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 my father's family there have been many members of note. In
my mother's family there were many renowned lawyers.
"My father had an elder brother who was homosexual. He was
already, at 31 years of age, a prominent author, when he died of
consumption. I have also a second cousin on my father's side who
is a very good tenor; he is also homosexual. In my mother's
family I know of nothing abnormal.
"In neither family is there or has there been any insanity, but
rather an overwealth of brain.
"My parents were an ideally happy couple. They were engaged after
knowing each other six days, and after being separated three
months they married. They were married thirty-five years without
a quarrel. I have a brother three years older, born a year after
their marriage, and a sister seven years younger.
"My brother takes after his father in appearance. He is a great
lover of women and much spoiled by them. He is quite normal and
abstemious.
"My sister is a very womanly woman. As a girl she disapproved
very much of girl friendships and always confided in her mother.
At 13 years of age she met the man she is now married to. They
waited ten years before marrying and are now an ideally happy
couple. My sister is perfectly normal and very abstemious.
"I lived my first ten years in England, eighteen years in Sweden,
two years in Denmark, two years in Bavaria, Austria, and Italy,
and am now living in Berlin. I consider myself English. I am
mentally a man, but all my physical feelings and desires are
those of a woman.
"I am middle height and very slight. Weigh 106 English pounds,
without clothes. My hands and feet are small and well-shaped.
Head of normal size. Features small. Eyes green. Have worn
glasses since I was 7 years old. Complexion fair. Appearance not
Jewish. The skin of my body is very white, without blemish. Very
little hair on my face. Hair on head and abdomen luxuriant. No
hair whatever on stomach and chest. Color of hair auburn
everywhere except below navel, that black. (My father's,
mother's, and brother's hair was brown. My sister has auburn
hair, and so had the aforementioned uncle.) My breasts are
slightly round; my hips are normal. I do not gesticulate much.
From my material self it would be difficult to draw the
conclusion that I was homosexual. My sexual organs are normal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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