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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXtermed it), but when they do, it is with complete suc-and with a minute and almost in-cess, very skillfully,stinctive adoption of little feminine ways, which, theyfeel, come to them naturally. Though they do not oftendesire inverted sexual relationships, male Eonists sometimesfeel an almost passionate longing for a woman'sexperiences, of pregnancy and motherhood. In mentalability they are above the average and may attain distinctionas authors or otherwise.Eonism is to be classed among the transitional orintermediate forms of sexuality. But it is not easy toexplain its precise origin. We may agree with Kiernanthat there is sometimes an arrest of development, similar,as I have suggested, on the physical side, to eunuchoidism,to which indeed it sometimes seems related. We may thusprobably invoke some defective endocrine balance, andthereby see an opening, with better knowledge, for readjustmentof the normal balance.On the psychic side, as I view it, the Eonist is embodying,in an extreme degree, the aesthetic attribute of imitationof, and identification with, the admired object. Itis normal for a man to identify himself with the womanhe loves. The Eonist carries that identification too far,stimulated by a sensitiveand feminine element in him-associated with a rather defective virile sex-self which isuality on what may be a neurotic basis. An abnormalchildhood, with too close attachment to the mother, whomay herself be rather abnormal, seems sometimes to encouragethe appearance of Eonism. Fenichel considers thatthe specific factor of Eonism is a castration complex; hewould, however, say much the same of allsexual deviations,so that we are not thereby carried far; while headmits that this view will not apply to female Eonists.[244]