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)
"I have never had to do with actual pederasty, so called. My
chief desire in love is bodily nearness or contact, as to sleep
naked with a naked friend; the specially sexual, though urgent
enough, seems a secondary matter. Pederasty, either active or
passive, might seem in place to me with one I loved very
devotedly and who also loved me to that degree; but I think not
otherwise. I am an artist by temperament and choice, fond of all
beautiful things, especially the male human form; of active,
slight, muscular build; and sympathetic, but somewhat indecisive
character, though possessing self-control.
"I cannot regard my sexual feelings as unnatural or abnormal,
since they have disclosed themselves so perfectly naturally and
spontaneously within me. All that I have read in books or heard
spoken about the ordinary sexual love, its intensity and passion,
lifelong devotion, love at first sight, etc., seems to me to be
easily matched by my own experiences in the homosexual form; and,
with regard to the morality of this complex subject, my feeling
is that it is the same as should prevail in love between man and
woman, namely: that no bodily satisfaction should be sought at
the cost of another person's distress or degradation. I am sure
that this kind of love is, notwithstanding the physical
difficulties that attend it, as deeply stirring and ennobling as
the other kind, if not more so; and I think that for a perfect
relationship the actual sex gratifications (whatever they may be)
probably hold a less important place in this love than in the
other."
HISTORY VIII.--M.N., aged 30. "My grandfather might be said to be
of abnormal temperament, for, though of very humble origin, he
organized and carried out an extremely arduous mission work and
became an accomplished linguist, translating the Bible into an
Eastern tongue and compiling the first dictionary of that
language. He died, practically of overwork, at the age of 45. He
was twice married, my father being his third son by the second
wife. I believe that two, if not more, of the family (numbering
seven in all) were inverted, and the only one of them to marry
was my father. My grandmother was the last representative of an
old and very 'wild' Irish family. She died at an advanced age, of
paralysis. My father was 36 and my mother 21 at the time of their
marriage. I was born three years after and was their only child.
The marriage proved a most unhappy one, they being utterly
unsuited to each other in every way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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