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: