Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXboth the congenital and the acquired varieties of homosexuality,and the subsequent tendency has been towardsminimizing the importance of acquired homosexuality.This tendency was well marked in Moll's treatise. Hirschfeldand Maranon consider that there is always a congenitalelement in homosexuality, and Bloch, Aletrino,etc., separated off the non-congenital homosexual personswho, for some reason or another, indulge in homosexualpractices, as belonging to a group of "pseudo-homosexuality";this was also the view of Nacke who consideredthat we have to distinguish not between congenital andacquired inversion, but between true and false, and whoregarded homosexuality appearing late in life as notacquired, but "retarded" or delayed homosexuality on abasis. Some authorities who started with thecongenitalold view that sexual inversion is exclusively or chiefly anacquired condition (like Nacke and Bloch) later adoptedthe more modern view. Many psycho-analysts still cherishthe belief that homosexuality is always acquired, but as atthe same time they also recognize that it is frequentlyconstitutional, the differ-fixed, and therefore presumablyence of opinion becomes unimportant.Another fundamental point in regard to which opinionhas changed is the question as to whether sexual inversion,even if congenital, should be considered a morbid or "degenerate"state. On this matter Krafft-Ebing at first rangedhimself with the ancient view and regarded inversion asthe manifestation of a neuropathic or psychopathic state,but in his latest writings he judiciously modified this positionand was content to look on inversion as an anomalyand not a disease or a "degeneration." This is the directionin which modern opinion has steadily moved. Inverts maybe healthy, and normal in all respects outside their specialaberration. This has always been my own standpoint,[224]