Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. 1, Sexual inversion / by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds / by Havelock Ellis.
- Havelock Ellis
- Date:
- 1897
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. 1, Sexual inversion / by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
134/324 page 114
![SKXl'Al. INYKKSION. In all these cases there was an element of what may be called suggestion, but it was really much more than this ; it was probably in each case active seduction by an elder person of a predisposed younger person. It will be observed that in each case there was, at the least, an organic neurotic basis for suggestion and seduction to work on. I cannot regard these cases as entitled to modify the attitude I have here taken up. Masturbation* Moreau believed thai masturbation was a cause of sexual inversion, and Krafft-Kbing looks upon it as leading to .ill sorts of sexual perversions. Dr. Conotty Norman is of the same opinion j Moll emphati- cally denies that masturbation can be the cause ol inversion, though admitting ili it n m.i\ serve to strengthen it when alread] existing. J. A. Symonds, who made special inquiries <>n tlu> points was of the same opinion. That masturbation, especiall) .it an earl] age, may enfeeble the sexual activities, and so predispose them to inversion, I certainls believe. Hut beyond this there is little in the history of my male cases to lead me to attach importance to masturbation as .1 cause of inversion. It is true that eighteen out of twent\ -three admit that the\ have pnu ti < d masturbation- at .ill events occasionally or at some period in their lives and it ii probable that this proportion is larger than that found among normal people. ICven if so, however, it is not difficult to a< < ounl for, bearing in mind the fact that the homosexual person has not the same opportunities as has the heterosexual person to gratify his instincts, and that masturbation may sometimes legiti- mately appear to him as the lesser of two evils. Not only has masturbation been practised at no period in at least five of the case> (for concerning several I have no informa- tion), but in two other- it was never practised until long after the homosexual instinct had appeared, and then only occasionally. In five it was only practised at puberty; in three, however, it began before the age of pubert) : nine left off before about the age of twenty. Unfortu- nately, as yet, we have no definite evidence as to the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2041996x_0136.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
