Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol 2 Sexual Inversion

by H. Havelock Ellis

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Psychology, Sexuality, Nonfiction

408 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1901

About the author

Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis, was a British physician, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, including transgender psychology. He is credited with introducing the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis. He served as president of the Galton Institute and, like many intellectuals of his era, supported eugenics.

Reviews

[Lora Shouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second volume of Studies in the Psychology of Sex. This one deals with what the author calls ‘sexual inversion,’ by which he seems to mean primarily homosexuality. Most of this volume is taken up with brief personal histories contributed directly to the author or collected from other researchers. Though hardly a complete collection of all the histories of all the homosexual people living at that time, they nevertheless exhibit a wide variety of different experiences. Except for one case taken from public records of a criminal case involving an attempted murder/suicide in connection with a homosexual fixation, most of the people telling the stories seem to be quiet and fairly restrained. Because this was about a hundred years ago, before ‘coming out of the closet’ became a thing, they mostly don’t advertise their homosexuality. A few are interested in children or young people, but most seem to regard this as distasteful. Many seem to exhibit only limited homosexuality.

There is a section discussing homosexuality with especially creative people, and it does appear that many homosexuals are particularly talented in the arts, but no firm conclusion is reached as to whether this is a cause or an effect.

I found it interesting, especially in light of the disapproving tone of the author and most of the sources he cites with regard to the abnormality of masturbation in the first volume, that most of them were in agreement that many cases of homosexuality were the direct result of something organic in the person’s heredity, and they, therefore, did not recommend trying to “cure” cases of this type, which seems a much more modern approach than some of their other notions.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to know more about the connection between sexual and intellectual precocity and arrested development on a psychological level and how these two parallel processes lead to an inversion of sexual object-choices; one possible objection to this line of inquiry is that it is no longer a component of current picture of human evolutionary psychology.

[Robert Barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vol 2 of Dr. Ellis's Studies in the Psychology of sex covers sexual inversion focusing on homosexuality which has been practiced since before the establishment of Mesopotamia.

[David McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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