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.