Prev | Current Page 720 | Next

Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"

" So also Berry Hart ("Atypical Male and
Female Sex-Ensemble," a paper read before Edinburgh Obstetrical
Society, _British Medical Journal_, June 20, 1914, p. 1355)
regards the normal male or female as embodying a maximum of the
potent organs of his or her own sex with a minimum of non-potent
organs of the other sex, with secondary sex traits congruent. Any
increase in the minimum gives a diminished maximum and
non-congruence of the secondary characters.
We thus see that the ancient medico-philosophic conception of organic
bisexuality put forth by the Greeks as the key to the explanation of
sexual inversion, after sinking out of sight for two thousand years, was
revived early in the nineteenth century by two amateur philosophers who
were themselves inverted (Hoessli, Ulrichs), as well as by a genuine
philosopher who was not inverted (Schopenhauer). Then the conception of
latent bisexuality, independently of homosexuality, was developed from the
purely scientific side (by Darwin and evolutionists generally). In the
next stage this conception was adopted by the psychiatric and other
scientific authorities on homosexuality (Krafft-Ebing and the majority of
other students).


Pages:
708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732