This interesting analysis illustrates all the chief points to be found in the psychogenesis of male homosexuality. In fact the girl was on the point of becoming as fond of men as her mother, perhaps of indulging in bisexual activities. Her sister’s experience opened her eyes and acted as a terrible warning. The yearning for purity which animates every soul and is the polar counterpart of the desire for tasting every sort of experience, became uppermost in her case, the fear of becoming like the sister, or like the mother, and her hatred of the mother, jointly, had the effect of shaping her into a different being. She probably would have not yielded to the homosexual love of the Frenchwoman had she not been overcome by the fact that the woman was her brother’s sweetheart. It was a case of incest through a third person.... She hated her mother and had to protect herself against the danger ofhaving children who grow up to be one’s enemies. Thus children became her enemies. The father played a negligible rôle in her life and had no influence on the development of her homosexuality.
I do not know well her subsequent history. Her depression was soon relieved and her hatred of children disappeared entirely. But she left Vienna and went to another country, obviously to get away from her family and to forget her whole past. I had advised her to do so and the fact that she had followed my advice permits us to hope that, after the tempestuous course of her past life, she may have succeeded, at last, in finding a friendlier harbor.