Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. VII, Eonism and other supplementary studies / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
[1928]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. VII, Eonism and other supplementary studies / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    riage, was ignorant of the sexual life of women and knew nothing of the art of love. He had not only failed to arouse the wife’s erotic emotions, he had not even been aware that they needed arousing, or that anything beyond penetration and ejaculation was required of him. Having sought advice, she speedily realized what was amiss, took the matter into her own hands, instructed her husband who was quite willing to learn, and according to the latest report, the sexual union of marriage speedily became almost, if not quite, as satisfactory as the dream experiences. In these dream experiences we see aesthetic inversion carried to a point which is not possible in real life except during insanity. We see, that is, an inversion which is not homo¬ sexual but heterosexual. The interesting point about these dreams is the seemingly complete divorce from real life. It is fairly evident that the subject herself could not explain the origin of the systematized delusion in her dream-life. She set forth her history with an evident anxiety to conceal nothing, however trivial; her motive for keeping a diary of the dreams at one time was the wish to discover the meaning of them. It is possible that more minute psychological investigation might have given a clue to the first constitution of the dream-system, but this was not possible, for the subject, having received the solution of the special difficulty for which she sought advice, disappeared from sight. So far as we can judge of the mechanism of the dream-system from the available indications, it would appear to be determined by the impulses of childish sexuality, corresponding to the age at which the dream system arose. The aggressive tendency, the homosexual tendency, the tendency to Narcissism are all youthful tendencies, belonging to the period of puberty or earlier, and all appear clearly marked in this dream-system. As regards Narcissism, the subject notes that her dream-girl when seen, failed to corres¬ pond in all respects to her own waking self, but the most strik¬ ing features of the dream-girl were certainly those which the dreamer, when awake, most values in herself. The trans-
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