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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"


The real distinction would seem, therefore, to be between a homosexual
impulse so strong that it subsists even in the presence of the
heterosexual object, and a homosexual impulse so weak that it is eclipsed
by the presence of the heterosexual object. We could not, however,
properly speak of the latter as any more "spurious" or "pseudo" than the
former. A heterosexual person who experiences a homosexual impulse in the
absence of any homosexual disposition is not today easy to accept. We can
certainly accept the possibility of a mechanical or other non-sexual
stimulus leading to a sexual act contrary to the individual's disposition.
But usually it is somewhat difficult to prove, and when proved it has
little psychological significance or importance. We may expect, therefore,
to find "pseudo-homosexuality," or spurious homosexuality, playing a
dwindling part in classification.
The simplest of all possible classifications, and that which I adopted in
the earlier editions of the present _Study_, merely seeks to distinguish
between those who, not being exclusively attracted to the opposite sex,
are exclusively attracted to the same sex, and those who are attracted to
both sexes.


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