THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS tstinct. This second view is based on the following conside his sexual instinct attached to a particular sexual object. In the latter case it may be questioned whether the various accidental In the case of many inverts, even absolut t influences would be sufficient to explain the acquisition of in- ossible to show that very carly in their lives a sexual impression version without the co-operation of something in the subject occurred which left a permanent after-effect in the shape of a himself. As we have already shown, the existence of this las tendency to homosexuality. factor is not to be denied (2) In the case of many others, it is possible to point to external influences in their lives, whether of a favourable or BISEXUALITy A fresh contradiction of popular views is in- inhibiting character, which have led sooner or later to a fixation volved in the considerations put forward by of their inversion( Such influences are exclusive relations with Lydston [1889], Kiernan [1 evaller [893] persons of their own sex, comradeship in war, detention in endeavour to account for the possibility of sexual inversion. It prison, the dangers of heterosexual intercourse, celibacy, sexual is popularly believed that a human being is either a man or a (3)Inversion can be removed by hypnotic suggestion, which characters are obscured, and in which it is consequently diff would be astonishing in an innate characteristic cult to determine the sex. This arises in the first instance in the In view of these considerations it is even possible field of anatomy. The genitals of the individuals concerned the very existence of such a thing as innate inversion combine male and female characteristics. ( This condition is argued(cf. Havelock Ellis [1915])that, if the cases of of their early childhood would probably come to light which apparatus are found side by side fully developed(true her. maphroditism); but far more frequently both sets of organs are had a determining effect upon the direction taken by their rophied condition libido. This experience would simply have passed out of the subject,'s conscious recollection, but could be recalled to his s The importance of these abnormalities lies in the unexpected act that they facilitate our understanding of normal develop- uence In the opinion of these ment For it appears that a certain degree of anatomical writers inversion can only be described as a frequent variation hermaphroditism occurs normally. In every normal male of the sexual instinct, which can be determined by a number of female individual, traces are found of the apparatus of the external circumstances in the subject's life pposite sex. These either t without function The apparent certainty of this conclusion is, however, com- nentary organs or become modified and take on other functions pletely countered by the reflection that many people These long-familiar facts of anatomy lead us to suppose that jected to the same sexual influences(e.g to seduction or mutual an originally bisexual physical disposition has, in the course of ation, which evolution, become modified into a unisexual one, leaving behind coming inverted or without remaining so permanently. We only a few traces of the sex that has become atrophied are therefore forced to a suspicion that the choice between It was tempting to extend this hypothesis to the mental innate'andacquired' is not an exclusive one or that it does sphere and to explain inversion in all its varieties as the expres- not cover all the issues involved in inversion sion of a psychical hermaphroditism. All that was required further in order to settle the question was that inversion should The nature of inversion is explained nei be regularly accompanied by the mental and somatic signs of OF INvERSion by the hypothesis that it is innate nor by the former case we must ask in what respect it is innate, unless we a For the most recent descriptions of somatic hermaphroditism, se Taruffi(1903), and numerous papers by Neugebauer are to accept the crude explanation that everyone is born wit volumes of the Jahrbuch fur sexuelle wisch
THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS But this expectation was disappointed. It is impossible to demonstrate so close a connection between the hypothetical viduals bisexual disposition endows him with masculine and psychical hermaphroditism and the established anatomical one. feminine brain centres as well as with somatic organs of sex a general lowering of the sexual instinct and a slight anatomical these centres develop only at puberty, for the most part under atrophy of the organs is found frequently in inverts(cf. Have the influence of the sex-gland, which is independent of them in Frequently, but by he original disposition. But what has just been said of mas usually. The truth must therefore be recognized that inversion culine and feminine brains applies equally to masculine and and somatic hermaphroditism are on the whole independent of feminine centres' and incidentally we have not even any each othe grounds for assuming that certain areas of the brain('centres' a great deal of importance, too, has been attached to what are set aside for the functions of sex, as is the case, for instance, are called the secondary and tertiary sexual characters and to with those of speech. 1 he great frequency of the occurrence of those of the opposite Nevertheless, two things emerge from these discussions. In sex in inverts( f. Havelock Ellis, 1915). Much of this the first place, a bisexual disposition is somehow concerned correct; but it should never be forgotten that in general the It appears(from a bibliography given in the sixth volum ry sexual characters of one sex occur very frequently in the opposite one. They are indications of her- suggest bisexuality January, 1884, he explanation of inversion, As long ago as in maphroditism, but are not attended by any change of sexual paper,'Les aberra object in the direction of inversion. Psychical hermaphroditism would gain substance ifthe majority of authors who derive inversion fr that factor not only in the case of inverts, but also for all those who have on of the sexual object were at least a parallel change-over of the subject s other mental qualities, instincts and already writes in this sense. Krafft-Ebing(1895, 10)remarks that ther only in inverted women that character-inversion of this kind istence of this second centre(that of the subordinated sex Dr. Arduin (1900)asserts that 'there are masculine and feminine mental masculinity can be combined with inversion. If the humai f. Hirschfeld, 1899); but one set of belief in psychical hermaphroditism is to be persisted in, it will be necessary to add that its manifestations in various spheres o-e-according to the sex of the person in question-is incomparabl other, so far as heterosexual indi show only slight signs of being mutually determined. More iduals are concerned.. 'Herman(1903)is convinced that'masculine over the same is true of somatic hermaphroditism very woman and remit to Halban( 1903), occurrences of individual atrophied organs the idea of bisexuality (in the se ty of sex) as his o and of secondary sexual characters are to a considerable extent 924:] In lay circles the hypothesis of human bisexuality is regarde ependent of one another being due to O. Weininger, the philosopher, who died at an ea The theory of bisexuality has been expressed in e,and who made the idea the basis of a somewhat unbalanced form by a spokesman of the male inverts: ' a feminine brain in a masculine body. But we are ignorant of what characterizes a importance of bisexuality owed muc feminine brain. There is neither need nor justification for re- Fliess(cf. p. 86 n ) and his forgetfulness of this fact on one occasion placing the psychological problem by the anatomical one Krafit-Ebing's attempted explanation seems to be more exactly framed than that of ulrichs but does not differ from it in A Child is Being B essentials, According to Krafft-Ebing(1895, 5), every indi Section VI). The whole question is gone into in detail by His paper includes a bibliography of the subjec ection I of his introduction to the Fliess correspondence 1950a)]