Homosexuality in History. Just as the problem of bisexuality has engaged the attention of observers for ages, so the specific phenomenon of homosexuality has been ever more closely studied, dramatized, romanced about, castigated, and, in some quarters, idealized.

Herodotus, the Greek historian, who seemed possessed of omnipresence, because he appeared to have been everywhere and seen everything in the known world of his time, described definite characteristics indicative of homosexuality. Thus, writing of the Scythians, he referred to a “peculiar disease,” the symptoms of which were these: That certain of the men became effeminate in character, put on female garments, did the work of women, and even became effeminate in appearance. In attempting an explanation of this abnormality, Herodotus fell back on the myth that the goddess Venus, angered by the plundering of the temple of Ascalon by the Scythians, had made women of these plunderers and their posterity.

Herodotus also made the curious remark, with respect to these effeminate Scythians, whom he called Enarees or Androgyni, that “they were endowed by Venus with the power of divination,” and were consulted by the Scythian King when he was ill.

Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” having no faith in supernatural causes of disease, ascribed the cause to impotence. He attributed it, incorrectly, however as due to the custom of the Scythians to have themselves bled behind the ears in order to cure an affliction brought about by excessive horse-back riding. It was his theory that these veins were of great importance in the preservation of the sexual powers, and that when they were severed, impotence followed.

The Scythians so afflicted, however, believing their impotence due to divine punishment and beyond human aid, donned the garb of females and lived as women, among women.

It is thought that fear of excess population on the part of the early Greeks was one of the factors in turning their erotic interest from women to young men. As the so-called Greek states of that period consisted principally of cities with the very limited capacity for sustenance, the problem of feeding the population was one of some concern. Aristotle, on this account, advised the men to shun their wives and to indulge in boy-love. Even before this, Socrates had already hailed pederasty as a mark of superior virtue.

Diotima revealed to Socrates a new spiritual principle in erotic life—the principle which guides man beyond the pleasures of the senses and, through love, leads him to the divine. “The slave of his senses runs after women; but he who loves with his soul and strives to win immortality through virtue and wisdom, seeks a great and beautiful soul that he may surrender himself to it completely.” This looks innocent enough on the surface, but as it was the opinion of the Greeks that a beautiful soul was to be found only in the body of a man, the implications are clear.

Dr. Beaturice M. Hinkle (The Re-Creating of the Individual) remarks that “The symbol of this human ideal achievement for the Greek was the psychic hermaphrodite, the blend of feminine and masculine attributes in a male form and its immortalization was attained in Greek art. The homosexuality flourished as the natural accompaniment of man's love for himself—that is, of his own sex; and was an incidental result which does not affect the real significance of the Greek achievement, nor alter the greatness of their ideal aim, the creation of the highest human values under the conception of ideal love, and the effort at its achievement in the world of reality. . . . The ‘great and beautiful soul’ could only be found in the male form— women belonged to the animal sphere and could contribute only to the sensual pleasure of man.”

As the women were neglected by the men, the former tended to engage in erotic practices among members of their own sex. In the island of Lesbos, the women were especially given to indulging in the love of their own sex, from which historic precedent we get the term Lesbian love.

Sappho, the Lesbian Nightingale who lived about 600 B.C., was the principal representative and has remained the classic oracle of this form of erotic expression. In her Ode to Venus, she sings fervently of her passions:

“Thou who rulest all, upon flowers enthroned,
Daughter of Zeus, born of foam, thou artful one,
Hark to my call.
Not in anguish and bitter suffering, O goddess,
Let me perish!—”

The opinion is expressed by Dr. Iwan Bloch in his great work, “Die Prostitution,” that homosexuality, or account of its strange and inexplicable character, was accounted by primitive people as something divine and miraculous. To the homosexual man or woman were therefore attributed supernatural powers. In this respect, the homosexual had characteristics in common with the primitive gods, which probably accounts for the ancients venerating their inverts.

Bloch says on this score: “This riddle, which despite all our efforts, present-day science has not satisfactorily solved, must to the primitive intelligence have appeared even more inexplicable than to us; and a man born with the inclination toward his own sex must have been regarded as something extraordinary, as one of those strange freaks of Nature which among primitives are so easily accounted divine marvels and honored as such. The by no means scanty supply of ethnological facts on this subject which we possess confirms the above view, and shows in what odor of sanctity homosexual individuals have often stood among Nature-folk—for which reason they frequently played an important part in religious rituals and festivals.”

It was the theory of Adolf Bastian, a German authority, that the priests among early peoples, as representatives of the bisexual principle in Nature, encouraged homosexual rites in the temples on the same footing as heterosexual rites.

“The men,” stated Bastian, “prayed to the active powers of Nature, and the women, in privacy and retirement, to the feminine powers—while the priests, who had to satisfy the demands of both parties, learned the idea of sex changes from the moon, and served the masculine gods in masculine attire, and the goddesses in feminine garments, or set up images of a bearded Venus, and of a Hercules as spinning at the wheel.”

Referring to Rome in the time of the emperors, during which time lewdness and debauchery assumed forms that could only have been inspired by moral insanity, Bebel states that men and women vied with each other in immorality. The number of public brothels increased rapidly, and, besides, “Greek love” (pederasty) was practiced more and more by the men. As an indication of the extent of homosexual indulgence, at one time the number of male prostitutes in Rome was greater than the number of female prostitutes.

Later, when the pendulum swung the other way, repressive measures were taken to stamp out the practice of homosexuality. Both Constantine and Theodosius enacted legislation against sexual inversion, even going to the extent of committing the offenders to “avenging flames.” The statutes, however, were not rigidly enforced, and modern opinion on the question may be said to have come from Justinian's enactments.

Complexity of Sex. It has been stated that the individual normally goes through three stages in the course of his sexual development—which are represented by the following dominant characteristics, in the order given: Autosexuality, Homosexuality, and Heterosexuality.

Each is normal at a certain stage of life. Circumstances, hereditary or environmental, or a combination of both, may halt the course of development at either the first or second stage, so that the final evolution of sexual life may never be realized.

This refers to the psychological and emotional aspects of sexual development, rather than to the purely physical, as it is the former that sustains the shocks in the difficult process of the individual's social adjustment.

While there is naturally a great deal of theoretical abstraction in such a broad survey of the sexual life, nevertheless, there are enough concrete facts at hand to make the conclusions as serviceable as any that are to be obtained within the realm of clinical practice. The sexual urge is by no means a simple, direct manifestation, but consists of many partial and often conflicting impulses, with ramifications that extend into every channel and by-way of life.

Autosexuality,, as the term implies, means that an individual's sexual interest is turned upon himself. This condition is normal in infants and children. IT is also pronounced in members of primitive and savage tribes, and has its analogy in the lower orders of the animal and vegetable world in those species of which the individuals are self-sufficient sexually.

Those types, which are capable of reproducing their kind without depending for fertilization upon another individual of the same species, are called hermaphrodites. This latter term, in its true sense, means combining the sexual organs of the two sexes. There are some human beings—variants—who possess hermaphrodite characteristics, usually combining the more or less completely developed organs of one sex with the rudimentary organs of the opposite sex.

These hermaphrodite characters are not without their significance—namely, the innate bisexuality of man. While in the normal person, the attributes of one sex are dominant, there are always present in latent form some evidences of the opposite sex. This is no new discovery. In fact, the concept of bisexuality is very ancient. Traces of it are to be found in Chinese mythology. The classical Greek mind seems to have had a particular interest in speculating about it. The mythical personification of bisexuality in the Hermaphroditos, the narrative of Apistophanes in the platonic dialogue, and at a latter period in the suggestion of a Gnostic sect (Theophites) that primitive man was a “man-woman,” are all based on this thought. The first divinities were usually always bisexual, being either women with a penis, or men with a female breast.

There are, of course, rudimentary, or vestigial, characters of the opposite sex in both normal males and females, giving evidence to the fact of the innate bisexuality of the higher organisms, and that no individual is wholly of one sexual cast.

The physical bisexual characters—those of the opposite sex being present in rudimentary form—are readily recognizable. In the male, there are the vestigial breasts and nipples, and other rudimentary features less prominent, and sometimes a general feminine contour of body and cast of face is noticeable in the male.

The most feminine of women have a growth of colorless hair, called the “lanugo,” corresponding to the male beard. If the woman has a large proportion of masculine chemistry in her make-up, this hirsute growth may be quite prominent, and in some cases very pronounced, as in the instance of the bearded ladies who exhibit themselves in shows and circuses. Women with a more or less definite masculine cast of figure, movement, manner, face and voice are commonplace—as is the opposite phenomenon—effeminate men.

The psychological phases of bisexuality parallel the physical. We might even go farther and state they are more in evidence than the physical, as they are subject to modification by environmental influences to a degree far exceeding the physical. The individual may suffer a retardation or fixation at any stage of sexual development, which holds him back into another and more primitive psychical and emotional level, which he has chronologically outgrown.

All small children are autosexual, and evidence a sexual interest in their bodies. Sometimes this is true in only a slight, almost casual, degree; other times it is pronounced, and becomes a problem. There is often a tendency toward automatic masturbation, or other forms of so-called sexual precocity, which may unduly alarm parents. However, it is well for parents to know that these manifestations are not abnormal—unless grossly over-emphasized—but are merely indicative of the passing stage of autosexuality. They will in due course be outgrown and replaced by other manifestations of sexual interest, unless unwise methods of repression are used or other factors cause a deviation from normal development.

Homosexuality indicates a state in which one is sexually attracted toward members of the same sex. This is normally a primitive characteristic of childhood, which prevails up to the time of adolescence, but which may persist in adult life. Some degree of it does normally hold over in every adult, but it remains in the background of the unconscious, and is sublimated along socially approved lines.

Young boys and young girls usually have little interest in the opposite sex—in fact, are frequently quite scornful of them. On the other hand , they form strong friendships with members of their own sex, and , as is well known, when their sexual interests have not been successfully sublimated, engage in mutual sexual practices and masturbation.

Before the full development of the genital organs, the sexual tendencies are predominantly homosexual, although the influence of the preceding state (autosexuality) is still considerably in evidence, and there is also present the germ of the succeeding stage of heterosexuality (erotic desire toward members of the opposite sex). If the youth has been reared in a healthy, constructive environment, conducive to proper sublimation of his primitive sexual tendencies, and particularly if his libido is not excessive, he may scarcely be conscious of his homosexual impulses. On the other hand, if he is endowed with an usually strong hereditary sexual constitution, or if the repression and sublimation have been faulty in his upbringing, the homosexual tendencies may reflect themselves in various ways in his conscious attitudes.

It will be understood that there is no abrupt line of demarcation between these stages of development. They overlap, and some of each of them, even the most primitive and infantile, are carried over in the unconscious mind throughout adult life. In the normal, well-adjusted adult, there are still rudiments of the previous stages of the emotional and affective life, just as the body contains vestiges of the bisexual organism, from which it evolved in the early period of intrauterine life.

It should be borne in mind that inversion is by no means synonymous with degeneracy.* It will, of course, be conceded that there are degenerate homosexuals, just as there are degenerate heterosexuals.

Prominent in the classification of adolescent homosexual attractions are the school-friendships of girls, which are known variously as “crushes,” “flames” and “raves.” Elaborate romances are sometimes bound up in these attachments, with their love at first sight, courtship, love letters, jealousy and other manifestations of erotic affection. Havelock Ellis states that while these alliances are sometimes sexual, they are often not so—but are full of “psychic erethism.”

Speculation About the Causes of Homosexuality. Some of the greatest sexologists and psychologists of modern times have concerned themselves with the cause and nature of homosexuality. So much new material relating both to biological and psychological problems has been unearthed in later years that many of the older writers, whose opinions have long carried much weight, are now considered obsolete with respect to homosexual factors.

Krafft-Ebing, for instance, a widely quoted authority, and still influential through his works, originally conceived homosexuality as the result of an hereditary transmission. This contention has never been fully corroborated by the observations of later investigators.

To this extent only is homosexuality an inherited trait beyond fear of contradiction: Everybody inherits homosexual tendencies. As we have observed, every child is homosexual in disposition. Therefore, heredity per se does not give us the key to the problem, except possibly in those instances where the hereditary constitution furnishes certain predisposing factors to homosexuality. And it seems entirely probable that this predisposition may be overcome, wholly or in part, in a healthy, constructive environment; or it may be cultivated in the opposite kind of environment.

From this standpoint, heredity may furnish a favorable background—for almost anything. The results depend to no less an extent upon the far-reaching influences of environment. Consider for a moment how fertile a breeding ground for the homosexual disposition is for the home-life presided over by certain types of nervous and psychopathic parents!

Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the greatest of contemporary authorities on the sex question in all its phases, is convinced that homosexuality is a normal state for a substantial portion of the population, and that genuine homosexuality is always an inborn condition. His views may be summed up in the statement that there is a genuine inborn homosexuality which must not be considered a morbidity. Furthermore, it should not be confused either with bisexuality or with pseudo-homosexuality.

Those who look upon homosexuality from the psychopathological viewpoint are in agreement to this extent—that the homosexual condition is not a product of degeneration in the ordinary sense, but, rather, a neurosis.

Stekel states emphatically, “I have never yet found a homosexual who was not a neurotic.”

The relationship of neuroses and homosexuality is set forth by the same authority as follows:

(a) Pronounced physical and mental stigmata of degeneration are relatively rare among homosexual men and women; at any rate such signs are not more frequent in proportion to the total number of homosexuals than among heterosexuals of both sexes.

(b) On the other hand, we find frequently and not merely as a result of homosexuality, a greater instability of the nervous system (frequently shown in the periodic character of temperamental instability).

(c) The family of the homosexual often contains a larger number of nervous persons and such as deviate from the normal sexual type.

This latter observation, of course, tends to give homosexuality an hereditary aspect, which is Hirshfeld's opinion. But, when analyzed, this may mean that a nervous or neurotic disposition is inherited, which, under certain environmental conditions (the negative attitude of the father, the dominant mother, etc.) leads to a homosexual goal.

Dr. Iwan Bloch, who has world-wide standing as a sexologist, gives the following interesting opinion:

1. The so-called “undifferentiated” stage of the sexual instinct is often eliminated when the instinct becomes directed toward one particular sex among heterosexuals or homosexuals before the advent of puberty. Homosexuality shows a definite, clear direction of the sexual instinct towards the same sex long before puberty.

2. A comprehensive theory of homosexuality must also explain the extreme cases, particularly male homosexuality coupled with complete virility.

3. Sexual parts and genital glands cannot determine homosexuality in those possessing typical normal male genitalia and testicles; neither can the brain itself be the determining factor in genuine homosexuality, because homosexuality cannot be rooted out by the strongest conscious and unconscious heterosexual influences brought to bear upon thought and phantasy—the condition developing in spite of such influences.

4. Since ,as a predisposition (not as sexual instinct), homosexuality appears long before puberty and before the actual functioning of the respective genital glands, it suggests that in homosexuals some physiologic action pertaining to “sexuality,” but not necessarily related to the functioning of the genital glands, undergoes some subtle change as the result of which the sexual instinct is turned from its normal goal.

5. The condition suggests chemical changes, alteration in the chemistry of sexual tension, the latter being fairly independent of the activity of the sexual glands proper, as is shown by the fact that it may be preserved among eunuchs and others who undergo castration.

Krafft-Ebing, Hirschfeld and Bloch, as well as many other investigators and writers, have failed to appreciate the psychological factors involved in homosexuality. Every young individual unconsciously patterns its conduct, especially in the matter of its attitudes toward persons of the opposite sex, after some one in the home environment. When the boy, for instance, is raised under conditions which cause him to pattern his actions after the mother-model, to feel himself woman-like, he will tend unconsciously and automatically to imitate feminine ways and adopt woman's attitudes, in the sexual sphere as well as otherwise.

Every young boy's ambition, normally, is to be like his father; later, it may be to excel the father—but this identification, under the circumstances, is present. Now, the absence of a father or other older male in the household, or the presence of a father of weak character, who suffers in comparison with the mother, tends to force the youth to make his ego-ideal identification with the mother, with results that are not conducive to normality in the adjustment of the emotional-sex life.

Under the latter condition, the youth associates the mother with sex domination and personal power—it is a woman-dominated world. Consequently there is also present the attitude, either of wishing to be a woman and to be superior, or of fleeing from woman when she clashes with his will to power as man.

Any one who knows the dynamic influence that mental processes, particularly the unconscious ones, have over the physical organism and its far-reaching ramifications, will recognize at once the possibilities that are bound up in endless varieties of this situation.

We see this same principle everyday, and in fact apply it (in the opposite manner to obtain the opposite results), when we inculcate manly ideas in the mids of our boys and encourage them to conduct themselves accordingly, in order to develop in them the attributes of manliness. With girls, we foster the womanly ideal and encourage them in the direction of proper feminine conduct to promote the accredited qualities of womanhood.

We also see evidenced at times the wish to remain a child, and to retain the priviliges and attentions of childhood, which apply to neurotic persons. This notably interferes with their development and progress toward adulthood.

Stekel tells us that when a boy acts like a girl it does not necessarily mean that he has that kind of a predisposition. It may only signify his identification with his mother or sister, whom he unconsciously accepts as a model after whom to pattern his conduct.

Alfred Adler, whose conception of the neurosis is based on the hypothesis of “the male protest,” associates homosexuality with this principle. In his opinion, all reactions and protective constructions or fixations of the neurotic are based on the wish to be a “complete being,” as he sees it. Homosexuality exemplifies this protest in a singular form. The homosexual's ambition is (in its unconscious implications): I want to be a woman! This, according to Adler, is a male protest under the guise of female means. He maintains that the homosexual attempts by this means to enhance his strength of personality. The latter turns away from woman because he fears his inferiority. He fears the sexual partner. Fear, shame, hate and disgust are the inhibitions which drive the homosexual away from the opposite sex.

Adler mentions that the over-valuation of the homosexual partner serves also to raise the neurotic invert in this own estimation. Thus, in neuroses, homosexuality, even when carried into practice, is always found to be a symbol by means of which it is sought to place the individual's own superiority beyond question. This mechanism is similar to that of a religious psychosis, in which the fancied nearness to God has the significance of an elevation. In a sense, the religious fanatic identifies himself with God, just as the non-religious psychopath may identify himself with Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander the Great, or some other character in history whose personality completely dominated his environment.

Syphilophobia (fear of sympilis) is one of the forms which the fear of women is especially likely to take. The attitude of such phobists is usually as follows: They fear that they will not be able to play a dominating part in regard to women because of some feeling of inferiority, for which they have all sorts of imaginary foundations, at times without conscious motivation. In this manner, following the increasing trend to belittle woman, they arrive at suspicious trains of thought which are a barrier to them against sexual relations. Sometimes a woman is a riddle, sometimes a criminal person, or a shallow spend-thrift, always thinking of adornment and similar vanities, and sexually insatiable.

The suspicions constantly arise that woman is a crafty and cunning being, bent on evil. This conception is universal and is found in all periods of history. As Adler states, “They emerge in the most sublime and lowest creations of art, have a place in the thoughts and efforts of the wisest, and create in man and in society a constant predisposition which develops suspicious and cautious traits in order always to keep in touch with the enemy and be in good time for the defense against knavish attacks. It is an error to think that it is only the man who harbors distrust of the sexual partner. The same trait is found also in the woman, often less distinct in character, when fictions of her own strength put a check to the doubt of her own value, but flashing up most strongly when the feeling of degradation becomes overpowering.”

The detraction of woman, which recurs so constantly in Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan religious writings and usages, undoubtedly has this psychological impulse behind it. The medieval disputes as to whether woman had a soul, or indeed, whether she was really a human being at all; the hideous persecution and burning of women as witches and vampires, which was participated in by church, state and populace—all of these practices had behind them in some degree a neurotic fear of woman as the sexual partner. Man feared his inferiority, and he compensated for that fear by subjecting, and often eliminating, the object of his phobia. By this irrational gesture, he symbolically raised himself to a position of greater security.

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), a brilliant and learned man and able legal official of Hanover, Germany, for many years expounded and defended homosexual love. He was himself an invert, and made many attempts to secure a revision of the legal position of the sexual invert in Germany.

Ulrichs formulated an elaborate classification of human types, with an interesting nomenclature, which, despite its elaborateness, has been found serviceable.

Among males, he classifies the normal man as the “Dioning,” and the invert as the “Urning.”* Urnings are subdivided into several groups. First, those who are thoroughly manly in appearance and mental habit and character—“Mannlings”—and who tend to love softer and younger specimens of their own sex; second, those who are effeminate in appearance and cast of mind—“Weiblings”—who love rougher and older men; third, those who are of medium type—“Zwischen Urnings”—and love young men.

Then there are the “Urano-Dionings,” who have the capacity of love in both directions, that is, for women and for men. These are generally of a manly type.

Besides these, there are some sub-species, such as the “Uraniaster,” who is a normal man who has acquired the Urning habit; and the “Virilized Urning,” who is an Urning who has gotten the normal habit, although, according to Ulrichs' classification, this is not really natural to him.

If we add to this a corresponding classification for the female, we have an idea of the complication of Ulrichs' system. Yet, complex as it is, and whatever criticism we may make of it, we must allow, as Carpenter reminds us, that it does not exceed the complexity of the real facts of nature.

As will be observed from the foregoing, there are many and conflicting opinions regarding homosexuality, but I believe no concept of this phenomenon is so satisfactory as that based on combined psycho-physiological data.

Taking into consideration the findings of all those who have spoken authoritatively upon the subject, it seems to me that Stekel's conception of the problem, summarized as follows, is pre-eminently the most logical and valid:

“All persons originally are bisexual in their predisposition. There is no exception to this rule. Normal persons show a distinct bisexual period up to the age of puberty. The heterosexual then represses his homosexuality. He also sublimates a portion of his homosexual feelings in friendship, nationalism, social endeavors, gatherings, etc. If this sublimation fails him he becomes neurotic, since no person overcomes completely his homosexual tendencies. Everyone carries within himself the predisposition to neurosis. The stronger the repression, the stronger is also the neurotic reaction which may be powerful enough in its extreme form to lead to paranoia. If the heterosexuality is repressed, homosexuality comes to the forefront. In the case of the homosexual, the repressed and incompletely conquered heterosexuality furnishes the disposition toward neurosis. The more thoroughly his heterosexuality is sublimated the more completely the homosexual presents the picture of a normal healthy person. He then resembles the normal heterosexual.

“The process of sublimation is more difficult in the case of the normal homosexual than in the case of the normal heterosexual. That is why this type is extremely rare and why a thorough analysis always discloses typical neurotic reactions. The neurotic reactions of expression are anxiety, fear, shame, disgust and hatred. The heterosexual is inspired with disgust at any homosexual act. That proves his affectively determined negative attitude. For disgust is but the obverse of attraction. The homosexual manifests the same feeling of disgust for women, showing him to be a neurotic. (Or else he hates woman.) For the normal homosexual—if there is such a type—would be indifferent toward woman. These generalizations already show that the healthy person must act as a bisexual being.”

My only criticism of Stekel's ideas is to call attention to the fact that, being a medical psychologist, his experience has been almost exclusively with those types whose neurotic tendencies have been emphasized. There are and have been a great many inverts who have not only enjoyed average mental and physical health—but have been versatile and productive in their accomplishments.* Many have been brilliantly endowed, have attained outstanding success in the arts and sciences, and even in the military field, as well as in other spheres of activity.

Homosexual Panic. Dr. Edward J. Kempf refers to the pressure of uncontrollable perverse cravings as “acute homosexual panic,” which is frequently observed whenever either men or women are grouped together for prolonged periods, as in army camps, aboard ships, or exploring expeditions, in prisons, asylums and schools.

The acute panic of the personality is due to the perverse sexual cravings which threaten to overcome the ego, and disestablish the individual's self-control. At the same time, the affections for winning social esteem are pushed into an eccentric adjustment. The weakness of the ego may be attributed to fatigue, debilitating illness, loss of the love-object, homesickness, misfortunes, imposition on the part of a superior, or erotic companions. As the individual shows his eccentricities and irritability, he is often teased and tormented by his fellows. With this there comes a loss of social influence, which develops a sense of inferiority, or strengthens the feeling of inferiority that already exists.

The attempt to overcome the fear of inferiority spurs the subject on to intense compensating efforts which, however, because of their eccentric character, further increases the antagonism. Thus we have a vicious circle in the realm of the emotions and affective nature, which gradually becomes a persecution. The erotic individual under these circumstances, as the perverse sexual impulses tend to force him into further danger, becomes panic-stricken.

The perverse cravings cause delusions about, and hallucinations of, situations, objects and people which tend to gratify the cravings. Still, Kempf says, “The pressure of the perverse cravings occurs despite the social honor and social future of the individual. Horrified, he is swept off his feet into a hell of hallucinated temptations and demons of distractions.”

With regard to the physiological reactions of fear to painful contact stimuli, this authority states they are quite like the fear reactions to horrible, painful hallucinated stimuli. The mechanism of the terrifying dream, for instance, like the hallucination, is first an affective disturbance due to the repressed autonomic tensions becoming released by the relaxation of self-control (as in sleep). During sleep indigestible food will cause increased effort on the part of the stomach and intestines. This produces consciousness of unpleasant sensory images which may coalesce into horrible perception, like black dots forming a picture. This horrible image, in turn, causes the fear reaction. “The next stage would be to compensate by awaking, by flight or counter-attack. When the erotic hallucination is felt to be an external reality, and, no defense is found, panic ensues.”

The panic may be more or less serious, lasting from a few hours to several months. The disturbances to the physical processes and the bodily economy as a whole, attending such dissociations of personality, may be very serious. All these ill results, under the given circumstances, are traceable to fear.

The definite physiological effects of this uncontrolled emotion—fear— are increase blood pressure and pulse-rate, increase of adrenin and thyroid secretions, increase of blood sugar and decrease of the digestive and assimilative properties of the stomach and intestines; also decrease of heterosexual potency, and pronounced increase of trial and error movements of the skeletal apparatus—hence, restlessness, irritability, insomnia, etc.

On the other hand, the acute dissociation of the personality, in both sexes, may become chronic and run a protracted course, varying from several weeks to many years. Final recovery may ensue, or (1) the condition may become permanent without further deterioration, or (2) the condition may pursue a course of progressive deterioration depending upon the negative nature of the transference and adjustment to the erotic pressure.

A frequent accompaniment is the development of a vigorous, persistent counter-attack of hatred, which becomes directed against the social conventions. Its animus is aimed particularly against those to whom social obligations bind the subject (as parents, mate, offspring, employer, etc.) because they are repressing influences. The climax of this is a loss of social adaptation.

Kempf believes that the tendency to homosexuality in males has a dual determination. Not only are homosexual associations attractive, but there is an insurmountable effective (fear) resistance to heterosexual potency which becomes aroused by the amorous approach of the female. Through some affective mechanism, she, like the “serpent-headed Meduza, freezes his soul. Her sexuality horrifies instead of fascinates.”

Anxiety and depression may develop quickly after a heterosexual failure in this type of male. Such reactions may be characterized by suicidal impulses due apparently to an irresistible regression to the mother. The subject feels that she cannot give him up, and he, being helpless to free himself, in order to become devoted to another woman, finds life is not worth living.

In summarizing his conception of this disorder, Kempf considers the acute homosexual panic a distinct stage in the psychosis. He maintains it may be diagnosed as readily as paresis by certain cardinal conditions: (1) panic and the autonomic reactions which accompany grave fear; (2) the defensive compensation against the compulsion to seek or submit to assault; (3) the symbols used by the erotic effect and the disturbances of sensation it causes.

The latter are complained of as visions, voices, electric injections, “dopy” feelings, “poison” and “filth” in the food, seductive and hypnotic influences, irresistible trance states, crucifixion, etc.

As already stated, the condition of acute homosexual panic is chiefly manifested in men and women who are grouped for prolonged periods away from members of the opposite sex—and is considerably different in its manifestations from the inverted sexuality which, for whatever reasons, develops in the man or woman living in a more normal environment.

With regard to the prospect for overcoming the disorder, Kempf states that the prognosis of homosexual panic in a soldier or sailor is usually favorable for that episode, but the future of that individual is most insecure unless he obtains insight and a fortunate sexual adjustment.

Homosexuality and Genius. The list of individuals, famous in art and letters, of homosexual disposition, either active or latent, is an imposing one. The Greek philosophers, playwrights and poets of the classic age have placed themselves on record as devotees of invertism. Some of them have been quoted on previous pages.

Among the men of genius and leadership accredited with being outright homosexuals or having a strong bisexual character, are Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, William of Orange, Charles XII of Sweden, William Rufus, James I, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Edward II, Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, etc.

The Uranian temperament has also been attributed to Marlowe, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Tennyson, Chopin, and other great poets and musicians.

Charles G. Leland (The Alternate Sex) states that “Great geniuses, men like Goethe, Shakespeare, Shelley, Byron, Darwin, all had the feminine soul very strongly developed in them. . . . As we are continually meeting women who are one-quarter, or one-eighth, or so on, male, so there are in the Inner Self similar half-breeds, all adapting themselves to circumstances with perfect ease. The Greeks recognized that such a being could not exist in nature, and so beatified and idealized it as Sappho.”

Weininger remarked that Sappho was only the forerunner of a long line of famous women who were either homosexually or bisexually endowed. Among them may be mentioned Queen Christine of Sweden, Catherine II of Russia, Madame Blavatsky, George Sand, Rosa Bonheur, and others.

Pronounced bisexuality in woman is indicated by a strong masculine cast in the constitutional make-up, which is often observed in women who have achieved outstanding success in various fields of activity. Often they never marry.

In man, pronounced bisexuality is evidenced by a large endowment of femininity. There are, however, homosexual types of both sexes who do not give outward evidence of the characteristics of the opposite sex. In these instances, the homosexual state is almost entirely psychic, and would not seem to be organically conditioned.

Among the modern artist-writers and poets who have done great service in interpreting and reconstructing Greek life and ideals—Carpenter cites men like Winkelmann, Goethe, J. Addington Symonds, Walter Pater, as having a marked strain of this temperament. And this, he adds, has been a service of great value, one which the world could have ill afforded to lose.