Doubts as to one's "completeness" and a craving2 for safety may, even at an early age, cause the gonads to remain undeveloped or to develop in the wrong direction. Craig's pigeons were as completely "perverted3" by the wrong environment as Steinach's rats by surgical4 operations.
Hirschfeld's intermediate sex, in its concealed5 forms, that is, when the individual, upon gross examination, appears normal, may well be produced by the environment. Freud's Oedipus situation is not incompatible7 with Adler's theory of the neurotic8 constitution.
Gonads are not different from any other glands9. Thyroid involvement may produce fear or, at least, a picture of fear (exophthalmic goitre), but fear also[Pg 175] produces many forms of thyroid involvement (goitre and exophthalmic goitre were alarmingly frequent in French towns submitted to bombardment during the world war). A study of psychic10 impotence in men and frigidity11 in women has proved that impotence was mainly a refusal to be a potent12 man, frigidity a refusal to be woman in intercourse13. In certain cases, exaggerated cravings for impotence or frigidity may modify the gonads so completely that they present the condition Hirschfeld has called typical of the intermediate sex.
Homosexualism can be best understood when viewed as a neurotic phenomenon, not as a neurosis in itself, but as a detail of the neurotic attitude to life outlined by Adler. Homosexualism is, in its last analysis, an organic striving away from life's normal goals.
A Denial of Life. Homosexualism cannot be understood unless we associate it with a denial of life and all its duties. Nor could love be understood if we tried to dissociate it from its primary sexual goal which is the acceptance of life with its duties, symbolised by the procreation of life and the creation of new duties by the individual, duties which he considers as a source of joy.
[Pg 176]
Homosexualism Is Love, Negative Love, quite as involuntary and as obsessive15 as normal, heterosexual, positive love.
A homosexual teacher wrote to Plazek: "A glance at the literature and art produced by homosexuals as well as insight into actual conditions, reveals that abnormal love can conjure16 up the same emotional display as normal love. Longing17, faithfulness, devotion, self sacrifice, blossom forth18 in abnormal love as well as in normal love.
"In both, complete communion may be the goal and climax19 of feelings which are perhaps among the deepest and finest which mankind can experience."
Their Love Letters. The absolute similarity of heterosexual and homosexual love in their written expression can be judged by perusing20 the sonnets21 which Michael Angelo wrote to young Tommaso dei Cavalieri and which could very well have been addressed to a woman.
A sober scientist like Winckelman was carried away by his homosexual love for Frederick von Berg to the point of writing the following epistle which might emanate22 from a lovelorn highschool boy:
"All the names I might call you are not sweet enough and do not do justice to my love. All the[Pg 177] things I might say to you sound too weak to give voice to my heart and my soul. I love you, my dearest, more than the whole world and neither time nor circumstances nor age could ever cause my love to diminish."
Deeds of Violence. Homosexual love has led to as many deeds of violence on the part of disappointed lovers as heterosexual love. The papers frequently publish without comments stories of the shooting of a woman by another woman, caused by the fact that the victim was "too attentive23 to another woman."
Psychiatrists24 who can read between the lines recognise in those murders the result of homosexual jealousy25 and infidelity.
In that respect the behavior of the two sexes seems slightly different.
"It is well known," remarks Havelock Ellis, "that the part taken by women generally in open criminality, and especially in crimes of violence, is small as compared with men. In the homosexual the conditions are to some extent reversed. Inverted26 men, in whom a more or less feminine temperament28 is so often found, are rarely impelled29 to acts of aggressive violence, though they frequently commit suicide. Inverted women, who may retain[Pg 178] their feminine emotionality combined with some degree of infantile impulsiveness30 and masculine energy, present a favorable soil for the seeds of passional crime, under those conditions of jealousy and allied31 emotions which must so often enter the invert27's life."
A Homosexual Tragedy. In a recent case in Chicago a homosexual woman shot her former roommate and then seriously wounded herself. They had roomed together and last fall the victim broke off the life together because the invert "was too affectionate." The victim went to her parents' house in the South to get rid of the invert. On her return to Chicago two months later she was bothered by the invert who insisted that she room with her. On April 22d she received a letter from the invert containing a bullet and a threat. Alarmed, she had the invert arrested, but the invert was discharged on promise she would not annoy the girl. The invert had a number of swagger sticks, one of which she carried each day. There is no account of her masculinity of attire32. She wrote poems to her victim and made her presents including a diamond ring and a diamond studded watch, all of which were returned. There had been several threats[Pg 179] of killing33 the victim, before the letter came, if she ended the friendship.
Women More Homosexual than Men. Remembering how the mother's fetishes affect us in the choice of a sexual mate we may expect to find more homosexualism in woman than in man. The facts bear up our theory. While the gross forms of homosexualism are less frequent among women, a thousand mild forms of it are observable in the behavior of even apparently34 very normal women.
The sentimental35 attachments36 of school girls for certain teachers, the pleasure which they derive37 from spending nights with some friend on whom they have a "crush," the thousand and one bodily caresses38 female friends shower on each other, the curiosity they manifest about each other's physical condition, their frequent bed room or bathroom conferences, are manifestations39 of a mild homosexualism, which, however, do not always lead to overt40 acts.
Boastfulness. Many homosexuals compensate41 for the scorn meted42 out to them by normal individuals with a certain proud boastfulness.
"We are supermen," one hears them say when they find a sympathetic listener, "we have reached beyond the usual, boresome, bourgeois43 form of gratifica[Pg 180]tion. Our intellect is nauseated44 by woman's silliness."
And the females say in their turn: "We are super-women, we have conquered the fear of man and we are tired of man's boorish45 ways."
Some of the male homosexuals who are bisexual, that is, can also be attracted by women, pride themselves over the mentality46 of the women they love. "Men have accustomed us to a higher intellectual level and to a more intelligent form of conversation," a homosexual said to me.
This is naturally a defence mechanism47. By demanding extremely high qualification from the women, homosexuals have a ready excuse for consorting48 with men exclusively.
Famous Homosexuals. Homosexuals are fond of mentioning all the men famous in art and letters whose sexual life was inverted: the Greek philosophers, poets and playwrights49 of the classic age, Julius C?sar, Alexander the Great, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Frederick of Prussia, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Nietzsche, etc.
The Nietzsche-Wagner Feud50 should be rewritten from a psychiatrist's point of view. Wagner was to young Nietzsche an attractive, heroic, father-image. The philosopher never had any real affair[Pg 181] of the heart with a woman. He only indulged in very ephemeral relationships which, by their disastrous51 results, drove him further away from women. (Dr. W. H. White of Washington received the assurance while in Europe that Nietzsche died of syphilis.) Nietzsche made himself obnoxious52 to Wagner by trying to be his press agent. As Wagner, however, a shrewd business man in his old days, objected to Nietzsche's agnosticism and to his friendship with certain Jews, Nietzsche, disappointed in his love, abandoned Wagner and hated him fiercely. He attacked him on every occasion, his hatred53 being made the fiercer by the fact that he himself considered himself as a greater composer, one line in Nietzsche's letters throws a strange light upon the poor paretic's feelings. Wagner's "feminine traits" he wrote, finally disgusted him.
Shall Perverse54 Love Be Recognized? Efforts are being made in various directions at the present day to have homosexual love legally recognised and given perfect equality with heterosexual love. In Germany, a number of writers, Von Kupfer, Friedlander and others have boldly championed that futile55 attempt.
A cinema film was produced last year (1921) in Berlin depicting56 the plight57 of the homosexual who[Pg 182] is unable to control his cravings and falls a victim to the wiles58 of a blackmailer59. Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld agreed to impersonate in that production the scientist who attempts to enlighten the public as to the nature of homosexualism, so as to bring about a modification60 of the statute61 punishing perverts62.
Man's Emancipation63. In 1900, Elizar von Kupfer called upon the men to proclaim their "independence" from women. "The man who lives in bondage64 to women," he wrote, "and who humors her whims65, has lost his manhood. Since woman is emancipating66 herself, why should not men follow the same road?"
Illogically enough, Von Kupfer defends the mothers and wives, "flowers who should not be rooted out of the garden of love." In Schopenhauer's silly outbursts against woman, however, Von Kupfer sees "a test of manhood revolting against man's humiliation67" and he adds that "it is only from the closest relation of man to man, adolescent to man, and adolescent to adolescent, that government and civilisation68 will derive real power."
Blüher considers homosexualism as an "essential human trait which must be granted an outlet69 with[Pg 183] certain restrictions70 (setting the age of consent at fourteen and forbidding the use of violence)."
Benedikt Friedlander, in his "Renaissance71 des Eros Uranios" suggests "bringing ancient and modern culture into harmony with each other by reviving the Greek Eros and overthrowing72 the monopoly which woman has, of being loved and beautiful."
Removing the legal penalties which punish overt homosexual acts is one thing. Recognising homosexualism is an entirely73 different proposition. Punishing a typhoid fever patient would be absurd, but typhoid fever sufferers should not be allowed to remain at large without treatment. Homosexualism is a neurotic trait which should be eradicated74, if possible, by analytic75 treatment. Hopeless cases, on the other hand should be protected against their instincts by a form of confinement76 which would be neither punitive77 nor more humiliating than the confinement imposed upon sufferers from contagious78 diseases.
Homosexualism and the War. Homosexualism has been on the increase since the war. Stekel reports many gruesome cases of husbands who, until they went to the barracks and the trenches79, where[Pg 184] their unconscious homosexualism found an unusual stimulation80, were normal in their attitude to their wives, and who returned after the armistice81 absolutely inverted and unable to give or receive normal gratification.
The bobbed hair craze has many good excuses. Bobbed hair is kept tidy more easily than long tresses and can be dried quicker after a shampoo. At the same time, when we consider that the boyish type of women became fashionable about the same time when short hair did, and that soon after the war, advertising82 boards were covered with the praise of devices enabling women to conceal6 their natural curves, we must consider both fashions as symptomatic of an increase in homosexualism.
We might also mention another fashion detail: while dressmakers were trying their best to obliterate84 their customers breasts, they would bare entirely their backs. Anyone familiar with the symbolism and dreams of homosexuals will understand the import of that style of dresses.
Is Homosexualism Necessary? Dr. Otto Gross, without openly countenancing85 homosexualism, holds that a certain proportion of it is necessary in man's makeup86 for a mutual87 understanding of both sexes.
[Pg 185]
"We can only understand," he writes, "what we have experienced. Unless a man has a decided88 feminine trend, he is not likely to understand a woman, or to live with her harmoniously89 and vice83 versa."
A consideration of the purely90 physical side of love lends a slight plausibility91 to that view. Unless a man can clearly imagine love's pleasure as experienced by a woman, he may not be able to vouchsafe92 her complete gratification.
The progress of civilisation certainly demands that men become less masculine (translate: boorish) and women less feminine (meaning: silly).
We could not tolerate, however, what Friedl?nder called a Renaissance of Eros Uranios, leading to the conditions which obtained in Greece where men, while consorting with other men, were also potent with women.
Hellenic culture was decidedly masculine, women being solely94 tools of lust95, or beasts of burden, or means of proliferation. As I will show in another chapter, one really modern woman can give to the modern man what Demosthenes sought in three[Pg 186] kinds of women, a prostitute, a concubine and a wife, not to count a male mistress.
What is Really Needed is a better understanding of homosexualism by the public and by the homosexuals. After which, homosexuals, no longer despised and punished for their obsessive cravings, and no longer proud of their condition, will be given sympathy and treatment, voluntary or compulsory96. Psychoanalysts will remove their complexes and lead them toward a positive goal; surgeons, performing on them some of Steinach's operations, may raise their heterosexual potency97 to the point at which no doubt will obsess14 them any longer.
Those things will avail little, however, until parents watch their offspring carefully to discover in them the first symptoms of a homosexual trend and adopt ways and means to prevent the growth of the neurosis.
We may for convenience quote Hirschfeld's description of the homosexual child, a very superficial one, indeed, sufficient, however, to cause the average parent to seek psychological and medical advice before it is too late and before mental and physical habits have compromised, perhaps hopelessly, the love life of their children.
[Pg 187]
"The homosexual boy prefers girls' games, shuns98 boys' games, is girlish in disposition99 and behavior, if not in appearance. People often say that he is like a girl. He is happy in the company of girls. He has a psychic fixation on his mother. He is reserved and embarrassed before other boys. He often becomes unduly100 attached to a male teacher or a schoolmate.
"The homosexual girl prefers boys' games, does not care for sewing or other feminine occupations, is boyish in her disposition, her motions, often in her appearance. People call her a tomboy. She likes to romp101 with boys. She is overattached to her father. She shows embarrassment102 in the presence of other girls. She often falls madly in love with a female teacher or some older woman."
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1 summarise | |
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2 craving | |
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3 perverted | |
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4 surgical | |
adj.外科的,外科医生的,手术上的 | |
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7 incompatible | |
adj.不相容的,不协调的,不相配的 | |
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8 neurotic | |
adj.神经病的,神经过敏的;n.神经过敏者,神经病患者 | |
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9 glands | |
n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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10 psychic | |
n.对超自然力敏感的人;adj.有超自然力的 | |
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11 frigidity | |
n.寒冷;冷淡;索然无味;(尤指妇女的)性感缺失 | |
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12 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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13 intercourse | |
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14 obsess | |
vt.使着迷,使心神不定,(恶魔)困扰 | |
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adj. 着迷的, 强迫性的, 分神的 | |
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16 conjure | |
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17 longing | |
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18 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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19 climax | |
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20 perusing | |
v.读(某篇文字)( peruse的现在分词 );(尤指)细阅;审阅;匆匆读或心不在焉地浏览(某篇文字) | |
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21 sonnets | |
n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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22 emanate | |
v.发自,来自,出自 | |
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23 attentive | |
adj.注意的,专心的;关心(别人)的,殷勤的 | |
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24 psychiatrists | |
n.精神病专家,精神病医生( psychiatrist的名词复数 ) | |
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25 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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27 invert | |
vt.使反转,使颠倒,使转化 | |
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28 temperament | |
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29 impelled | |
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30 impulsiveness | |
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31 allied | |
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32 attire | |
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33 killing | |
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35 sentimental | |
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37 derive | |
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38 caresses | |
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39 manifestations | |
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42 meted | |
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43 bourgeois | |
adj./n.追求物质享受的(人);中产阶级分子 | |
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45 boorish | |
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46 mentality | |
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47 mechanism | |
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48 consorting | |
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49 playwrights | |
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50 feud | |
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51 disastrous | |
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52 obnoxious | |
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53 hatred | |
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54 perverse | |
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55 futile | |
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56 depicting | |
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58 wiles | |
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59 blackmailer | |
敲诈者,勒索者 | |
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61 statute | |
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62 perverts | |
n.性变态者( pervert的名词复数 )v.滥用( pervert的第三人称单数 );腐蚀;败坏;使堕落 | |
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63 emancipation | |
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放 | |
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64 bondage | |
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65 WHIMS | |
虚妄,禅病 | |
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66 emancipating | |
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67 humiliation | |
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68 civilisation | |
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69 outlet | |
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71 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
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72 overthrowing | |
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73 entirely | |
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75 analytic | |
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76 confinement | |
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77 punitive | |
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78 contagious | |
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79 trenches | |
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81 armistice | |
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84 obliterate | |
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85 countenancing | |
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86 makeup | |
n.组织;性格;化装品 | |
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87 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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88 decided | |
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92 vouchsafe | |
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n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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96 compulsory | |
n.强制的,必修的;规定的,义务的 | |
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97 potency | |
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98 shuns | |
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99 disposition | |
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100 unduly | |
adv.过度地,不适当地 | |
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101 romp | |
n.欢闹;v.嬉闹玩笑 | |
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102 embarrassment | |
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫 | |
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