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.