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)
HISTORY XXXIII.--M.O., 30 years of age, born in the United
States, of English father and of mother whose father was
Scotch,--the rest of his ancestry being English of long standing
in America, with a very little admixture of Dutch blood. He is 5
feet 8 inches in height, and has brown hair and eyes. No
hereditary troubles so far as known. In childhood, for some time
"threatened with chorea." Is subject to tonsillitis and a
stubborn though not severe form of indigestion, induced by
sedentary habits. He is of quick, nervous temperament. Has an
aversion from most outdoor sports, but a great esthetic
attraction to nature. Highly educated.
As far back as he can remember, he lived in a house from which
his parents removed when he was 4 years old. Before this removal,
he remembers two distinctly sexual experiences. A cousin five
years older was in the bathroom, seated, and M.O. was feeling his
sexual organs; his mother called him out. On another occasion he
was in a wagonhouse with a girl of his own age. They were lying
on a carriage-seat attempting intercourse. The girl's older
sister came in and found them. She said: "I am going to tell
mamma; you know she said for you not to do that any more." With
each of these clear memories comes the strong impression that it
was but one among many. Five years ago M.O. met a man of his own
age who had lived in that neighborhood at the same time.
Comparing notes, they found that nearly all the small children in
it had been given to such practices. The neighborhood was a
thoroughly "respectable" middle-class one.
From it, M.O. removed to another of just about the same
character, and lived there until he was 11 years old. Of this
period his memories are very fresh and abundant. With a single
exception, all the children between 5 and 14 years of age appear
to have indulged freely in promiscuous sexual play. In little
companies of from four to twelve they went where trees or long
grass hid them from observation, and exhibited their persons to
one another; sometimes, also, they handled one another, but not
in the way of masturbation. Of this last, M.O. was wholly
ignorant. Sometimes when but two or three were together,
intercourse was attempted. In M.O.'s case there was eager sexual
curiosity, and a more or less keen desire, but actual contact
brought no great satisfaction. On two or three occasions girls
practised _fellatio_, and he then reciprocated with
_cunnilinctus_, but without pleasure. In all these plays he is
sure that girls took the initiative as often as boys did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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