Furthermore the student or physician interested in mental problems will find the implications of the principles set forth herein of the utmost practical significance, aside from their specific bearing on the problems of Homosexuality and Autoerotism. These clinical studies stand forth, in the first place, as lessons in analysis and therapy; but incidentally they reveal certain fundamental aspects of human nature more clearly than such a revelation was possible without the aid of the psychoanalytic method of research. The knowledge thus gained for therapeutic purposes is also applicable to many other practical problems of life. One approaching the study of a work like the present, with the intention of improving one’s therapeutic efficiency and of thus increasing one’s professional usefulness, is quite likely to discover before long that his whole outlook, as a professional man, and, above all, as a social being, has undergone a wholesome transformation. Indeed, all fundamental knowledge has this quality of spreading, fan-like, clearing up with its helpful implications more than appears obvious at the beginning. It is not surprising, therefore, that Psychoanalysis, at the present stage primarily a therapeutic method, but reaching into the inner recesses of the human soul more penetratingly than any other method of inquiry, should also prove the most helpful method of interpreting all other problems generated by the functions of the human instincts and emotions. VAN TESLAAR. September 30, 1922 Brookline, Mass. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Relations of the Homosexual to the Other Sex—Fear, Disgust, Hate, and Anger—Homosexuality and Epilepsy—Sadger’s Researches—Hirschfeld’s Theses—Fear of the Sexual Partner—Disgust for Woman—Sadistic Attitude—Epilepsy and Homosexuality—Other Reactions Indicating Revulsion—My First Early Experiences—Sadger’s Investigations 11 II Rôle of the Father and of Other Members of the Family—Dislike of Children—Letter of a Homosexual Who Fears the “Penetrating Eye” of Women—A Marriage with the Father—Jealousy of the Father—A Homosexual Who Hates His Mother—A Beloved Boy as the Imago of the Sister—Psychology of Love within the Family Circle—Fear of the Child—A Girl Who Hates All Children—Differentiation from the Mother 53