Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 | Page 2

not be positively
affirmed of all such persons that they were born inverted, but in most
the inverted tendency seems to be instinctive, and appears at a
somewhat early age. In any case, however, it must be realized that in
this volume we are not dealing with subjects belonging to the lunatic
asylum, or the prison. We are concerned with individuals who live in
freedom, some of them suffering intensely from their abnormal
organization, but otherwise ordinary members of society. In a few cases
we are concerned with individuals whose moral or artistic ideals have
widely influenced their fellows, who know nothing of the peculiar
organization which has largely molded those ideals.
I am indebted to several friends for notes, observations, and
correspondence on this subject, more especially to one, referred to as
"Z.," and to another as "Q.," who have obtained a considerable number
of reliable histories for me, and have also supplied many valuable notes;
to "Josiah Flynt" (whose articles on tramps in Atlantic Monthly and
Harper's Magazine have attracted wide attention) for an appendix on
homosexuality among tramps; to Drs. Kiernan, Lydston, and Talbot for
assistance at various points noted in the text; and to Dr. K., an
American woman physician, who kindly assisted me in obtaining cases,
and has also supplied an appendix. Other obligations are mentioned in
the text.
All those portions of the book which are of medical or medico-legal
interest, including most of the cases, have appeared during the last three
years in the Alienist and Neurologist, the Journal of Mental Science,
the Centralblatt für Nervenheilkunde, the Medico-legal Journal, and
the Archivo delle Psicopatie Sessuale. The cases, as they appear in the
present volume, have been slightly condensed, but nothing of genuine
psychological interest has been omitted. Owing to some delay in the
publication of the English edition of the work, a German translation by
my friend, Dr. Hans Kurella, editor of the Centralblatt für
Nervenheilkunde, has already appeared (1896) in the Bibliothek für
Sozialwissenschaft. The German edition contains some matter which
has finally been rejected from the English edition as of minor

importance; on the other hand, much has been added to the English
edition, and the whole carefully revised.
I have only to add that if it may seem that I have unduly ignored the
cases and arguments brought forward by other writers, it is by no
means because I wish to depreciate the valuable work done by my
predecessors in this field. It is solely because I have not desired to
popularize the results previously reached, but simply to bring forward
my own results. If I had not been able to present new facts in what is
perhaps a new light, I should not feel justified in approaching the
subject of sexual inversion at all.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Homosexuality Among Animals--Among the Lower Human
Races--The Albanians--The Greeks--The Eskimos--The Tribes of the
Northwest United States--Homosexuality Among Soldiers in
Europe--Indifference Frequently Manifested by European Lower
Classes--Sexual Inversion at Rome--Homosexuality in Prisons--Among
Men of Exceptional Intellect and Moral
Leaders--Muret--Michelangelo--Winkelmann--Homosexuality in
English History--Walt Whitman--Verlaine--Burton's Climatic Theory
of Homosexuality--The Racial Factor--The Prevalence of
Homosexuality Today.
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Westphal--Hössli--Casper--Ulrichs--Krafft-Ebing--Moll--Féré--Kierna

n-- Lydston--Raffalovich--Edward Carpenter--Hirschfeld.
CHAPTER III.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN MEN.
Relatively Undifferentiated State of the Sexual Impulse in Early
Life--The Freudian View--Homosexuality in Schools--The Question of
Acquired Homosexuality--Latent Inversion--Retarded
Inversion--Bisexuality--The Question of the Invert's
Truthfulness--Histories.
CHAPTER IV.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN WOMEN.
Prevalence of Sexual Inversion Among Women--Among Women of
Ability--Among the Lower Races--Temporary Homosexuality in
Schools, etc.--Histories--Physical and Psychic Characteristics of
Inverted Women--The Modern Development of Homosexuality Among
Women.
CHAPTER V.
THE NATURE OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Analysis of Histories--Race--Heredity--General Health--First
Appearance of Homosexual Impulse--Sexual Precocity and
Hyperesthesia--Suggestion and Other Exciting Causes of
Inversion--Masturbation--Attitude Toward Women--Erotic
Dreams--Methods of Sexual Relationship--Pseudo-sexual
Attraction--Physical Sexual Abnormalities--Artistic and Other
Aptitudes--Moral Attitude of the Invert.
CHAPTER VI.
THE THEORY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.

What is Sexual Inversion?--Causes of Diverging Views--The Theory of
Suggestion Unworkable--Importance of the Congenital Element in
Inversion--The Freudian Theory--Embryonic Hermaphroditism as a
Key to Inversion--Inversion as a Variation or "Sport"--Comparison
with Color-blindness, Color-hearing, and Similar Abnormalities--What
is an Abnormality?--Not Necessarily a Disease--Relation of Inversion
to Degeneration--Exciting Causes of Inversion--Not Operative in the
Absence of Predisposition.
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSIONS.
The Prevention of Homosexuality--The Influence of the
School--Coeducation--The Treatment of Sexual
Inversion--Castration--Hypnotism--Associational
Therapy--Psycho-analysis--Mental and Physical
Hygiene--Marriage--The Children of Inverts--The Attitude of
Society--The Horror Aroused by Homosexuality--Justinian--The Code
Napoléon--The State of the Law in Europe
Today--Germany--England--What Should be our Attitude Toward
Homosexuality?
APPENDIX A.
Homosexuality Among Tramps.
APPENDIX B.
The School-friendships of Girls.
INDEX OF AUTHORS.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

SEXUAL INVERSION.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Homosexuality Among Animals--Among the Lower Human
Races--The Albanians--The Greeks--The Eskimos--The Tribes of the
Northwest United States--Homosexuality Among Soldiers in
Europe--Indifference Frequently Manifested by European Lower
Classes--Sexual Inversion at Rome--Homosexuality in Prisons--Among
Men of Exceptional Intellect