Havelock Ellis - "Sexual Inversion in Men" From Sexual Inversion (1901) lyrics

The cla**ification of the varieties of s**ual inversion is still a matter of some difficulty. While some authorities are inclined to regard nearly all cases as acquired, others regard nearly every case as really congenital. Before the study of inversion was placed on a scientific basis all cases were, of course, regarded as acquired. The point of view is now so different that Moll, one Of the latest and shrewdest students of the matter, in the first edition of his book was inclined to regard acquired inversion as Almost non-existent. In the second edition he modified this view and concluded that acquired cases did certainly occur, but only rarely, many cases which by Krafft-Ebing would be considered acquired being by Moll regarded as cases of psychos**ual her- Maphroditism. With this modified conclusion I concur. I put aside those cases, of a more or less morbid character, in which old men with failing s**ual powers, or younger men exhausted by heteros**ual debauchery, are attracted to boys. With this exception I regard acquired inversion as rare, and I should not be surprised to find that a more minute investigation would show that even in these rare cases there is a congenital element. I am only able to bring forward three cases which can fairly be regarded as acquired and without obvious congenital element. The determination of the congenital or acquired nature of a particular case of inversion is frequently by no means so easy as many persons who dogmatically lay down the law on one side or the other seem to believe. The case must first be presented to us in much greater fullness than we are accustomed to get it. Then, before we can a**ert that it is a purely congenital case, we must be quite sure that no imprint of environment or suggestion, made at some "psychological moment," has had a controlling influence. And before we can a**ert that a case is purely acquired, we must possess a sufficiently minute knowledge of the subject in early life to be able to a**ert that his emotions and ideals as a child, and the nature of his physical organism, have not predisposed him to h*mos**ual impulses. When we are able to investigate our cases with due fullness and precision, I think it will be found that in many cases we may fairly call acquired There is a congenital element, and that in many cases we may fairly call congenital some accident of environment has had an influence in developing latent tendency. Unfortunately I have not been able to investigate all my cases personally, so that many points in the following histories remain obscure; but many of the cases not personally observed have been investigated with due care, through very reliable channels; so far as the histories go they may, I believe, be accepted I do not propose to adopt any more complex cla**ification than the clinical distinction between simple inversion and psychos**ual hermaphroditism, as it is usually called, the first cla** including all those individuals who are s**ually attracted only to their own s**, the second cla** those who are attracted to both s**es. In each group I will first present the apparently acquired cases Case I. — Both parents healthy; father of unusually fine physique. He is himself a manual worker, and also of exceptionally fine physique He is, however, of nervous temperament. He is mentally bright, though not highly educated, a keen sportsman, and in general a good example of an all-round healthy Englishman. While very affectionate, his s**ual desires are not strongly developed on the physical side, and seem never to have been so. He sometimes masturbated about the age of puberty, but never afterward. He does not appear to have well-marked erotic dreams. There used to be some attraction toward women, though it was never strong. At the age of 26 he was seduced by a woman and had connection with her once. Afterward he had reason to think she had played him false in various ways. This induced the strongest antipathy, not only to this woman, but to all marriageable women. A year after this episode h*mos**ual feeling first became clear and defined. He is now 33, and feels the same antipathy to women; he hates even to speak of marriage There has only been one really strong attraction, toward a man of about the same age, but of different social cla**, and somewhat a contrast to him, both physically and mentally. So far as the physical act is concerned this relationship is not definitely s**ual, but it is of the most intimate possible kind, and the absence of the physical act is probably largely due to circumstances. At the same time there is no conscious desire for the act for its own sake, and the existing harmony and satisfaction is described as very complete. There is, however, no repulsion to the physical side, and he regards the whole relationship as quite natural Case II. — Highlander, aged 37, a "chance" child of rather poor birth, and employed as a postman. He is very amorous by nature, with good Intelligence, but feeble will. His heart is weak, and there is a tendency to hypochondriasis. Latterly he has taken d** to a considerable ^extent to relieve his heart-trouble, and has also become almost impotent As a young man he was very fond of the girls, and showed a morbid degree of erethism (emission at sight of women, etc.) ; he had one or two serious love-affairs and disappointments. Then the pa**ion gradually veered around to his own s**; he does not know why. At the present time his life is always wrapped up in some male friend, but without much response on the physical side from the other person. His sleeping and waking life is filled with a continual procession of images of physical and emotional desire. His temperament is somewhat artistic. The first case is slightly neurotic in character, in the second there is a high degree of general feebleness and hyperesthesia. which is distinctly morbid; in both the inversion seems to be acquired. Unfortunately, in neither case have I had an opportunity of making any extended investigation into the history; a love-disappointment, it need not be said, is no adequate cause for a total change in the direction of the s**ual current; it is possible that a more minute examination might reveal some predisposition to inversion in the first case, while in the second the s**ual hyperesthesia is an important factor