Part 1
# The Homosexual Neurosis ### By Stekel, Wilhelm
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Excerpts from the Professional Press on the work of
DR. WM. STEKEL
We have lacked thus far a systematic clinical application of Freudian analysis. Stekel’s work fills this need.
_Jung_, in MEDIS. KLINIK.
... A standard work; a milestone in the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic literature.
Geh. Sanitätsrat _Dr. Gerstor_, in DIE NEUE GENERATION.
It would be regrettable if the work did not attract fully the attention of the scientific world; its deep sobriety and the fulness of its details render it a treasury of information, primarily for the physician, but, in large measure, of interest also to the educationist, the minister, the teacher and, not least, to the student of criminology....
_Horch_, in ARCHIV F. KRIMINALOGIE.
These case histories will be read with great interest by everyone, including those who are inclined to maintain a sceptical attitude towards psychoanalysis.
_Eulenburg_, in MEDIZINISCHE KLINIK.
Stekel’s work teaches practitioners a great many things they did not know before, particularly about the significance of psychology and sexual science in the practice of medicine.
_Hitschmann_, in INTERNAT. ZEITSCHRIFT F. PSYCHOANALYSE.
It is Stekel’s extraordinary merit that he compels us to take into account a pressing mass of data which he brings to light with a scientific zeal which is unfortunately still rare,—facts and observations so penetrating, so true to life that these often render unnecessary any formal statement of the obvious deductions which flow from them.
DIE NEUE GENERATION.
The most modern problems are considered, new viewpoints are brought out, while the excesses in the technique and interpretation of the earlier stages of psychoanalysis are avoided.
_Kermauner_, in WIENER KLINISCHE WOCHENSCHRIFT.
All in all, Stekel’s is a work for which I bespeak the widest interest not only among physicians, but also among jurists, educationists, sociologists and ministers. Only an understanding of the mental life of the individual will yield a proper view of our social life.
_Liepmann_, in ZEITSCHRIFT F. SEXUALWISSENSCH.
The work is a treasury for all who have occasion to probe the depths of human life and should be a source of considerable information and stimulus to every jurist who takes in earnest his professional duties.
Geh. Justizrat _Dr. Horch_, in ARCHIV F. KRIMINALOGIE.
It does not matter from what angle the work of Stekel is approached. Any consideration of it reveals rich material. Stekel is a writer who handles his subjects in a lavish manner; lavish, but with that restraint which bends all to the urgency of his themes. He evidently approaches his clinical work with the same exuberant interest. There he reaps through psychoanalysis a rich harvest of results. He has collected these results and presented them for the dissemination of such knowledge of the sexual disturbances as he thus obtained. Facts are there in great number. They cannot be gainsaid. Stekel’s own evaluation of such facts and his earnest plea for their consideration, both by the medical profession and by the society of men and women where these facts exist, can speak only for themselves to the truly conscientious reader. There is not much in these books that the psychotherapeutist can afford to pass over.
NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL.
THE HOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
BY DR. WILLIAM STEKEL (VIENNA)
_Authorized translation by_ JAMES S. VAN TESLAAR, M.D.
(For sale only to Members of the Medical Profession.)
BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY RICHARD G. BADGER
All Rights Reserved
Made in the United States of America
The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
The present volume completes my English version of the _Homosexualität_ portion of the author’s _Onanie und Homosexualität_. The first portion has been issued a few months ago, under the title _Bisexual Love_, and it is very gratifying that the publication of the present volume was made possible so soon after the appearance of the first. The translation of the part dealing with _Autoerotism_ is also completed, and will appear shortly. One of the most important works of clinical psychopathology will thus be available, for the English reading professional ranks, in unabridged form.
These three volumes, though available separately, in some respects form an instructive continuity. At any rate those interested in any of the fundamental problems discussed therein will find most helpful an acquaintance with all three volumes.
Furthermore the student or physician interested in mental problems will find the implications of the principles set forth herein of the utmost practical significance, aside from their specific bearing on the problems of Homosexuality and Autoerotism. These clinical studies stand forth, in the first place, as lessons in analysis and therapy; but incidentally they reveal certain fundamental aspects of human nature more clearly than such a revelation was possible without the aid of the psychoanalytic method of research. The knowledge thus gained for therapeutic purposes is also applicable to many other practical problems of life. One approaching the study of a work like the present, with the intention of improving one’s therapeutic efficiency and of thus increasing one’s professional usefulness, is quite likely to discover before long that his whole outlook, as a professional man, and, above all, as a social being, has undergone a wholesome transformation.
Indeed, all fundamental knowledge has this quality of spreading, fan-like, clearing up with its helpful implications more than appears obvious at the beginning. It is not surprising, therefore, that Psychoanalysis, at the present stage primarily a therapeutic method, but reaching into the inner recesses of the human soul more penetratingly than any other method of inquiry, should also prove the most helpful method of interpreting all other problems generated by the functions of the human instincts and emotions.
VAN TESLAAR.
September 30, 1922 Brookline, Mass.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I The Relations of the Homosexual to the Other Sex—Fear, Disgust, Hate, and Anger—Homosexuality and Epilepsy—Sadger’s Researches—Hirschfeld’s Theses—Fear of the Sexual Partner—Disgust for Woman—Sadistic Attitude—Epilepsy and Homosexuality—Other Reactions Indicating Revulsion—My First Early Experiences—Sadger’s Investigations 11
II Rôle of the Father and of Other Members of the Family—Dislike of Children—Letter of a Homosexual Who Fears the “Penetrating Eye” of Women—A Marriage with the Father—Jealousy of the Father—A Homosexual Who Hates His Mother—A Beloved Boy as the Imago of the Sister—Psychology of Love within the Family Circle—Fear of the Child—A Girl Who Hates All Children—Differentiation from the Mother 53
III Homosexuality and Jealousy—Masked Jealousy—A Jealous Wife of a Physician—Why Women Abuse Servant Girls—Transference of Jealousy to the Surroundings—Jealousy of the Father—Jealousy of the Residence—Jealousy of the Past—A Young Woman Oversensitive to Any Noises 109
IV Jealousy and Paranoia—Jealousy as Projection of One’s Own Inadequacy—Freud’s Researches on Paranoia—The Investigations of Juliusburger—The Jealousy of a Paranoiac—Jealousy Delusion of a Merchant—Jealousy and Alcoholism—The Evolution of Mankind from Bisexuality to Monosexuality—Metamorphosis Sexualis Paranoica—The Monotheism of Sexuality—Jealousy and Criminality 155
V Homosexuality and Sadism—The Analysis of a Homosexual—Earliest Memories—First Account of His Attitude—Fear of Tuberculosis—His Attitude towards His Parents—First Dream—Dreams of Urinals—Anal Eroticism—Coprophagia—The Mother as a Tyrant—Transvestitism—An Important Dream—Voyeur and Exhibitionist—Other Dreams—Poems to the Mother—Maternal Body Dreams—Sadistic Phantasies—A Spermatozoan Dream—The Dream About Wild Bears—Summarization of the Analytic Data in the Case—The Formula of Homosexuality 199
VI History and Analysis of a Homosexual—Childhood Reminiscences—Anal Erotism—Attachment to the Mother—Interpretation of Dream Symbolisms—Lore of the Father—Regression Theory of Homosexuality 227
VII The Neurotic’s Inability to Love—The Narcissism of the Homosexual—Progressive Sexual Differentiation with the Growth of Culture—The Position of the Homosexual in the Struggle between Sexes—The Social Causes of Homosexuality—Homosexuality among Greeks—Increase of Polar Sexual Tension—Various Therapeutic Measures—Hypnosis—Moll’s Association therapy—Psychoanalysis—The Path towards Cure and the Conditions for Recovery 289
I
THE RELATIONS OF THE HOMOSEXUAL TO THE OTHER SEX—FEAR, DISGUST, HATE, AND ANGER—HOMOSEXUALITY AND EPILEPSY—SADGER’S RESEARCHES—HIRSCHFELD’S THESES—FEAR OF THE SEXUAL PARTNER—DISGUST FOR WOMAN—SADISTIC ATTITUDE—EPILEPSY AND HOMOSEXUALITY—OTHER REACTIONS INDICATING REVULSION—MY FIRST EARLY EXPERIENCES—SADGER’S INVESTIGATIONS.
_Jedermann trägt ein Bild des Weibes von der Mutter her in sich: davon wird er bestimmt, die Weiber überhaupt zu verehren oder sie geringzuschätzen oder gegen sie in allgemeinen gleichgültig zu sein._
—_Nietzsche._
THE HOMOSEXUAL NEUROSIS
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._
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. _Hirschfeld_ expressly emphasizes that he has met with homosexuality among strongly virile men and among persons 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. Although _Hirschfeld_ emphasizes 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 homosexual disposition 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 can _Hirschfeld_ speak 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 show themselves 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, _Hirschfeld_ adopts 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. _Bloch_ also calls the heterosexual inclination of typical homosexuals a sort of “pseudoheterosexuality.”[1] This method of dealing with the subject admits of no proofs. _Bloch_ suggests the test that a genuine theory of homosexuality must be capable of embracing all cases. The _Hirschfeld_ theory 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. Adler_ has 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 of _Krafft-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 childhood she 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 and _drank 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 male is 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.
Through _Freud_ we have learned that fear, like disgust, is a repressed form of _libido_. 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-Ebing_ describes 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 hour after 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 experienced during 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 by _Hirschfeld_:
“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 homosexual _Herzog von Praslin-Choiseul_ who at Paris in 1864 strangled _post coitum_ his young bride, the daughter of _General 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. Professor _Albert Eulenburg_ told 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 the _Duke von Praslin-Choiseul_ stands forth as the clearest proof one could wish. Plainly _Hirschfeld_, as usual, confuses here cause and effect. The _Duke 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 in science 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.