Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex | Page 7

the individual male and female brain centers as well as somatic sexual organs. These
centers develop first towards puberty mostly under the influence of the independent sex
glands. We can, however, say the same of the male and female "centers" as of the male
and female brains; and, moreover, we do not even know whether we can assume for the
sexual functions separate brain locations ("centers") such as we may assume for
language.
After this discussion, two notions, at all events, persist; first, that a bisexual
predisposition is to be presumed for the inversion also, only we do not know of what it
consists beyond the anatomical formations; and, second, that we are dealing with
disturbances which are experienced by the sexual impulse during its development.[11]
*The Sexual Object of Inverts.*--The theory of psychic hermaphroditism presupposed
that the sexual object of the inverted is the reverse of the normal. The inverted man, like
the woman, succumbs to the charms emanating from manly qualities of body and mind;
he feels himself like a woman and seeks a man.
But however true this may be for a great number of inverts, it by no means indicates the
general character of inversion. There is no doubt that a great part of the male inverted
have retained the psychic character of virility, that proportionately they show but little of
the secondary characters of the other sex, and that they really look for real feminine
psychic features in their sexual object. If that were not so it would be incomprehensible
why masculine prostitution, in offering itself to inverts, copies in all its exterior, to-day as
in antiquity, the dress and attitudes of woman. This imitation would otherwise be an
insult to the ideal of the inverts. Among the Greeks, where the most manly men were
found among inverts, it is quite obvious that it was not the masculine character of the boy
which kindled the love of man, but it was his physical resemblance to woman as well as
his feminine psychic qualities, such as shyness, demureness, and the need of instruction
and help. As soon as the boy himself became a man he ceased to be a sexual object for
men and in turn became a lover of boys. The sexual object in this case as in many others
is therefore not of the like sex, but it unites both sex characters, a compromise between
the impulses striving for the man and for the woman, but firmly conditioned by the

masculinity of body (the genitals).[12]
The conditions in the woman are more definite; here the active inverts, with special
frequency, show the somatic and psychic characters of man and desire femininity in their
sexual object; though even here greater variation will be found on more intimate
investigation.
*The Sexual Aim of Inverts.*--The important fact to bear in mind is that no uniformity of
the sexual aim can be attributed to inversion. Intercourse per anum in men by no means
goes with inversion; masturbation is just as frequently the exclusive aim; and the
limitation of the sexual aim to mere effusion of feelings is here even more frequent than
in hetero-sexual love. In women, too, the sexual aims of the inverted are manifold, among
which contact with the mucous membrane of the mouth seems to be preferred.
*Conclusion.*--Though from the material on hand we are by no means in a position
satisfactorily to explain the origin of inversion, we can say that through this investigation
we have obtained an insight which can become of greater significance to us than the
solution of the above problem. Our attention is called to the fact that we have assumed a
too close connection between the sexual impulse and the sexual object. The experience
gained from the so called abnormal cases teaches us that a connection exists between the
sexual impulse and the sexual object which we are in danger of overlooking in the
uniformity of normal states where the impulse seems to bring with it the object. We are
thus instructed to separate this connection between the impulse and the object. The sexual
impulse is probably entirely independent of its object and is not originated by the stimuli
proceeding from the object.
B. The Sexually Immature and Animals as Sexual Objects Whereas those sexual inverts
whose sexual object does not belong to the normally adapted sex, appear to the observer
as a collective number of perhaps otherwise normal individuals, the persons who choose
for their sexual object the sexually immature (children) are apparently from the first
sporadic aberrations. Only exceptionally are children the exclusive sexual objects. They
are mostly drawn into this rôle by a faint-hearted and impotent individual who makes use
of such substitutes, or when an impulsive urgent desire cannot at the time secure the
proper object.