Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume Ii Part 23

In this connection I may, perhaps, mention a moral quality which is very often a.s.sociated with dramatic apt.i.tude, and also with minor degrees of nervous degeneration, and that is vanity and the love of applause. While among a considerable section of inverts it is not more marked than among the non-inverted, if not, indeed, less marked, among another section it is found in an exaggerated degree. In at least one of my cases vanity and delight in admiration, both as regards personal qualities and artistic productions, reach an almost morbid extent. And the quotations from letters written by various others of my subjects show a curious complacency in the description of their personal physical characters, markedly absent in other cases. It is suggested by Alexander Schmid, on the basis of Adler's views, that this vanity, which sometimes in the inverted artist becomes an exalted pride, as of a guardian of sacred mysteries, may be regarded as an effort to secure a compensation for the consciousness of feminine defect.[222]

The extreme type of this preoccupation with personal beauty is represented by the history of himself sent by a young Italian of good family to Zola in the hope-itself a sign of vanity-that the distinguished novelist would make it the subject of one of his works. The history is reproduced in the Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle (1894) and in L'h.o.m.os.e.xualite et les Types h.o.m.os.e.xuels (1910) by "Dr. Laupts" (G. Saint-Paul). I quote the following pa.s.sage: "At the age of 18 I was, with few differences, what I am now (at 23). I am rather below the medium height (1.65 metres), well proportioned, slender, but not lean. My torso is superb; a sculptor could find nothing against it, and would not find it very different from that of Antinotis. My back is very arched, perhaps too much so; and my hips are very developed; my pelvis is broad, like a woman's; my knees slightly approximate; my feet are small; my hands superb; the fingers curved back and with glistening nails, rosy and polished, cut squarely like those of ancient statues. My neck is long and round, the nape charmingly adorned with downy hairs. My head is charming, and at 18 was more so. The oval of it is perfect and strikes all by its infantine form. At 23 I am to be taken for 17 at most. My complexion is white and rosy, deepening at the faintest emotion. The forehead is not beautiful; it recedes slightly and is hollow at the temples, but, fortunately, it is half-covered by long hair, of a dark blonde, which curls naturally. The head is perfect in form, because of the curly hair, but on examination there is an enormous protuberance at the occiput. My eyes are oval, of a gray blue, with dark chestnut eyelashes and thick, arched eyebrows. My eyes are very liquid, but with dark circles, and bistered; and they are subject to slight temporary inflammation. My mouth is fairly large, with thick red lips, the lower pendent; they tell me I have the Austrian mouth. My teeth are dazzling, though three are decayed and stopped; fortunately, they cannot be seen. My ears are small and with very colored lobes. My chin is very fat, and at 18 it was smooth and velvety as a woman's; at present there is a slight beard, always shaved. Two beauty spots, black and velvety, on my left cheek, contrast with my blue eyes. My nose is thin and straight, with delicate nostrils and a slight, almost insensible curve. My voice is gentle, and people always regret that I have not learned to sing." This description is noteworthy as a detailed portrait of a s.e.xual invert of a certain type; the whole history is interesting and instructive.

Certain peculiarities in taste as regards costume have rightly or wrongly been attributed to inverts,-apart from the tendency of a certain group to adopt feminine habits,-and may here be mentioned. Tardieu many years ago referred to the taste for keeping the neck uncovered. This peculiarity may occasionally be observed among inverts, especially the more artistic among them. The cause does not appear to be precisely vanity so much as that physical consciousness which is so curiously marked in inverts, and induces the more feminine among them to cultivate feminine grace of form, and the more masculine to emphasize the masculine athletic habit.

It has also been remarked that inverts exhibit a preference for green garments. In Rome cinaedi were for this reason called galbanati. Chevalier remarks that some years ago a band of pederasts at Paris wore green cravats as a badge. This decided preference for green is well marked in several of my cases of both s.e.xes, and in some at least the preference certainly arose spontaneously. Green (as Jastrow and others have shown) is very rarely the favorite color of adults of the Anglo-Saxon race, though some inquirers have found it to be more commonly a preferred color among children, especially girls, and it is more often preferred by women than by men.[223] The favorite color among normal women, and indeed very often among normal men, though here not so often as blue, is red, and it is notable that of recent years there has been a fashion for a red tie to be adopted by inverts as their badge. This is especially marked among the "fairies" (as a fellator is there termed) in New York. "It is red," writes an American correspondent, himself inverted, "that has become almost a synonym for s.e.xual inversion, not only in the minds of inverts themselves, but in the popular mind. To wear a red necktie on the street is to invite remarks from newsboys and others-remarks that have the practices of inverts for their theme. A friend told me once that when a group of street-boys caught sight of the red necktie he was wearing they sucked their fingers in imitation of f.e.l.l.a.t.i.o. Male prost.i.tutes who walk the streets of Philadelphia and New York almost invariably wear red neckties. It is the badge of all their tribe. The rooms of many of my inverted friends have red as the prevailing color in decorations. Among my cla.s.smates, at the medical school, few ever had the courage to wear a red tie; those who did never repeated the experiment."

MORAL ATt.i.tUDE OF THE INVERT.-There is some interest in tracing the invert's own att.i.tude toward his anomaly, and his estimate of its morality. As my cases are not patients seeking to be cured of their perversion, this att.i.tude cannot be taken for granted. I have noted the moral att.i.tude in 57 cases. In 8 the subjects loathe themselves, and have fought in vain against their perversion, which they often regard as a sin. Nine or ten are doubtful, and have little to say in justification of their condition, which they regard as perhaps morbid, a "moral disease." One, while thinking it right to gratify his natural instincts, admits that they may be vices. The remainder, a large majority (including all the women) are, on the other hand, emphatic in their a.s.sertion that their moral position is precisely the same as that of the normally const.i.tuted individual, on the lowest ground a matter of taste, and at least two state that a h.o.m.os.e.xual relationship should be regarded as sacramental, a holy matrimony; two or three even regard inverted love as n.o.bler than ordinary s.e.xual love; several add the proviso that there should be consent and understanding on both sides, and no attempt at seduction. The chief regret of 2 or 3 is the double life they are obliged to lead.

When inverts have clearly faced and realized their own nature it is not so much, it seems, their conscience that worries them, or even the fear of the police, as the att.i.tude of the world. An American correspondent writes: "It is the fear of public opinion that hangs above them like the sword of Damocles. This fear is the heritage of all of us. It is not the fear of conscience and is not engendered by a feeling of wrongdoing. Rather, it is a silent submission to prejudices that meet us on every side. The true normal att.i.tude of the s.e.xual invert (and I have known hundreds) with regard to his particular pa.s.sion is not essentially different from that of the normal man with regard to his."

It is noteworthy that even when the condition is regarded as morbid, and even when a life of chast.i.ty has, on this account, been deliberately chosen, it is very rare to find an invert expressing any wish to change his s.e.xual ideals. The male invert cannot find, and has no desire to find, any s.e.xual charm in a woman, for he finds all possible charms united in a man. And a woman invert writes: "I cannot conceive a sadder fate than to be a woman-an average woman reduced to the necessity of loving a man!"

It will be seen that my conclusions under this head are in striking contrast to those of Westphal, who believed that every invert regarded himself as morbid, and probably show a much higher proportion of self-approving inverts than any previous series.[224] This is largely due to the fact that the cases were not obtained from the consulting-room, and that they represent in some degree the intellectual aristocracy of inversion, including individuals who, often not without severe struggles, have found consolation in the example of the Greeks, or elsewhere, and have succeeded in attaining a modus vivendi with the moral world, as they have come to conceive it.

[183]

The following a.n.a.lysis is based on somewhat fuller versions of my Histories than it was necessary to publish in the preceding chapters, as well as on various other Histories which are not here published at all. Numerous apparent discrepancies may thus be explained.

[184]

This frequency of nervous symptoms is in accordance with the most reliable observation everywhere. Thus, Hirschfeld (Die h.o.m.os.e.xualitat, p. 177) states that of 500 inverts, 62 per cent. showed nervous symptoms of one kind or another: sleeplessness, sleepiness, tremors, stammering, etc.

[185]

Hirschfeld finds that 54 per cent, of inverts become conscious of their anomaly under the age of 14. The anomaly may, however, be present at this early age, but not consciously until later. Hence the larger percentage recorded above.

[186]

In this connection I may quote an observation by Raffalovich: "It is natural that the invert should very clearly recall the precocity of his inclinations. In the existence of every invert a moment arrives when he discovers the enigma of his h.o.m.os.e.xual tastes. He then cla.s.ses all his recollections, and to justify himself in his own eyes he remembers that he has been what he is from his earliest childhood. h.o.m.os.e.xuality has colored all his young life; he has thought over it, dreamed over it, reflected over it-very often in perfect innocence. When he was quite small he imagined that he had been carried off by brigands, by savages; at 5 or 6 he dreamed of the warmth of their chests and of their naked arms. He dreamed that he was their slave and he loved his slavery and his masters. He has had not the least thought that is crudely s.e.xual, but he has discovered his sentimental vocation."

[187]

Leppmann mentions a case (certainly extreme and abnormal) of a little girl of 8 who spent the night hidden on the roof, merely in order to be able to observe in the morning the s.e.xual organs of an adult male cousin (Bulletin de l'Union Internationale de Droit Penal, 1896, p. 118).

[188]

I fully admit, as all investigators must, the difficulty of tracing the influence of early suggestions, especially in dealing with persons who are unaccustomed to self-a.n.a.lysis. Sometimes it happens, especially in regard to erotic fetichism, that, while direct questioning fails to reach any early formative suggestion, such influence is casually elicited on a subsequent occasion.

[189]

I may add that I see no fundamental irreconcilability between the point of view here adopted and the facts brought forward (and wrongly interpreted) by Schrenck-Notzing. In his Beitrage zur aetiologie der Contrarer s.e.xualempfindung (Vienna, 1895), this writer states: "The neuropathic disposition is congenital, as is the tendency to precocious appearance of the appet.i.tes, the lack of psychic resistance, and the tendency to imperative a.s.sociations; but that heredity can extend to the object of the appet.i.te, and influence the contents of these characters, is not shown. Psychological experiences are against it, and the possibility, which I have shown, of changing these impulses by experiment and so removing their danger to the character of the individual." It need not be a.s.serted that "heredity extends to the object of the appet.i.te," but simply that heredity culminates in an organism which is s.e.xually best satisfied by that object. It is also a mistake to suppose that congenital characters cannot be, in some cases, largely modified by such patient and laborious processes as those carried on by Schrenck-Notzing. In the same pamphlet this writer refers to moral insanity and idiocy as supporting his point of view. It is curious that both these congenital manifestations had independently occurred to me as arguments against his position. The experiences of Elmira Reformatory and Bicetre-not to mention inst.i.tutions of more recent establishment-long since showed that both the morally insane and the idiotic can be greatly improved by appropriate treatment. Schrenck-Notzing seems to be unduly biased by his interest in hypnotism and suggestion.

[190]

"If an invert acquires, under the influence of external conditions," Fere wrote with truth (L'Instinct s.e.xuel, p. 238), "it is because he was born with an apt.i.tude for such acquisition: an apt.i.tude lacking in those who have been subjected to the same conditions without making the same acquisitions."

[191]

One of my subjects writes: "Inverts are, I think, naturally more liable to indulge in self-gratification than normal people, partly because of the perpetual suppression and disappointment of their desires, and also because of the fact that they actually possess in themselves the desired form of the male. This idea is a little difficult of explanation, but you can readily imagine to what frenzies of self-abuse a normal man would be impelled supposing that he included in his own the form of the female."

[192]

I do not here enter upon the consideration of the normal prevalence and significance of masturbation and allied phenomena, as I have dealt with this subject in the study of "Auto-erotism," in volume i of these Studies.

[193]

Hirschfeld also finds, among German inverts (Die h.o.m.os.e.xualitat, ch. iii), that the majority (though a smaller majority than I find in England and the United States) have not had intercourse with women; 53 per cent., he states, including a few married men, have never even attempted coitus, and over 50 per cent, are presumably impotent. The number of inverted women who have never had intercourse with men is still larger.

[194]

Otto Rank, Imago, Heft 3, 1913.

[195]

Erotic dreams have been discussed in "Auto-erotism," vol. i of these Studies, and the wider bearings of the subject in another work, The Study of Dreams. Many references to the extensive literature will be found in both these places.

[196]

E.g., Archiv fur Psychiatrie, 1899; Archiv fur Kriminal-Anthropologie, 1900.

[197]

Hirschfeld, Die h.o.m.os.e.xualitat, p. 71 et seq. Hirschfeld considers that the dreams of the inverted fall into two groups: one in which the dreamer imagines he is embracing a person of the same s.e.x, and another in which he imagines that he is himself of the opposite s.e.x. The latter cla.s.s of dreams, const.i.tuting a pseudo-heteros.e.xual group, seems to me to be rare, and they may, moreover, occur in heteros.e.xual persons.

[198]

See Thoinot and Weysse, Medico-legal Aspects of Moral Offenses, pp. 165, 291, etc.

[199]

Pedicatio (or paedicatio) is the most generally accepted technical term for the sodomitical intromission of the p.e.n.i.s into the a.n.u.s. It is usually derived from the Greek pais (boy), but some authorities have derived it from pedex or podex (a.n.u.s). The terms "paiderastia" and "pederast" are sometimes used to indicate the same act and agent. This use, however, is undesirable. It is best to confine the word "paiderastia" to its proper use as the name of the special inst.i.tution of Greek boy love. It may be added that the Greeks themselves had many names (as many as 74) for paiderastia. See, on this subject of nomenclature, Iwan Bloch, Der Ursprung der Syphilis, vol. ii, pp. 527, 563.

[200]

It is the grosser forms of perversion which are first revealed in every field. In the first edition of this Study the predominance of pedicatio was still greater; it is not practised by any of the subjects of the Histories added to the present edition, though several see no objection to it.

[201]

Jahrbuch fur s.e.xuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. viii, 1906, p. 712.

[202]

Hirschfeld, Die h.o.m.os.e.xualitat, p. 276 et seq.

[203]

"Men," remarks Q., "tend to fall in love with boys or youths, boys or youths with grown men, feminine natures with virile natures and vice versa, and different races with each other."

[204]

Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, affirmed that "players and play-haunters in their secret conclaves play the Sodomites," and refers to some recent examples of men who had been desperately enamoured of player-boys thus clad in women's apparel, so far as to solicit them by words, by letters, even actually to abuse them. Later on, in 1633, Prynne, in his Histrio-Mastix (part 1, p. 208 et seq.), strongly condemned "this putting on of woman's array" by actors on the same ground, and adds that he has heard credibly reported of a scholar of Balliol College that he was violently enamoured of a boy-player. In j.a.pan, again where, as in China, woman's parts on the stage are taken by men (not always youths), the h.o.m.os.e.xuality of these players became, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so notorious that they const.i.tuted a cla.s.s requiring special regulation as Joro, or prost.i.tutes.

[205]

This was remarked by even the earliest modern writers on h.o.m.os.e.xuality, like Hossli. See Hirschfeld, "Vom Wesen der Liebe," Jahrbuch fur s.e.xuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. viii, 1906, p. 124 et seq.

[206]

Similarly Numa Praetorius a.s.serts (Jahrbuch fur s.e.xuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. viii, p. 732) that even the most virile h.o.m.os.e.xual men exhibit feminine traits, and adds that we could scarcely expect it to be otherwise when we find how constantly h.o.m.os.e.xual women show masculine traits.

[207]

Nacke, "Die Diagnose der h.o.m.os.e.xualitat," Neurologisches Centralblatt, April 16, 1908.

[208]

So also among American boarding-school girls. Thus Margaret Otis (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, June, 1913) has described the attraction which negro girls exert on white girls at school. The correspondence of these lovers, and sometimes their method of s.e.x gratification, may occasionally be of an even coa.r.s.ely pa.s.sionate nature.

[209]

See "s.e.xual Selection in Man," vol. iv of these Studies.

[210]