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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"


"I have seldom heard sexual inversion discussed among my
professional friends. They speak of it with disgust or amusement.
I have never met a professional man who would consider it
dispassionately and scientifically. For them it was a subject
entirely belonging to psychological medicine.
"I have had no admitted case of it among my patients; but I have
often instinctively felt that some who consulted me about other
matters would have taken me into their confidence about that, but
for their fear of being cruelly misunderstood.
"As to my moral attitude I fear to speak. Grossness disgusts me;
but I am not sure that I should be able to resist temptation
placed in my way. But I am absolutely sure that I should never,
under any circumstances, tempt others to any disgraceful act. If
I ever committed any sexual act with one of my own sex whom I
loved, I could not look at it or approach it in any other than a
sacramental way. This sounds blasphemous and shocking, but I
cannot otherwise express my meaning.
"As regards the marriage of inverts, my own feeling is that for a
congenital invert--no matter how fully the situation be explained
beforehand--it is a step fraught with too great possibilities of
tragedy and of the deepest unhappiness, to be advised at all.


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