Bi-sexual love; the homosexual neurosisStekel, Wilhelm
Science
Bi-sexual love; the homosexual neurosis
Stekel, Wilhelm
Homosexuality; Neuroses
“I have often resolved to change. But I am unable to carry out any
resolution, I cannot undertake a thing. I can only hunt after women.
_Ich kann nur coitieren_, (I can only ——,) every other activity about
me is in a state of suspension. I am uncertain and vaccilating about
everything. Today I feel a little religious twinge, tomorrow I poke
fun at church and priest. Today I decide to learn something new or to
find a job, tomorrow I think something else entirely. I want to buy a
new hat. I decide today to go to a certain store. I go to the place but
linger before the windows, unable to make up my mind to step in. “No,”
I say to myself, “I don’t want to buy a hat just yet.” And meanwhile I
also think about women for that is a subject which never leaves my mind
for a moment. I stroll up and down the street watching the hundreds of
women before I make up my mind to speak to one.
“I draw no distinction between old and young, pretty or plain ones. I
weigh the matter over considerably but in the end I pick up the first
one that comes along. If it only quieted me! But it lasts only an hour,
sometimes, at best, a whole day, then I must rush out again to the
street and hunt. Sometimes I cohabit with three women in a day.
“My worst time was when I had gonorrhea (not yet completely healed). I
was forbidden to have intercourse for a time. But I could not listen
to the doctor, because I was afraid that I would go literally to
pieces. I kept up intercourse right along and was inwardly glad to
think that so many others will also have to suffer what I suffered.
Then I felt remorse over my meanness, I felt myself a reprobate, a
criminal, and resolved that I must change my ways. I fell into a deep
depression and for a few hours I was free of my usual erotic thoughts.
Then they started again and the same thoughts now plague me night and
day as before.” ...
* * * * *
We have listened to the poor man’s terrible confession. His hunt after
gratification has that tragical quality which the poet has so fittingly
expressed: “_Und im Genuss verschmacht’ ich nach Begierde._”—“And
I starved with yearning even while I tasted.” The deep depressions
indicate that this trouble is approaching a crisis. For the depressions
occur at closer intervals and satisfying experiences are more rare.
That is also the reason why he seeks professional advice. He feels that
this cannot go on. He cannot and does not want to endure life under
such conditions. He wants to work like other men and to be capable of
turning his mind to other matters than sexual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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