He discussed the phenomena as a
psychologist even more than as a physician, bearing in mind the broader
aspects of the problem, keenly critical of accepted opinions, but
judiciously cautious in the statement of conclusions. He cleared away
various ancient prejudices and superstitions which even Krafft-Ebing
sometimes incautiously repeated. He accepted the generally received
doctrine that the sexually inverted usually belong to families in which
various nervous and mental disorders prevail, but he pointed out at the
same time that it is not in all cases possible to prove that we are
concerned with individuals possessing a hereditary neurotic taint. He also
rejected any minute classification of sexual inverts, only recognizing
psycho-sexual hermaphroditism and homosexuality. At the same time he cast
doubt on the existence of acquired homosexuality, in a strict sense,
except in occasional cases, and he pointed out that even when a normal
heterosexual impulse appears at puberty, and a homosexual impulse later,
it may still be the former that was acquired and the latter that was
inborn.
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