft-Ebing_, 11, 12, 13 _passim_, 17, 22, 42, 48, 89, 227, 252,
256, 281, 282, 293, 296, 312, 315, 343
_Kiernan_, 41
Language of Dreams, 185
Late homosexuality, 89, 110, 227, 317, 319, 336
Latent, 13, 26, 57 _passim_, 63, 67, 79, 100, 109, 124, 172, 184, 250,
281
_Libido_, 56, 57, 72, 78, 88, 90, 103, 164, 252 _passim_
_Locum tenens_, 259
Lombroso, 41, 45
Loneliness, 177
Longing, 162
Love dreams, 292
excitation, 310
frenzy, 291
hunger, 130
Lesbian, 280
physical, 332
Platonic, 313
preparedness, 154
prostitute, 61
spiritual, 16, 332
Lure, 234
Magic, 221
Male attitude, 296
protest, 335
hero type, 26, 27, 242
_Manipulatio cum digito_, 87
Mannerism, 94, 95
“Mannish” women, 24
Manual gratification, 123, 135, 257
Marriage, 89, 105, 120
Masculinity, 79
Masochism, 73, 282, 350
Masks, 61, 65, 66, 68, 80, 95
Masturbation, 11, 14 _passim_, 64, 81, 106, 117, 135, 140, 144, 151,
165, 178, 192, 195, 197, 213, 257, 262, 270, 286, 292, 310, 325
_Maupassant_, 104
_Mayer, E. V._, 33
Mediation (through oppos. sex), 62, 67
_Membrum virile_, 258, 260, 271, 286, 310
Memory, 47, 137, 241, 245, 308, 314
_Messalina_ type, 66, 90, 163, 175, 228
Misogyny, 99, 272, 273
Misophilia, 267
_Moebius_, 283
Moll, 18 _passim_, 20, 22
Monosexuality _vid._ Bisexuality
Mother complex, 213, 339
Imago, 186, 246, 335
Motherly feeling, 161
_Mutterschutz_, 230
_Naecke_, 20, 184, 269
Narcissism, 102, 227
“Natural” life, 333
Nausea, 226, 230, 236, 290, 303
Necrophilia, 131
Nervousness, 257, 286
“Neuropathic” constitution, 294
Neurosis, 17, 22, 27 _passim_, 41 _passim_, 45, 48, 55, 58, 96, 106,
122, 145, 215, 223, 237, 305, 324
_Nietzsche_, 334
Nutrition, 216
Nymphomania, 163
Object, sexual, 11
Obsession, 113, 120
Onanism, _vid._ Masturbation
Ontogenesis, 45
Orgasm, 74, 82, 184, 263, 267, 281, 293
Outbreak (of H.), 223
Over-compensation, 46
determination, 327
Paranoia, 39, 95
Paraphilia, 58, 146, 156, 268
Parents, 30
Passion, 89, 97, 144
_Paul, Jean_, 306
_Pawlow_, 35
Pederasty, 81
Perversion, 69, 102
_Pfister_, 320, 323, 326
Phallic symbol, 217
Phantasy, 70, 130, 300
Phobias, 68
Piety, 190, 200, 219, 235
Pilz, 349
_Platen’s Diary_, 290
_Plato_, 56
Pollution (dream), 212, 227, 313
Polygamic neurosis, 124
tendency, 176
_Potentia_, 133, 217, 257, 261
Polygamy, 237
Praetorius, Numa, 250, 251
Precocity, 45 _passim_, 47, 318
Predisposition, 31, 34, 36, 39, 41, 290
Preference for widows, 98
Priapism, 131
Prognosis, 216
Progression, 44
Prostitute, 61, 163, 178, 184, 217, 280, 285, 316
Prostitution, 57, 85, 106, 281
Protection, _vid._ Defence
Pseudo-Cassanova type, 99
Homosexuality, 24, 25, 247, 308
Pseudonym, choice of, 65
Psychic Homosexuality, 85
Urge, 183
Psycho-Analysis, 26, 27, 39, 47, 70, 109, 150, 158, 172, 190, 202,
225, 241, 244, 248, 268, 284, 300, 312, 328, 338
Psychosis, 58
Puberty, 31, 33, 124, 291, 294
Pursuit, 186, 191
Quest for sexual object, 164, 172
father, 312
Questionnaire, 255 _passim_, 348
Rationalization, 72, 247
Reality, 60
Recessive type, 45
Regression, 236
Relations, Platonic, 177
Religion, 218, 237
Religio-Sexual motives, 222
Remorse, 167, 214
Repetition, 327
Repression, 28, 39 _passim_, 43, 47, 49, 70, 225, 243, 271, 272, 315, 325
Reproach, 207
Research, sexual, 12
Resistance, 145, 153, 238, 245
_Retif de la Bretonne_, 99, 100, 111
Retrogression, 41, 45, 331
Retrospective tendency, 334
Revenge, 154, 168, 207
Reversed love, 152
Right and Left (symbolism), 130
_Roemer, V._, 32
Rôle of family, 172
_Rousseau_, 95
_Sade, Marquis de_, 283
_Sadger_, 245, 314, 337, 346
Sadism, 49, 131, 263, 272, 274
Satyriasis, 131 _passim_, 152, 154, 160, 250
_Schmitz, O. A. H._, 98, 100, 124
_Schopenhauer_, 283
Scorn, 218, 319
Secret pride, 213
Seduction, 99, 101, 160, 167, 253, 268, 285, 312
Sensuality, 165
Sexual object, 98, 103
_Shakespeare_, 46
Shyness, 177, 302, 310
Sister, attitude towards, 169
Imago, 223
_Situs Inversus_, 82, 84, 284
Starvation, 215
_Stekel_, 48
_Stier_, 12
_Strindberg_, 283
Struggle, 236
Sublimation, 39, 40, 49, 130, 271
Substitution, 187, 211
Succubus, 71, 161
Suicide, 105
Suppressed instincts, 96
Suspicion, 149
Symbol, 60, 81, 91, 129, 145, 211, 323
Symptomatic acts, 129
Syphilidophobia, _vid._ Fear of syphilis
_Tarnovsky_, 246, 247
Taste, 97
Temptation, 147, 164, 196
Tendency, 55, 89, 176
prospective, 222
Tension, sexual, 32
Therapy, 244
“Third” sex, 24
Timidity, 345
Touch, 252
Traits, male and female, 73, 94, 124
neurotic, 96
Transference, 88, 111, 153, 211
Transitional types, 103, 175
Transvestite, 69, 70, 336
Trauma, 23, 42, 119, 172, 196, 236, 238, 293, 297, 302, 305, 309, 320,
326, 327
_Ulrichs_, 36
Unconscious, 35
wish, 209
Undifferentiated, 31
Ungratified libido, 129
_Urlind_, 30, 78, 284, 297, 333, 341
_Urning_, 81, 333, 339, 341, 345
Urolagnia, 312
_Van Teslaar_, 44, 46
Variation, biologic, 20
_Virchow_, 20
_Virgo intacta_, 154
Virility, 100, 125
_Vita Sexualis_, 73, 145, 178, 270, 287, 300, 321
Vomiting, symptomatic, 199, 230
Warning, 260
_Weininger_, 283, 346
_Westphal_, 19
Whip (sadism), 265
“Will to power,” 337
Wish, 35, 38, 292, 325, 336
fulfillment, 214
Witches, fear of, 221
Woman, aggressive, 30, 350
“Womanly” men, 24
“World pain,” 334
Worry, 181
_Ziemcke_, 286
_Zwischenstuffen_, 25
_-theorie_, 245
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hans Blüher: Studien ueber den perversen Charakter. Ztrbl. f.
Psychoanalyse, Oct., 1913.
[2] _Neue Studien auf dem Gebiete der Homosexualitaet. Jahrb. f.
Sexuelle Zwischenstuffen_, vol. III, Leipzig.
[3] This view of _Krafft-Ebing_ is by no means “antiquated.” It
is still maintained by _Stier_ (Zur Aetiologie des kontraeren
Sexualgefuehls. Monatschrf. f. Psych, u. Neurol., vol. XXXII, 1914) and
very energetically criticised (ibid.) by _Hirschfeld and Burchard_.
“It is inconceivable,” state the above named authors, “how _Stier_
can ascribe an etiologic significance to onanism in connection with
homosexuality. Its distribution, ubiquitous—in the opinion of most
specialists, would permit one to hold masturbation responsible for
any other sexual development as well.” According to _Stier_, early
and long-continued onanism (especially mutual) is harmful because “it
does away with the feeling of shame in connection with one’s sexual
organs and makes for readier handling even by the uncorrupted adult.”
_Fleischmann_ also finds 33 excessive onanists among 60 inverts and
concludes (Beitr. zur Lehre der kontraeren Sexualempfindung, Zeitschr.
f. d. ges. Neur. u. Psychol., vol. VII, 1911) that “like alcoholism,
masturbation must influence the development of the perversion.” Many
of his patients mentioned the habit in a casual relation. We know well
that the sense of guilt is attached to the habit of masturbation.
But _Fleischmann_ sees in that a proof. “Onanism plays a role in the
development of the sexual perversion,” he argues, “because it rouses an
increased sexual excitability while the will power is weakened by it at
the same time and there follows a progressive wandering of the sexual
instinct away from the normal sexual aim and object.”
[4] This contention is altogether wrong. I have never seen so many and
such pronounced idealists as among masturbators. Young artists, poets
and musicians in particular often show, I have found, a strong tendency
to masturbation, and this agrees with the pronounced bisexuality of
all artists, which has been particularly pointed out by _Fliess_. The
youths of this type are often so delicate and sensitive that they see
in the sexual act only animal brutality and hide their own sexuality
from the whole world. Among masturbators we find the champions of
truth, the over-moralistic preachers, the ethical reformers and
dreamers.
[5] Cf., on the other hand, the views of _Bloch_: “That the contrary
sexual instinct-feeling in itself is not a sign of psychic degeneration
and need not be looked upon at all as morbid, is shown among others,
by the fact that the condition is often associated with spiritual
superiority. As proof we find, among all nations, men of proven
homosexuality, who are the pride of their respective people as writers,
poets, artists, military strategists, or statesmen. Further proof that
the contrary sexual feeling is no disease and does not necessarily
lead to immoral tendencies may be seen in all the noble qualities of
heart which it is capable of generating, precisely as the heterosexual
attraction, such as courage, self-sacrifice, altruism, artistic
feeling, creative energy, etc., just as it may be responsible also for
any of the morbidities and failings of heterosexual love (jealousy,
suicide, murder, unhappy love with its deleterious effects on mind and
body, etc.)”
[6] It was clearly the duty of the new editor of _Krafft-Ebing’s_
popular work to have recorded therein the author’s latest views.
In his “_Neuen Studien auf dem Gebiete der Homosexualitaet_,” he
states: “In contrast with the conception that contrary sexuality is
an inborn anomaly, a disorder in the evolution of the sexual function
of monosexuals and of the glandular development of the sex glands,
_the conception of ‘morbidity’ is untenable_. We may rather speak in
this connection of a malformation and compare the anomaly with bodily
malformations,—for instance, with the anatomic deviations from the
average type. But the concept of a simultaneous psychopathic state
remains a legitimate assumption, because subjects presenting anatomic
as well as functional deviations from type (_stigmata degenerationis_),
_may preserve good physical health for a time, and may even show points
of superiority_.
“At the same time so tremendous a deviation as contrary sexual feeling
must have a far wider influence upon the psyche than many of the
anatomic or functional stigmata of degeneration. That is the reason
why any disturbance in the usual development of a normal sexual life
reflects so commonly in an unfavorable sense upon the harmonious
psychic development of personality. _Victims of contrary sexual feeling
often show neuropathic and psychopathic predispositions_, such as, for
instance, a tendency to constitutional neurasthenias and hysteria,
milder forms of periodic psychosis, inhibitions against the unfoldment
of psychic energies (intelligence, moral sense), including moral
inferiority, especially associated with hyper-sexuality, eventually
leading to most serious disorders of the sexual instinct. At any
rate, it can be shown that, relatively speaking, heterosexuals prove
greater cynics about sexual matters than the homosexuals. Also that
other degenerative signs upon the field of sexuality, such as sadism,
masochism, fetichism, etc., are much more commonly found among the
former....”
[7] _Die kontraere Sexualempfindung, Symptom eines neuropatischen
(psychopathischen) Zustandes. Arch. f. Psych. u. Neurol., vol. II_, p.
106, 1870.
[8] _Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften (Die Funktionsstærrungen des
Sexuallebens.)_ Leipzig, Verlag F. C. W. Vogel, 1912, p. 652.
[9] I find a very interesting observation by _Bloch_, one which
deserves to be widely circulated: “A final and not unimportant form
of Pseudo-homosexuality is hermaphroditism (_das Zwittertum_). It is
remarkable that science has concerned itself only in recent years with
the close study of hermaphroditic conditions which have not received
heretofore the attention warranted by their sociologic bearings and
their frequency. It is a great merit of _Neugebauer_ and of _Magnus
Hirschfeld_ that they have called general attention to these remarkable
sexual _Zwischenstufen_, intermediary states, and have pointed out
their great practical significance, a matter of which no one has
thought before, as is shown by the significant fact that the new
German civil code has done away with the legal proscriptions of the
old Prussian law concerning the _Zwitter_ (hermaphrodites), upon the
contention that no person is of unknown or unascertainable sex.”
[10] Hirschfeld emphasizes the fact that homosexuality has nothing to
do with organic bisexuality. He states:
“I deem it important to point out this fact: _The most extreme_
deviation of sexual type approaching the opposite sex, such as
hypertrophy of the clitoris and full facial hair growth in the female,
or hypospadia penis-scrotalis and gynecomasty in the male are found
linked with heterosexuality more often than with homosexuality.”
[11] English version by J. S. Van Teslaar, in preparation.
[12] Verlag J. F. Bergmann, Wiesbaden, 1913. Vid. note above.
[13] _Cf._ _Dichtung und Neurose_, J. F. Bergmann. Authorized English
version by James S. Van Teslaar.
[14] _Nervöse Angstzustaende._ _Die psychische Behandlung der
Epilepsie_, 2nd edition, p. 336.
[15] Hirschfeld relates several instances illustrating how heterosexual
potence may be increased by the fires of homosexual passion: A merchant
relates: “I am able to carry out sexual intercourse with women, only
if I keep thinking of the man who possessed the woman before me.” A
young workingman from Berlin relates: “When I was 17 years of age
and I saw young men of my age pick out sweethearts for themselves I
did the same. Later, as man, it seemed natural to me to get a woman,
although my own inclination had little to do with it. The physical
excitation necessary for the carrying out of the sexual act I could
rouse in myself only by thinking of some male person. This sort of
thing exhausted me and after a time I decided to give it up. I felt
myself strongly attracted to a relative at that time. He was younger
and as I had greater influence over women I helped him by putting him
in touch with some and so we often carried out coitus together. Seeing
him [go at it so hotly] excited me tremendously and then I carried out
coitus without any difficulty.” The proprietor of a German hotel also
relates that, before intercourse with his wife, he was in the habit of
rousing his passion by kissing his head waiter. This furnished him the
requisite sexual preparedness and as quickly as possible he hurried to
his wife, whose bed was in the next room. Hirschfeld writes further:
“These sketches from life I want to conclude with the account of a
patient who consulted me for sexual hyperesthesia which in his case was
so keen that seeing the statuettes of naked children ornamenting the
Berlin castle bridge while crossing it was enough to cause erection. He
was a merchant, 42 years of age. In order to obtain potentia coeundi
it was necessary for him not only to think, but also to speak aloud of
some pleasing man, in some such manner: “Did you notice that servant of
the Count’s, who called for a bundle this forenoon, how did you like
him? A neat boy, what? His livery seemed quite new! Didn’t you think
it fitted him a bit too tightly? How old should you say he was?” Only
by carrying on such talk with his wife, and he had to exercise the
greatest ingenuity in order to cover his object while doing so, was he
able to achieve ejaculation, and to beget children,—he was the father
of three.”
[16] _Die Transvestiten. Eine Untersuchung ueber den Erotischen
Verkleidungstrieb._ Alfred Pulvermacher. Berlin, 1910.
[17] (Cf. _Angstzustaende_, p. 417. An English translation of this work
is now in course of preparation and will appear shortly.)
[18] English translation by James S. Van Teslaar.
[19] Faust finds this temporarily in his Graetchen. But it is only
an episode and presently he is again restlessly searching until he
finds Helena, the most beautiful of all women. The Flying Dutchman is
released by a woman who remains true to the last in her love of him.
That is the projection of a subjective feeling upon the woman. He
wishes he could find a woman for whom he would feel a love so dear that
it would relieve him. In Ahasuerus the same problem is glossed over
with religious terms as the problem seen in the Don Juan story as the
requital of the all-highest father. All four must be faithless, they
cannot remain true to one woman.
[20] Once I treated a man who had separated from his wife, wanted to
marry another woman with whom he had fallen in love and to divorce his
wife. In the course of our interviews during that time this man said
repeatedly: “I would not introduce you to my first wife; you would fall
in love with her if I did; no man can help that.” At once I recognized
that the man’s neurotic disorder reached back to a suppressed love for
his wife. In his mind there rumbled continually sounds which he could
not reproduce. He recalled scraps of melodies which he could not place
at all. But once I was able to get at one such melody. It was a song
of which he did not know the words. When the matter was ferreted out
it was found that the words bore distinctly a reference to his first
wife. The vague melodies permitted his mind to dwell on her and at
the same time to cover from his consciousness the fact that he could
not keep her out of his mind. Here is a characteristic passage from
_Eichendorff’s_ poem:
Ich kam von Walde hernieder, Da stand noch das alte Haus; Mein Liebchen
schaute wieder Wie einst zum Fenster hinaus—
Sie hat einen andern genommen— Ich war draussen in Schlacht und Krieg—
Nun ist alles anders gekommen:— Ich wollt es war wieder Krieg....
These verses represent a summary of his great conflict.
[21] Cf. chapter entitled, _Der Pechvogel_, in: _Das Liebe Ich_. Verlag
Otto Salle, Berlin.
[22] _Der Traum als feinstes Reagens fuer die Art des Sexuellen
Empfindens. Monatschr. f. Kriminalpsychologie_, 1905, and other
contributions.
[23] If homosexuals had only homosexual dreams, as _Naecke_ maintains,
the fact would stand as a strong proof against my conception that all
men, including the homosexuals, are bisexual. But as a matter of fact
genuine homosexuals often have heterosexual dreams if one cares to look
into the subject carefully. _Hirschfeld_, through a questionnaire,
found that among 100 homosexuals, 13 per cent. dreamed all sorts of
heterosexual situations. Analytical investigation of their dream
life would lift the 13 per cent. fully to one hundred per cent. The
heterosexual dreams are associated with anxiety feelings in many cases.
They dream that they are married and find themselves impotent, so that
they are confronted with the compulsion of carrying out heterosexual
intercourse. We find here one more confirmation of the fact that the
dream releases all the excitations repressed from consciousness through
the day.
[24] Correction of detail after first report of the dream.
[25] Cf. Hans Freimark, _Das Sexuelle Moment in der religiösen
Exstase_, _Zeitschf. f. Religionsphilosophie_, vol. II, No. 17; also,
_Das Hexenproblem_, _Die Neue Generation_, vol. VIII; and _Sexuelle
Besessenheit_ ibid., vol. IX.
[26] The following statement of _Hans Freimark_ on the _Züchtbarkeit
der Homosexualität_ displays excellent insight into human nature:
“It does not require much psychology to note that some persons are
particularly impressed by and interested in whatever popular belief
ascribes as particularly characteristic of homosexuality. Repression
against homosexual deeds is in itself almost invincible. But that
which is considered the very essence of homosexuality acts apart and
frequently does so in a sense far from proper. It is enough to induce
young men who have no other claim to distinctions to try to imitate
these ‘singular doings’ and they become finally interested in the
acts.... Once the pose is assumed, it becomes part of reality, and then
contact with the homosexual circle contributes not a little towards
strengthening the attitude. Such an influence, naturally, is possible
only among young people. But the young are the ones who generally raise
the problem at all. It has been assumed that in view of the constancy
of the instinct, such a complete shifting from one sex to the opposite
is most unlikely. But since all investigators admit a certain period
of indifference, and since it is admitted further that during that
period the individual may abandon himself to an eroticism contrary to
the form adopted finally, the possibility cannot be excluded that weak
characters may be turned away from their original developmental goal.”
[27] “The flight to homosexuality is the result of repulsing the
incest phantasy.” _Nervöse Angstzustände_, 1st ed., 1908, p. 311. A
translation of the latest edition of this work is in preparation and
will appear shortly.
[28] Berlin, 1886. Verl. Aug. Hirschwald.
[29] 3rd Ser., vol. XXXI, 1906.
[30] _Alkohol und Homosexualität. Wiener klinische Wochenschrift_,
1913, No. 3.
[31] Krafft-Ebing also mentions a young man who carried out his first
homosexual aggression under the influence of alcohol. A man who
previous to that time had successful intercourse with prostitutes while
intoxicated grabbed hold of his friend’s genitals, they masturbated ...
and since that time he is homosexual.
[32] _Zur Psychologie des Alkoholismus_, _Zentralbl. f. Psychoanalyse
u. Psychotherapie_, vol. III, p. 1.
[33] Interesting is also the case of a high school teacher whose
feelings were predominantly homosexual during the stage of depression
and heterosexual during the stage of exaltation induced by the
addiction to morphine (_Hirschfeld_). There are persons who live a
double, alternating existence: homosexual and heterosexual. Their
conduct suggests that they are persons continually in search of a
bisexual ideal. Krafft-Ebing also describes a hysterical (_Jahrbuch
f. Sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. III) who is attracted to men each
time that her neurosis improves after a sojourn at a sanitarium, while
during the height of her trouble she is homosexual. What does this mean
but that the heterosexual cravings are repressed during her neurosis!
For notwithstanding her extensive homosexual gratifications she has
become a victim of severe hysteria while every time she improves she
feels the love for man.
[34] Cf. author’s contribution, _Die psychische Impotenz des Mannes_.
Zeitschr. f. Sexualwissenschaft, 1916.
[35] _Beiträge zur Lehre von der konträren Sexualempfindung_, Zeitschr.
f. Psychol, u. Neurol., vol. VII, 1911.
[36] _Alkohol und Homosexualität._ Allg. Zeitschr. f. Psychol. und
gerichtl. Medizin, vol. LXVIII.
[37] It is not true that homosexuals are exposed to no dangers of
infection. I have examined a homosexual druggist who acquired in
Venice a serious gonorrhea of the anus. He confessed to me that he had
infected other men, because the thought of having fallen himself a
victim made him angry. But on the whole infections are not so frequent
an occurrence as during heterosexual intercourse, which is what would
be expected, considering that _copulatio analis_ is relatively rare.
[38] I must also emphasize that the first homosexual activity often
takes place in the twenties, if we omit from consideration the mutual
gratifications between boys and between girls which—with but very few
exceptions—are found to occur during the childhood of all persons.
Between small children (4-8 years of age) homosexual activity is very
common, then in many cases a period of latency seems to set in. During
the period from the 10th to the 15th year nearly every boy passes
through homosexual love (either purely platonic or grossly sexual).
After the onset of puberty there are numerous variations: persons who
later become homosexual continue heterosexual activity, try all sorts
of experiments and then withdraw into homosexuality in consequence
of some unpleasant heterosexual experience (infection, claim of
parenthood, etc.) or on account of impotence.
[39] As is well known _Bloch_ has endeavored to show that
_Schopenhauer’s_ antifeminism and pessimism are traceable to syphilitic
infection acquired during youth.
[40] _Beiträge zur Lehre der kontraeren Geschlechtsempfindung._
Zeitschrift f. d. ges. Neurol. u. Pathologie, 1911.
[41] _Zur Entstehung sexueller Perversitäten und ihrer Beurteilung vor
Gericht._ Archiv f. Psychiatrie, vol. LI, 1913.
[42] We shall see later that this attitude is due to the fact that
these persons fix their whole heterosexual psychic eroticism upon the
immediate members of their family. Heterosexual men in this situation
often experience merely physical gratification during intercourse with
prostitutes; with the other type of women they are wholly impotent.
[43] The following statement of _Hirschfeld’s_ illustrates this point
(l.c., p. 315): “An urning, writer,—_unus e multis_—writes me: ‘The
homosexual inclination developed in me in spite of the fact that the
first sexual aggression was of a heterosexual character—a nursemaid
seduced me—in spite of the fact that through training from childhood
on I was taught to look at the female sex and my reading of literature
showed me that woman was the object of love.’” I add: this tendency
developed because the first sexual experience was associated with
disgust on his part and because the domineering of woman led him to
hate that sex.
[44] _Die Darstellung der Neurose in Traums._ Zentralblatt f.
Psychoanalyse. vol. III, p. 26.
[45] In a novel which is an autobiography and a confession at the same
time, the hero relates that during his first visit to the brothel
he had to think of his mother. (_Erlebnisse des Zoeglings Taxil._
Wiener Verlag.) This book is interesting also because it describes
accurately the homosexual practices in a school of cadets. The fact
that young boys are impelled to think of their mother when visiting the
brothel for the first time is often the cause of total impotence. Cf.
_Weininger_: _Geschlecht u. Charakter_, chapter: _Mutter u. Dirne._ The
work has been translated into English.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BI-SEXUAL LOVE; THE HOMOSEXUAL
NEUROSIS ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
be renamed.
Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
United States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
license, especially commercial redistribution.
START: FULL LICENSE
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
country other than the United States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
provided that:
* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation."
* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
works.
* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
receipt of the work.
* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
cannot be read by your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
without further opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
from people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
www.gutenberg.org
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without
widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.
Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org
This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
