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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXKATHARINE DAVIS, Factors in the Sex Life of Twenty-TwoHundred Women.EDWARD CARPENTER, The Intermediate Sex.Eonism (Transvestismor Sexo-dEsthetic Inversion)This is a condition, not to be identified with homosexualitythoughit sometimes tends to be associated with it,in which the subject more or less identifies himself orherself with the opposite sex, not merely in dress, but ingeneral tastes,in ways of acting, and in emotional disposition.The identification usually falls short of the oppositesex's sexual attitude; the normal heterosexual attitude isfrequently pronounced, yet it may be convenient to introducethe consideration of it here.It is rather a puzzling condition to define and to label.it aside for furtherI met with it many years ago and putconsideration. Meanwhile Hirschfeld in Germany, whowas already a leading authority on homosexuality, becameinterested in this condition, which he recognized as distinctfrom inversion and called "transvestism." He madeit the chief subject of several books. In my own first studyof the condition (1913) I called it "sexo-aesthetic inversion/'a sort of sexual inversion of tastes. Both these namesare unsatisfactory; "transvestism" is altogether inadequate,since a longing to wear the garments of the other sex isonly one of the traits exhibited, and in some cases it isscarcely or not at all found, while "sexo-assthetic inversion"may wrongly suggest that we are here concernedwith homosexuality, though that is usually not present."Eonism" is the name I finally devised (1920) for thiscondition. It has been accepted by many and stillseemsthe most convenient term, and adequately descriptive.Like "sadism" and "masochism," it is derived from a well-[*4]