Three Contributions to the Theory of SexFreud, Sigmund
Science
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex
Freud, Sigmund
Sex
*Explanation of Inversion.*--The nature of inversion is explained
neither by the assumption that it is congenital nor that it is acquired.
In the first case, we need to be told what there is in it of the
congenital, unless we are satisfied with the roughest explanation,
namely, that a person brings along a congenital sexual impulse connected
with a definite sexual object. In the second case it is a question
whether the manifold accidental influences suffice to explain the
acquisition unless there is something in the individual to meet them
half way. The negation of this last factor is inadmissible according to
our former conclusions.
*The Relation of Bisexuality.*--Since the time of Frank Lydston,
Kiernan, and Chevalier, a new series of ideas has been introduced for
the explanation of the possibility of sexual inversion. This contains a
new contradiction to the popular belief which assumes that a human being
is either a man or a woman. Science shows cases in which the sexual
characteristics appear blurred and thus the sexual distinction is made
difficult, especially on an anatomical basis. The genitals of such
persons unite the male and female characteristics (hermaphroditism). In
rare cases both parts of the sexual apparatus are well developed (true
hermaphroditism), but usually both are stunted.[9]
The importance of these abnormalities lies in the fact that they
unexpectedly facilitate the understanding of the normal formation. A
certain degree of anatomical hermaphroditism really belongs to the
normal. In no normally formed male or female are traces of the apparatus
of the other sex lacking; these either continue functionless as
rudimentary organs, or they are transformed for the purpose of assuming
other functions.
The conception which we gather from this long known anatomical fact is
the original predisposition to bisexuality, which in the course of
development has changed to monosexuality, leaving slight remnants of the
stunted sex.
It was natural to transfer this conception to the psychic sphere and to
conceive the inversion in its aberrations as an expression of psychic
hermaphroditism. In order to bring the question to a decision, it was
only necessary to have one other circumstance, viz., a regular
concurrence of the inversion with the psychic and somatic signs of
hermaphroditism.
But this second expectation was not realized. The relations between the
assumed psychical and the demonstrable anatomical androgyny should never
be conceived as being so close. There is frequently found in the
inverted a diminution of the sexual impulse (H. Ellis) and a slight
anatomical stunting of the organs. This, however, is found frequently
but by no means regularly or preponderately. Thus we must recognize that
inversion and somatic hermaphroditism are totally independent of each
other.
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