THEHOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
THEHOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
THEHOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
THE
HOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
I
I
I
Everyone carries within himself a pattern of womanhood derived from his mother: that determines whether he should respect or depreciate woman; or whether his attitude towards woman in general should be one of indifference.
—Nietzsche.
—Nietzsche.
—Nietzsche.
—Nietzsche.
Our investigations thus far have repeatedly shown us that in the case of homosexuals the heterosexual path is merely blocked, but that it would be incorrect to hold that the pathway is altogether absent. I have proven that the individual, as representative of our modern culture, finds it impossible to maintain his bisexuality; therefore he represses either his homosexuality or his heterosexuality. We also convinced ourselves that organic bisexuality has nothing to do with psychic bisexuality.Hirschfeldexpressly emphasizes that he has met with homosexuality among strongly virile men and amongpersons typically female. The organic theory of homosexuality has broken down completely. One would suppose that the investigators would necessarily turn to the psychologic concept. No. The psychic forces are still underestimated and the heterosexual period of homosexuals is still overlooked. AlthoughHirschfeldemphasizes that to psychoanalysis belongs the merit of having pointed out first the heterosexual component, why does he not draw the natural deductions from this acknowledged fact? He arrives at the following conclusions:
1. Genuine homosexuality is always an inborn condition.
2. This inborn state is conditioned by a specific homosexual constitution of the brain.
3. That specific brain structure is brought about through a peculiar mixed condition of male and female hereditary plasm.
4. That ambisexual state is found frequently associated with pronounced instability of the nervous system.
5. Between the specific and the nervous constitution there exists an intimate relationship.
6. All external causes are operative only in the presence of the inner homosexual constitution.
7. External causes—provocative—are so common that in 99 per cent. of cases the innate homosexualdisposition breaks forth sooner or later and becomes clearly manifest in consciousness.
8. Homosexuality is neither a morbidity nor a degeneration; it is neither a taint nor a criminal trait, representing merely an aspect of natural development, a sexual variant, like many analogous sexual modifications in the animal and vegetal world. (Hirschfeld, Homosexualität, p. 394.)
Our data do not uphold these contentions. How canHirschfeldspeak of an innate homosexual constitution when elsewhere in his work he admits the constant presence of heterosexual instincts? How can he maintain that homosexuality is a trait reaching back to the very roots of individuality when every careful investigation proves the contrary?
The following statements show his contradictions on the subject:
“Here too it has been contended that all these deviations from the sexual type during childhood and puberty do not conclusively lead to the diagnosis of homosexuality, that the earlier periods of life are undifferentiated with respect to sex, that boys as well as girls, young men as well as young women, often become eventually fully heterosexual in spite of pronounced androgyny and sexual incongruities; even the transvestites of both sexes show early traits inharmonious with their respective sex, and certainly many passivists, succubists, or masochists showthemselves already as boys somewhat lacking in ‘mannish’ traits while female activists, incubists and sadists lack certain womanly traits already in their girlhood, though all retain the capacity to love the opposite sex and therefore prove themselves later heterosexual....
“At any rate one thing is certain. If a child is a urning, it grows up a heterosexual person with the same unconditional certainty with which the ‘normal’ child becomes heterosexual. Thus the special character of the urning looms forth as something fundamental having its roots in the depths of personality.” (Hirschfeld, Homosexualität, p. 121.)
Naturally,Hirschfeldadopts a safe method of excluding all cases which do present a history of heterosexuality. He calls such cases “pseudohomosexuality” thus placing them in a category apart from the genuine urning.Blochalso calls the heterosexual inclination of typical homosexuals a sort of “pseudoheterosexuality.”[1]This method of dealing with the subject admits of no proofs.Blochsuggests the test that a genuine theory of homosexuality must be capable of embracing all cases. TheHirschfeldtheory of “the third sex” cannot do so. It is neither founded nor proven either on organic or on psychologic grounds.
But why is it that the homosexual shifts so completely away from the sexual partner?A. Adlerhas conceived in these cases the hypothesis of a “fear of the sexual partner.” This observation certainly holds true in the case of many homosexuals, but is not true of all cases. Nature does not operate in such simple ways and a single key does not unlock the riddle of homosexuality.
In accordance with the results of our investigation thus far we may conclude: the homosexual finds closed for him the path which leads to the other sex, and the barrier is psychical. Anxiety, disgust and scorn support the forces of homosexual love. These feelings do not exhaust the range of inhibitory factors and we shall presently turn our attention to others. But we must take up the psychogenesis of these inhibitions in a thorough and systematic manner.
May fear of the sexual partner drive a person into homosexuality? We must answer this question in the affirmative inasmuch as we are able to trace that fear in a number of cases.
First, let us take up the case ofKrafft-Ebing(Obs. 159) since it is so simple and obvious:
54. Mrs. X., 26 years of age, married 7 years, confesses herself attracted for some time to persons of her own sex; she respects and even feels a certain sympathy for her husband but marital relations with him she finds repulsive. She has made him abstain from sexual relations with her since the birth of their youngest child. Already at the boarding school she felt a keen interest in other young women, which she can only describe as love attraction.But occasionally she had also felt herself attracted to particular men and lately a certain man had put her resistance to test. She was often afraid she might forget herself with him and therefore avoided being alone with the man.But these are merely passing episodes in contrast with her passionate inclination towards persons of her own sex. Her true love is expressed in kisses, caresses and intimate contact with the latter. Failure to gratify that yearning is painfully uncomfortable and is largely responsible for her present nervous state. The subject does not assume a particular sexual rôle in relation to persons of her own sex, and she did no more than indulge with them in kisses, petting and embracing. The subject considers herself of a passionate nature. Quite likely that she masturbates. Her sexual perversion she looks upon as “unnaturally morbid.” Nothing in the woman’s ordinary conduct or external appearance betrays such an anomaly. About her childhoodshe is unable to report anything of significance. She was quick to learn, had poetic and æsthetic inclinations, was considered somewhat nervous, loved reading of novels and sentimental romances, was of a neuropathic constitution, and extremely sensitive to changes in temperature. It is noteworthy also that at ten years of age, because she thought that her mother did not love her, the patient dissolved matches in coffee anddrank the solution so as to make herself very ill and to draw her mother’s affection to her.
Here we see an inclination to heterosexual relations which is not cultivated on account of fear. This young woman, with a tremendous homosexual leaning as shown already by her attachment to her mother, marries a man, in whose embrace she remains frigid, but fears to be alone with a man who rouses her, because he may prove dangerous to her. We see that her pronounced bisexuality leads her to fall in love with a man, to be his sweetheart, in her fancy, but she hesitates to turn her fancy into a reality, the “fear of sinning” preventing her from carrying out the step. Then she looks upon the heterosexual inclinations as passing whims and turns to her homosexual fancies. She is running away from the male. She fears the man she loves because a strong love implies submission to the male. She gravitates away from him, not because the maleis unable to yield her gratification but because she fears him. But we must understand how this flight from the male, which manifests itself also in her dyspareunia, originated. How little such life histories bear on this point, without psychoanalysis! In my study of dyspareunia[2]I describe similar cases and show how aversion towards the male originates in the first place.
ThroughFreudwe have learned that fear, like disgust, is a repressed form oflibido. Though this view is correct, it is not always adequate. My own researches have shown that every fear represents in the first place fear of self.
But why should the homosexual entertain any fear of himself during intercourse with woman? What he fears is his excessive sexuality when it is commingled with criminal tendencies.
The frequency with which fear of one’s own criminal aggressiveness stands back of impotence and homosexuality can hardly be overestimated.Krafft-Ebingdescribes a typical bisexual who had experienced orgasm but once in contact with woman. But that happened during the commission of a delict (Obs.142, p. 273) on his part.
“It is remarkable that he did experience gratification that one time during the (forced) act. After the act he was overcome with nausea. One hourafter the assault he again had coitus with the same woman and with her consent but that time he no longer experienced any satisfaction.” That proves that the orgasm depended on his abuse of force. The fear is fear of violence, the disgust is disgust of self, both coming into play so as to protect one against deeds incompatible with one’s ethical standards.
I know a large number of homosexuals who have actually confessed to me that they are able to have intercourse with women only while they are in a strong rage. But then they are in fear of themselves, so dangerous do they become. One subject confessed to me that he had nearly strangled his sexual partner. Other homosexuals feel an inexpressible rage just after coitus. In such cases the heterosexual act is associatively related to some criminal act. Some unconscious fancies depict and urge cutting up, strangling or beating the female companion. These men are extreme woman-haters and hatred is always deadly.
I reproduce here a single relevant observation:
55. Mr. H. K. is a well-known homosexual who prefers particularly males of low standing. The more powerfully built the men are the greater is his orgasm. He prefers to choose packers, furniture movers, expressmen and generally individuals of strong build. His greatest orgasm he experiencedduring intimacy with a member of an athletic club, a man who had a very small penis. He feels such a strong fear of women that he does not trust himself in a room alone with one. He does not remember having ever been sensuously stirred by a woman. Several times he tried intercourse with prostitutes but fled each time as soon as he found himself alone in the room with the woman. A cold sweat breaks out over his brow and he runs off precipitately as if pursued by a thousand demons. A short analysis over a few days revealed that this was a typical case of a criminal fancy, the subject having indulged for a long time in the onanistic fancy of strangling a woman. (“All women ought to be exterminated” ... is a favorite sentiment often expressed by this man.) In his phantasies he has also committed assaults on men, and the thought of ripping open the anus of a man has occurred to him already several times.
His fear of women is the fear he may forget himself and strangle one of them. But he is also afraid of men, that is, he also fears he may commit some assault on a man. Therefore he protects himself through choosing men of powerful physique. They should be stronger than he. Thus he feels assured that he will not be able to assault them. Lately he has been seeking a mannish woman who should also be stronger than he. Evidently he proposes to protect himself also in that case ... against himself.The homosexuality showed itself to be a flight from his criminal heterosexual tendencies.
Other homosexuals protect themselves against woman through disgust. How closely hatred, fear, and disgust stand in this connection may be seen in the following observation byHirschfeld:
“A certain homosexual related to me that he is able to have intercourse with a woman but that immediately afterwards he is seized with a terrible anger against the woman and once after the act he spat at her in disgust; since that, in order to avoid consequences, he leaves the room as hastily as possible immediately after the ejaculation.
“How far the aversion may go is shown by the case of the homosexualHerzog von Praslin-Choiseulwho at Paris in 1864 strangledpost coitumhis young bride, the daughter ofGeneral Sebastiani. It may be mentioned in this connection that by far the greater number of sadistic women who prevail upon masochistic males of grossest physical and mental type to carry out acts of violence upon them are in reality homosexual women with a sexual aversion to men. ProfessorAlbert Eulenburgtold me that all the alleged sadists among females whom he knows have proven themselves in reality to be homosexuals. I, too, know but three women among twelve sadists who deny homosexuality.” (Hirschfeld,loc. cit.p. 96).
First we learn that this homosexual, through fear of himself, runs off in the nick of time. The act of spitting may be the symbolic substitute for a more serious act. If additional testimony were needed to support the relevance of my conception, the case of theDuke von Praslin-Choiseulstands forth as the clearest proof one could wish. PlainlyHirschfeld, as usual, confuses here cause and effect. TheDuke did not strangle his bride because he was homosexual,—he had taken flight in homosexuality, because he felt impelled to commit a “passion crime” and he tried to protect himself against his own wild instincts.
Particularly interesting from the criminologic-psychologic standpoint are the cases of epileptics who during the attack are diverted from their usual sexual path. The epileptic is a criminal who during the attack carries out some criminal deed. Ordinarily the deed is carried out in the phantasy, but here and there the epileptic commits overtly some deed of uncommon cruelty. During his epileptic attack the patient gives expression to his criminal trend. The attack is the equivalent of the crime. Readers interested in this important problem I must refer to my original study.[3]I have been much surprised that it has received so little attention on the part of neurologists and criminologists. It is the fate of psychoanalysts. The current fashion inscience has decreed our ban, our works are overlooked and are neglected even when they are of fundamental significance, like my contribution on epilepsy.
Epilepsy, with the exception of the Jacksonian type, is a particular form of hysteria. In the hysterical attack, too, the unconscious forces break through and the individual carries out various instinctive promptings while his consciousness is side-tracked. The epileptic attack represents more the criminal, the hysterical corresponds more to the sexual urge. Naturally the epileptic attack may also substitute some sexual crime (crime passionelle), and that, frequently, is the theme of the attack. It is thus obvious that homosexuals who shun crimes of passion may fall easily a victim to attacks during which the crimes are carried out vicariously. In our study of sadism we shall analyze in detail such a case.[4]Here I wish to point out merely the interesting fact that during the epileptic attack heterosexuals commit homosexual acts and reversely.
56. Mr. W. H., 39 years of age, a strongly built young man, comes to me to be treated for epilepsy and every time he is accompanied by an attendant. Since his 16th year he suffers attacks and several times he was seized while on the street. For thatreason he does not go out alone and is always accompanied by his attendant, a simple fellow to whom he seems much attached. He is totally incapacitated from following any occupation for it turns out that his attacks are more frequent when he endeavors to work. On account of his attacks he has prevailed upon his well-to-do father to keep him in the country where he has nothing to do but to go on walks. He is soft and pliant so long as things go his way. But if contradicted he flies into great rage. He does not burst out with anger but tries to control himself and soon afterwards he has an attack during which he sees red. He reproaches himself a great deal on account of his failure to achieve something in life and because he is the cause of so much trouble to his parents. His ethical standard is a very high one and that is a point of great significance in the differential diagnosis of genuine epilepsy. He bemoans his misspent life and wants to be cured. If only there were some way to free him of the trouble! Regarding his sexual life: he relates that he is decidedly homosexual and that boys and handsome young men particularly attract him. The attendant is clearly a protection against his homosexual excitations. When he meets boys who attract him he clings to his attendant pretending to fear an oncoming attack. While living in the country at the present his attacks come on only at night and in bed. He does not recall theaura, except that he sees red, and he remembers no dream starting or accompanying the attack. He masturbates occasionally; always with the fancy that he is playing with small boys. I suggest to his parents that he ought to be psychoanalyzed. In view of the hopeless character of other current therapy this may be his only chance of recovery. The father agrees. But as the patient lives some distance from Vienna I advise the father to remove him to the city for the duration of the treatment. This he also agrees to do. Next day the mother calls and asks me to use my influence to prevent the boy from staying in Vienna. That would bring him back home and she is tremendously afraid of him. Her husband does not know it, she has kept it from him. During the attacks the son turns on her and attempts to attack her. Once she succeeded to repel him only by the exercise of her strength. During the attack he rolls his eyes fearfully and threatens she must die because she is responsible for everything. I arrange that the patient should see me only twice a week after that. But on the third appointment he failed to appear, because I had stipulated as one of the first conditions of my treatment that he must go to work. The very next day he reacted with several attacks. The father found that the treatment proved “too exciting” for the boy, and I agreed readily to give up the analysis when the father took entirely the son’s side anddisagreed with the suggestion that the boy must take up some occupation.
This case shows the outbreak of homosexuality during the attacks and an affective relationship to the mother such as is shown by many homosexuals, as we shall explain more fully later.
The reverse also happens,—heterosexuals committing homosexual deeds during the attacks. The repressed components of sexuality always break through during the attack.
Tarnowsky, too, speaks of “epileptic pederasty.”[5]The “epileptic pederasts” are usually of active character. As an example he mentions the case of a criminal who came under his personal observation. A young man, wealthy, apparently fully heterosexual, goes to the house of his beloved after a sumptuous dinner during which he had imbibed a great amount of wine. The lady of the house not being at home he went to a room where a 14-year-old boy was asleep, assaulted him and also the chamber maid who ran to the spot attracted by the boy’s outcries. After that he fell into a sleep which lasted 12 hours. When he awoke he recalled nothing of the episode. It was found that he was subject to epileptic attacks particularly after wine.Hirschfeldobserves in this connection:
“Usually the epileptic neurosis—which, as a matter of fact, I have noticed but rarely among homosexuals—influences homosexuality in the sense of removing the inhibitions and increasing the impulsive energy of the instinctive cravings. I have had under examination a particularly serious case of this character, a man-servant, subject to epilepsy who during a fit of rage and anger strangled to death and then hacked to pieces a boy. In this, as in similar cases, there was a previous history of a fusion of homosexuality and epilepsy. At any rate it is conceivable that during the beclouding of consciousness induced by the epileptic seizure all psychic factors undergo such a complete transformation that even tendencies ordinarily wholly foreign to consciousness and not even tolerated in the foreconscious, insofar as the latter may be revealed, find ready outlet.Burchard, too, has observed an epileptic of normal sexuality who during the seizures committed homosexual assaults on other patients.” (Hirschfeld,loc. cit., p. 214.)
What I have said about the influence of alcoholics holds true also of epileptic attacks. The latter also neutralize the inhibitions and the bisexual and criminal aspects of human nature come clearly to surface. It is noteworthy thatTarnowsky’spatient also indulged in alcohol before the onset of the attack.
The following case shows that the attacks may also be simulated:
57. Mr. Z. T., a bisexual, subject to anxiety attacks, relates that he suffered a great deal once because his mother devoted herself very lovingly to a brother during the latter’s illness. He was 22 years of age at the time and extremely jealous. Once he found himself alone in the room with his mother. Without knowing what he was doing he threw himself on her with the intent of assaulting her. The mother shouted and the sisters and servants came rushing in. He simulated an epileptic fit, threw himself on the floor and remained for an hour apparently in a faint. Physicians were called in and they declared the condition epilepsy. For two days he acted as if he heard nothing of what was said and knew nothing of what was going on. His deed caused him endless shame. He was not reproached on account of it and he spent two months in a comfortable sanatorium.
How closely related are make-believe and illness with every neurotic! This young man suffered also from fear and disgust of women but that, as well as his whole anxiety neurosis, disappeared completely under psychoanalytic treatment. The case stands as one of my most successful therapeutic accomplishments.
We turn our attention now to a considerationof the disgust with which homosexuals are inspired by the other sex. I have already repeatedly stated that the disgust represents a repressed desire, that it stands for the repulsion of unbearable tendencies. Heterosexuals show a similar aversion for their own sex,—a feeling which the homosexuals have repressed. That much the very beginner in psychoanalysis knows; the observation belongs to thea b cof practical psychology. Nevertheless, we still find disgust and scorn of woman pointed out as proofs of homosexuality. Disgust is not a proof of the absence of the properlibido. The true homosexuals would show a complete indifference towards the opposite sex. Occasionally they do assume such indifference for their attitude is always affective and negativistic.Hirschfeldcontradicts himself repeatedly on this point.
In one place he emphasizes that the genuine homosexual is indifferent towards woman and shows no disgust:
“On this point also I find myself in agreement withNuma Praetorius,[6]who in one of his essays remarks that most persons ‘show an inclination towards one sex but only indifference towards the other sex.’ He is of the opinion that the disgust of heterosexuals’ feeling-attitude of disgust towards homosexual deeds, too, is an intellectual process inducedby the prevailing social attitude and judgment rather than instinctive and innate. If the dislike were genuine heterosexuals would hardly get along so easily and so often with homosexuals nor would the latter carry on so readily masturbatory acts with the opposite sex, even though the acts be limited to mechanical excitations.” (Hirschfeld,loc. cit., p. 218.)
But another passage of the work reveals the opposite view:
“A 26-year-old workingman relates: ‘At 17 years of age an older friend of mine induced me once to have sexual intercourse with a woman—I was unaware at the time of myurning disposition—and I felt such disgust that I vomited. Since that time I have a “holy horror” of any contact with woman, until a few weeks ago when driven to despair I tried to control myself. It was useless, I could attain neither erection nor ejaculation and instead, the continuous irritation brought on an inflammation of the member.’”
“A Bavarian merchant relates: ‘As a result of repeated intercourse with women I have acquired a serious nervous derangement, a strong sense of lassitude associated with vomiting and migraine lasting for days. The odor exhaled by woman causes me greatest distress. I am now unable to gratify a woman, but on the other hand contact with a soldiermakes me happy, it strengthens and revives me.’” (Hirschfeld,loc. cit., p. 96.)
In the passage next following he expresses himself even more plainly:
“It is very striking to note that women in executive positions, directresses, etc., are much more severe with the male employees, servants, etc., than with the female personnel. There are homosexual males who avoid any service by women and chiefly for that reason dislike restaurants employing female waitresses. Also, there are homosexual women who avoid business relations with men for similar reasons. Without knowing why, homosexually predisposed girls begin early to feel that being conducted home by gentlemen is something superfluous as well as unpleasant. Manyurningsandurlindsactually experience a physical distress when some member of the opposite sex so much as helps them on with their coat.I know several homosexual physicians of extreme sensitiveness whose aversion to the female characters is so strong that physical examinations of women, particularly of their sexual parts or breasts, is highly repulsive to them and the aversion may go so far as to make it impossible for them to undertake such an examination.” (Hirschfeld,loc. cit., p. 98.)
Such accounts prove that the attitude of the homosexual towards the opposite sex is not one ofindifference. Where that is claimed it may be doubted; at any rate it does not correspond with psychoanalytic experience. Hatred, anger, disgust, physical discomfort serve as protections against the other sex. That is true of male as well as of the female homosexuals.
For a short space I shall now limit my observations to male homosexuals. I shall attempt to make clear how I have arrived at my present conception.The homosexual’s scorn of woman, his emotional revulsion-attitude against the other sex, is precisely what led me to formulate my new conceptions.I had the opportunity to analyze a homosexual. During the very first consultation hours there was revealed that heterosexual stage through which every homosexual must pass. Previously it was my custom to refuse to analyze homosexuals because I had assumedHirschfeld’sview thaturanismis an innate condition. This particular patient suffered of various anxiety attacks and came to be treated for his anxiety not for his homosexuality. His anxiety state showed itself particularly as a fear of woman so that he could not trust himself to be alone with one. Among his acquaintances there was also a very sympathetic spinster. They went on walks together for hours but his fear still dominated him and he could never trust himself with her alone in a room. They held their conversations either in a public garden or at a restaurant. Naturally Ilooked into this anxiety condition and began to investigate this homosexual who had maintained relations with an elderly gentleman for years, with reference to his heterosexuality. I was surprised when he brought forth countless heterosexual reminiscences from his childhood. During the first few days I heard the usual history ofurnings: the liking for girls’ games, womanly behavior, he had always been more like a girl in everything, etc. But soon the picture changed and the heterosexual tendency became gradually more evident. His dependence on the attachment to the mother was striking. One-sided as my attitude was at the time, I made certain deductions, somewhat hastily, regarding the roots of homosexuality, and in the first edition of myAngstzustände(1908), after several similar experiences, I wrote:
“As is shown by my latest investigations these cases are frequently neuroses. Some time homosexuality improves or may disappear under psychoanalysis. Homosexuality represents merely the complete revulsion of infantile incestuous thoughts. Homosexual males never experience any erotic feeling in contact with a strange woman; they confess that they can feel towards these women only as towards a sister or the mother. That discloses to us the roots of homosexuality. The concept ‘woman’ is unalterably fused with the concepts ‘mother’and ‘sister.’ TheAbwehrof incestuous fancies determines the flight into homosexuality. That transposition naturally is facilitated through corresponding somatic changes. The homosexual, too, is a victim of infantile reminiscences. Thus homosexuality turns out to be but a special form of the neurotic repression.”
With youthful impetuosity I formulated the results of my investigations somewhat hastily at the time and expressed the therapeutic results in too optimistic a tone. In the course of time I learned to know better. Many patients who considered themselves cured were only improved and stuck to theiruranism. We shall have to speak of that with full particulars.
For the present I must consider more fully the theme “mother and homosexuality.” The relationship between the two I had originally conceived according to the Freudian formula. I did not see at the time the influence of other forces, such as I have already pointed out here. The earliest dream of my first homosexual, for instance, was about a murder, the victim being a woman; I did not understand that dream. I did not know that the fear of woman stood for the fear of criminal tendencies, that the subject was a sadist who had saved himself through homosexuality from committing some regrettable deed. These impulses accompanied theincest phantasies which were unusually strong and of which he was fully aware long before analysis. The latter were merely pushed out of consciousness as unbearable. A short time laterSadgerpublished his first analysis of a homosexual and in that contribution he formulated the thesis that like every other neurosis homosexuality arises during the fourth year and that the task of analysis, therefore, must be to reach back to the fourth year.[7]
Sadgeremphasized: “From the very first I assumed that the homosexual tendencies may be acquired only if they are formed during the first four years, precisely as in the case of hysteria and compulsive neurosis and that psychoanalysis ought to uncover the fact. What stood beyond psychoanalysis must be innate and corresponds to the sexual constitution proper.”
That work, extremely one-sided and full of contradictions, still attempts to reduce homosexuality to the love of the father. The mother plays a limited rôle. It is mentioned passingly that the subject of the analysis had never loved a being so dearly as the mother; but even before the mother’sdeath an aunt had attracted to herself the boy’s love.
But what are the conclusions drawn bySadgerfrom the case? None whatever! He is pleased that he has been able to bring to light such interesting material but knows not what to do with it. Among the various questions and answers there is a very significant passage suggesting an important conclusion. Concerning his attachment to the mother the subject states: “And my love arose chiefly through compassion, because father drank a great deal lately and paid attention to other women and mother often wept and that made me feel badly.”
That is a fact which I have had occasion frequently to corroborate. The children of drinkers and “woman-chasers” turn easily homosexual, in the endeavor to be unlike the father. They then hate woman and scorn everything that the father liked in particular. They become abstinent and try to behave contrary to the father in every respect.
Sadger’spatient actually points out this tendency. He states: “Father clearly had no homosexual inclination as he was a great admirer of women. From the time he began telling me about the school—he was particularly fond of French women—he also advised me to marry only a French woman and showed me French pictures and the photos of various French women. It was thus instilledin me that I ought to marry a French woman.” And what did the father accomplish thereby? Was it jealousy or pity and love for the mother? The father accomplished the contrary of what he set out to do. Instead of obedience he was met with spite. The subject relates: “Later when I became aware of my homosexual inclinations,everything French-like was particularly hateful to me, especially the French women, I no longer liked the French language or anything whatever related to French....”
The subject had a pronounced fear of marriage, having seen a sad example of it in his own home. He dreams of getting married, a minister is about to perform the ceremony, and he is so unhappy in the midst of it that upon awakening his happiness knows no bounds. He fears every great passion. “I am afraid of a really tremendous love, because such a passion always makes me unhappy.” The analysis discloses other relations to the father which are of greatest significance.
The feeling-attitude in question dates in fact from the earliest childhood. As yet we are ignorant of child nature and we do not fully appreciate that the fundamental traits of life show themselves very definitely during early childhood. This boy must have conceived early the thought:I must not be like the father!and so he turned away from women becausethe father was an admirer of that sex. Whether this choice of attitude was also influenced directly by love for the father I am unable to assert in that particular case. It seems to play a contributory rôle and greatly denied love may enhance the child’s attachment to the mother.But does not the example of a drinking “woman-chaser” contrasted to the picture of a quiet suffering mother seem to be enough to induce the differentiation and to maintain it as its underlying determining motive?Back of the homosexuality of the first case of the kind analyzed bySadgerstands the subject’s fear of becoming like his father. The violent fancies disclosed in the course of the analysis show that there are also other reasons for the subject’s fear of woman. He is so constituted that he cannot see blood. This peculiarity denotes the conversion of a craving for violence and signifies a repressed sadism.
In Russia he once witnessed how a man split his wife’s head open with a stone.... The occurrence so impressed him that he could never get it out of his mind, and he also likes to dwell on wars and other bloody scenes.
There can be no doubt the man is a sadist and that with reference to women in particular. He has full reason to fear woman. His fear is fear of himself. He must turn to man, towards whom he does not feel the instinctive sexual hatred whichmakes heterosexual excitations impossible for him. When he has intercourse with a woman, he feels subsequently a tremendous disgust and revulsion, the whole thing seems to him unnatural. In the end he gives up all such attempts.
Obviously he is all the time seeking a kindly preeminent father for he falls in love with an elderly philosopher, out of respect for philosophy, as he paralogizes, because he looks to philosophy to redeem him from his suffering. The differentiation is an attempt at gaining freedom, a tendency to overcome the nature of the father. The love of the philosopher is a substitution for the love of the father.
Thus we see the importance of the early life history of every subject for the understanding of homosexuality. The constellation of childhood permits the reading of the horoscope for the future. Perhaps this uncontrovertible truth contains the root of all astrologic art, “the planetary laws governing the facts of life.” The father as the sun, the mother as the milder moon and the children, the stars. Our fate arranges itself in accordance with the constellation of these planets. Blind accident and innate forces cooperate to create man as he is.
But let us look further into the investigations ofSadgerto whom the credit must not be denied of having applied himself earnestly to the attempt of solving the problem of homosexuality.
His next publication appeared also in 1908.[8]Here we find clearly taken into account the infantile heterosexual attitude which all homosexuals usually forget but which always precedes genuine homosexuality.
“The young student, 21 years of age at the time, was sent to me, because he was tormented by various homosexual inclinations, especially directed towards young boys 14–20 years of age, associated with all sorts of masochistic feelings. In contact with woman (a prostitute with whom he sought intercourse three times till then, the first two times spontaneously, to see whether he is at all potent, the third time, on medical advice as well as upon his father’s insistence) he found himself entirelyimpotent. Questioned whether he ever felt any inclination towards the opposite sex, he only recalls that when he was two or three years of age he once opened the garden gate for a girl of about his own age, with a flourish of extreme gallantry. Concerning any hereditary factors he can only relate that a brother of his mother’s had some mental trouble. The mother herself seemed to have something boy-like and manly about her, on the other hand the father showed very little sensuousness and rather pronounced inverted traits, while a sister, who died early, had avery boy-like facial expression.She preferred boyish games and at 4 or 5 years of age she chose a boy’s hobby horse for her Christmas present. Some female cousins—on mother’s as well as on father’s side—were clearly amphigenously inverted. The subject himself had unusually broad hips and the growth of his facial hair was noticeably scant. As a child he is supposed to have played only with dolls, never with soldiers, he never took part in boys’ games and he also learned embroidery.
“Plainly a clear case of inversion with masochistic traits. What was revealed through the analysis of this particularly intelligent subject? In the first place, a remarkable peculiarity:his earliest inclinations were directed towards women,—not some one in particular, but a number of them. His first beloved was the motherand, of course, after a time he turned away from her. After that he felt himself tremendously attracted to an elderly mother of children, proposed marriage to her and that woman later figured in many of his pubertal coitus dreams. Next he displayed such an extreme gallantry towards a girl of his own age that it became very noticeable and his mother spoke to him about it and he felt very ashamed and uneasy.
“During his childhood a servant maid also had made a deep impression on his feelings and she reappears in various male types. Among the homosexual inclinations traceable to the first years Ilook upon his attachment to a couple of uncles as the strongest and most significant, next the love of a 9-year-old boy belonging to the nobility (baron). In his fourth year the attachment to a boy who taught him masturbation, in his sixth and seventh years the influence of a private teacher. During his fourth year, on account of his mother’s condition, following childbirth, he slept for a time with his father in one bed and this suggested various homosexual wishes and fancies. When a little sister came into the worldhe promptly fell in love with her. Even more striking is the subject’s normal sexual calf-love affairs in his seventh and eighth years with three or four schoolgirl mates of about his age. It turned out that each one of these girls contributed some traits to the types, both male and female, which later were alone capable of rousing his emotional interest.
“These facts, of which the subject was entirely unconscious and which had to be brought to surface after months of diligent analysis, yield an entirely new picture.First of all they show us how little even the most intelligent person knows himself, and, consequently, how careful we must be in accepting even the most candid statements. Secondly,—that even pure cases of inversion do not exclude the presence of normal sexual inclinations, indeed, that the latter may actually be present, though the subject be unaware of the fact. Thirdly,—andfinally,—that the inversion is traceable as far back as the fourth year although it may reach consciousness only during puberty.”
Here already I must point out the first contradiction. It is not a fact that the inversion is traceable back to the fourth year. I have analyzed a number of cases in which the inversion arose after puberty and much later. The beginnings of the homosexual disposition reach into childhood with all persons. This turning away from the other sex may break forth early in some cases and in others much later.But it is a fact that every analysis discloses the heterosexual trait which the homosexuals forget, or speaking more correctly, repress, because it does not appear to fit into their system.Analytically this case ofSadger’sseems to me to be an instance of fixation upon the sister. The boys are substitutes for the sister. We will give the histories of several such cases. He who understands the neurotic’s art of metamorphosing his ideals, he who has learned through their dreams to appreciate this trick of substitution, will readily appreciate that a girl may be loved through falling in love with a boy. It is related ofPlatenthat he possessed a marvelous phantasy. For a long time a colleague was changed for him into an owl whom he avoided on the way. In Neapel he kept for days a cat on his lap pretending it was an enchantedprincess. Genuine fetichism shows to what unbelievable metamorphoses the sexual ideal is subjected. With the homosexuals to find a boy who stands as symbol for self or for a sister is a common experience. Like all neurotics they do not possess the capacity to distinguish between the world of fancy and that of reality. I have called neurosisthe tyranny of symbolisms. This is particularly true of the neurotic who becomes homosexual. All values are transformed, the object becomes subject and vice versa. In the midst of this transformation of all facts one thing remains fast and true: the infantile ideal which is yearned for with the persistence generated by the eternally ungratified craving.
In his next contributionSadgerreports the results of the analysis of an invert during a period of six months (Zur Ætiologie der konträren Sexualempfindung, Med. Klinik, 1909, No. 2). The special preference of his patient for passive pederasty he traces to the frequent use of enemas during childhood. (In fact it seems to me that the many unnecessary enemas administered during early childhood may contribute towards the fixation of the anus as an erogenous zone.) He also traces out in this case the repressed heterosexuality. “The vacillations of thelibidobetween male and female are like the facial innervation which, as is well known,is based on the equilibrium between the muscles innervated simultaneously by the pair offacialisnerves. Paralysis of thefacialisnerve on one side causes not only weakness of the muscles on the affected side but induces also contractures of the muscles on the opposite side.” The patient referred to was attached exclusively to his father, who, himself somewhat homosexually inclined, won the child’s heart through his excessive tenderness, in contrast to the rather severe mother. During his fourth year, on account of the mother’s pregnant state, he slept with his father, an occurrence to whichSadgerattaches great significance. The objects of the boy’s homosexual attachments bore some resemblance to the beloved sister. He weaned himself away from his attachment to his mother during his fifteenth year, when he saw his mother deformed with a tremendous ascites on account of which she had to be tapped a number of times. Her appearance at the time filled him with disgust for all women. As over-determination of this feeling-attitude of aversion he recalls the following: after the puerperium referred to above his mother had a profuse leucorrheal discharge which the boy, already sensitive to all scents—he was four years of age at the time—found very repulsive whenever he approached his mother. The subject also recalls vividly how his mother repulsed his aggressive ways with her, between his 3rd and 6th year. (“Healways wanted to grab her by the breasts and tried to go to her room and to the bathroom as soon as she went in.”)
Much as physicians unacquainted with infantile sexuality may ignore such aggressions they do take place and some mothers have verified them for me. On the other hand it is hardly likely that a child four years of age should be repelled from the mother on account of scent. At that early age scent is rather a stimulant and is never accompanied by disgust.
I turn now to the last and most comprehensive deductions formulated bySadgerin his study entitled:Ein Fall von multipler perversion mit hysterischen Absenzen(‘A case of multiple perversions with hysterical amnesias’).[9]
This work contains a chapter entitled“New Contributions to the Theory of Homosexuality.”HereSadgerabandons entirely his former notion about the significance of the fourth year and states: “Permanentinclination towards one’s own sex usually comes to surface and is certainly increased during puberty, or during the prepubescent period at the earliest, in our latitude around the tenth or eleventh year. Occasionally an earlier onset is recorded and every case of that kind is due to some special factors.” Permanent homosexuality is establishedthrough some significant incident which leads to the repression of the mother in her rôle as helper and teacher. Such incidents are death, sudden financial reverse, and consequent serious neurosis, making sanatorium treatment necessary, inconsiderate persecution of the boy on account of masturbation and similar traumata. The love feeling is turned from the mother to the father, or to older comrades, or to comrades of about the same age, who stand as substitutes for the mother and initiate the boy into the facts of love....
The path to homosexuality leads over love of self, through narcissism. “The state of being in love with one’s own person, which shows itself also in the admiration of one’s own genitalia (sic), is never absent as a developmental phase.” Every person has two aboriginal sexual objectives to which he clings throughout life: the mother and self. The father replaces self only for a short period because as the primary rival in his relationship to the mother the child early assumes an antagonistic attitude towards him. Theurninghates woman for an obvious reason: “when the best of women, my own mother, amounts to no more than that, what can there be to any other woman?”
Here follows a convincing proof that theurningidentifies himself with his mother. Theurningalways plans to instruct his beloved, for the mother does it. (Does not the father, rather, do it?) Thepatient has instructed a waiter in geology and history of art, subjects which did not interest the latter. But the mother had done the same....
Mosturningsare said to be “only” children. (This statement like many another ofSadger’s, is positively false. Among 500 homosexualsHirschfeldfound only 67 “only” children and among them only 54 were sons. My own statistical figures are even smaller. But the percentage among my neurotics is practically the same.)
Sadgersummarizes his findings in five fundamental statements:
“1. Theurningis a victim of withdrawal from the mother (the first caretaker or nurse, respectively) in whom he is himself seriously disappointed. He represses the mother by identifying himself completely with her.
2. The path to homosexuality leads through narcissism, that is, love of self, as one was, or as one may ideally be.
3. The sexual ideal of the invert includes not only traits of former female and male sexual objectives but also features of one’s own beloved self.
4. Being brought up in surroundings exclusively feminine—the father does not count in such circumstances—fosters homosexuality in the male as well as in the female, for reasons that are not sufficientlyclear as yet. Moreover theurningis usually an only child.
5. Finally inversion may be fostered by a sort of ‘latter-day obedience’ to the mother’s commands. I have observed not rarely that mothers warn their children against harmless, though warm and friendly contact with the other sex, as something unpermissible and bad and that the teaching thus instilled may unfortunately increase the disposition to one’s own sex through later obedience.”
The first of these conclusions is a false one. The homosexual is not a victim of withdrawal from the mother, but rather of a fixation on her. But this subject will be discussed fully later.
One represses no person with whom one identifies one’s self.Identification is direct love, differentiation means repression.Many homosexuals identify themselves with the mother—of that there can be no doubt. But that identification already implies the repression of the father-ideal.The problem of homosexuality cannot be solved one-sidedly, and I have the records of a number of cases in which the mother plays no rôle whatever.
The only psychologic hypothesis we possess—Sadger’s—fails to satisfy on account of its onesidedness. It holds true of certain cases. But it neglects entirely the great significance of sadism,it overlooks the fact that the attachment to the father is more important and more deeply repressed than the love for the mother, it overlooks entirely the identification with the father and the differentiation from him and it fails altogether to explain the occurrence of later homosexuality, which is of particular interest to us (tardive Homosexualität). The awakening of homosexuality is ascribed to a period which varies according to the different investigators all the way from the fifth to the twentieth year, and even later. I mention here the ages shown in the first twenty of my cases taken at random. Homosexuality became manifest at 12, 10, 12, 15, 16, 22, 13, 11, 14, 8, 14, 12, 17, 17, 17, 13, 21, 15, 17, 24 (Average, 15).
The ages as given are generally high,—only in one subject did the homosexual attitude become manifest as early as the eighth year. But that, certainly, is incorrect. For we know that the homosexual leaning is present already during the earliest period and positively that children’s feeling-attitude is bisexual during the first few years. The figures are significant only as showing us that “genuine homosexuality” is preceded by a lengthy period of latency.