Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2: Sexual InversionEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2: Sexual Inversion
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
"In the class of Mental Disease there was, naturally, more
detailed and systematic reference to facts in the sexual life and
to sexual inversion as a rare pathological condition. But still
there was not a comforting word to reassure me, growing ever more
hopelessly ashamed of what it seemed was a criminal or a gravely
morbid nature.
"Among all my fellow-students I knew of no one constituted like
myself; but my natural reserve--increased, of course, by my
consciousness of what I saw would be thought to be a criminal
tendency--did not urge me to exchange of confidences or to the
formation of; close friendships.
"After graduation I became a resident medical officer in the
hospital and private assistant to one of the professors--a
physician and teacher of worldwide reputation. With him I
associated on the most cordial and affectionate terms; and often
in the course of conversation I tried to bring him to discuss the
subject, but without success. It was obviously unpleasant and
uninteresting to him. Enough was said, however, to enable me to
realize that he held the current ideas on the subject; and I
would not for worlds have allowed him, to guess that I myself
came under the despised and tainted category.
"I have seldom heard sexual inversion discussed among my
professional friends. They speak of it with disgust or amusement.
I have never met a professional man who would consider it
dispassionately and scientifically. For them it was a subject
entirely belonging to psychological medicine.
"I have had no admitted case of it among my patients; but I have
often instinctively felt that some who consulted me about other
matters would have taken me into their confidence about that, but
for their fear of being cruelly misunderstood.
"As to my moral attitude I fear to speak. Grossness disgusts me;
but I am not sure that I should be able to resist temptation
placed in my way. But I am absolutely sure that I should never,
under any circumstances, tempt others to any disgraceful act. If
I ever committed any sexual act with one of my own sex whom I
loved, I could not look at it or approach it in any other than a
sacramental way. This sounds blasphemous and shocking, but I
cannot otherwise express my meaning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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