, allow themselves to be the
objects of homosexual desire; (3) normal persons who, when excluded from
the society of the opposite sex, as in schools, barracks, on board ship,
or in prison, have sexual relations with persons of their own sex. Now
Hirschfeld clearly realizes that the mere sexual act is no proof of the
direction of the sexual impulse; it may be rendered possible by mechanical
irritation (as by the stimulation of a full bladder) and in women without
any stimulation at all; such cases can have little psychological
significance. Moreover, he seems to admit that some subdivisions of his
first class are true inverts. He further mentions that some 75 per cent.
of the individuals included in these classes are between 15 and 25 years
of age, that is to say, that they have scarcely emerged from the period
when we have reason to believe that, in a large number of individuals at
all events, the sexual impulse is not yet definitely differentiated; so
that neither its homosexual nor its heterosexual tendencies can properly
be regarded as spurious.
If, indeed, we really accept the very reasonable view, that the basis of
the sexual life is bisexual, although its direction may be definitely
fixed in a heterosexual or homosexual direction at a very early period in
life, it becomes difficult to see how we can any longer speak with
certainty of a definitely spurious class of homosexual persons.
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