Varietists. I have observed a number of men and women who liked to designate themselves as varietists and who were simply unconscious or partly conscious homosexuals struggling against perverse tendencies to which they did not wish to yield.
I have seen in my office several Don Juans who were unconsciously attracted to men and refused for a long while to admit that such a craving was a part of their personality. Every woman they met only meant one thing to them: "If I could capture her, I would feel sure that I was a real man." A few days after catching their prey they were once more obsessed by doubts and had to seek new evidence.
Many partly conscious homosexuals seek women who in their appearance, manner of dress and behavior are the best substitutes for men, that is, mannish girls, flat chested, with narrow hips, bobbed hair, wearing tailor-made garments, engaged in masculine pursuits, etc.
They often meet with disappointment for such women are frequently homosexual and hence unlikely to yield to a man. When the woman is sexually normal, however, the neurotic's happiness is far from assured. As soon as sentimentalism or tenderness allows the feminine component of those masculine women to break thru their masculinity, the unconscious homosexual loses his love for them. One patient of mine did his hunting among equestriennes in Central Park. On two occasions his attentions were accepted. His disappointment was terrible; calling upon the women who had attracted him when wearing a mannish derby and riding breeches, he was greeted by very womanly persons attired in the most feminine finery.
Several times in his life my patient has been in love with rather masculine women. The first flash of femininity in them had always cured him entirely of his infatuation.
The Ultrafeminine. Other homosexuals struggling savagely against the appeal of the masculine, seek safety in the arms of extremely feminine creatures who could not in any way awaken the slightest suggestion of a perversion.
Their obsessive fear, however, does not allow them to enjoy the affair very long. Small physical details which a normal man would not notice suddenly fill them with fear or disgust. A masculine gesture, a raucous intonation, a slight growth of hair on the upper lip or the limbs may suggest unavoidably the sex from which they are fleeing in panic. Their love cools off and safety has to be sought, altho it is never found, in the arms of some other woman of very feminine appearance, who is in turn discarded for the same absurd reasons.
As fixations and fetishism have infinitely more importance for men than for women (see Chapter III) the male neurotic is naturally more "promiscuous" and faithless than the female neurotic.
Messalina. Every psychoanalyst, however, has met the Messalina type, who is constantly seeking the "love that will endure." Like her masculine counterpart, the Don Juan, she is in the majority of cases seeking safety and trying, by conquering many men, to reestablish her self-confidence which every little disappointment and humiliation destroys so easily.
However loving and worshipful the neurotic's mate may be, he or she cannot hope to save the neurotic from further love entanglements. One of the most striking neurotic traits is a craving to disparage everything and everybody in his environment.