THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS object and the act towards which the instinct tends c) They may be contingent inverts. In that case, under certain aim. Scientifically sifted observation, then, shows that ous deviations occur in respect of both of thesc-thc external conditions---of which inaccessibility of any normal object and the sexual aim. The relation between these devia- sexual object and imitation are the chief--they are capable of taking as their sexual object someone of their own sex and of tions and what is assumed to be normal requires thorough deriving satisfaction from sexual intercourse with him nvestigation Again, inverts vary in their views as to the peculiarity of their sexual instinct. Some of them accept their (1)DEVIATIONS IN RESPECT OF THE SEXUAL OBJECT accepts the direction of his libido, and insist energetically that inversion is as legitimate as the normal attitude, others rebel &i The popular view of the sexual instinct is beautifully re beings against their inversion and feel it as a pathological compulsion,I he poetic fable which tells he Other variations occur which relate to questions of time. The were cut up into two halves--man and woman-and how these trait of inversion may either date back to the very beginning, as are al ways striving to unite again in love. I It comes as a great far back as the subject's memory reaches, or it may not have surprise therefore to learn that there are men whose sexual become noticeable till some particular time before or after It t throughout life or it m bject is a woman and not a man. People of this kind are des- nto temporary abeyance, or again it may constitute an episod on the way to a normal development. It may even make its averts,, and the fact is described as 'inversion The number of rst appearance late in life after a long period of normal sexual activity. A periodic oscillation between a normal and an in in establishing it precisely. 2 verted sexual object has also sometimes been observed. Those (A)INVERSION cases are of particular interest in which the libido changes over to an inverted sexual object after a distressing experience with BEHAVIOUR Such people vary greatly in their behaviour in a normal one As a rule these different kinds of variations are found side by (a)They may be absolute inverts. In that case side independently of one another. It is, however, safe to assum their sexual objects are exclusively of their own sex. Persons of that the most extreme form of inversion will have been present the opposite sex are never the object of their sexual d from a very early age and that the person concerned will feel leave them cold or even arouse sexual aversion in them. as a consequence of this aversion, they are incapable, if they are men Many authorities would be unwilling to class together all of carrying out the sexual act, or else they derive no enjoyment 1 The fact of a person struggling in this way aait "of his being towards inversion may perhaps determine the possibility influenced by suggestion [added 1910: or psycho-an a Many writers have insisted with justice that the dates assigned of their own or of the opposite sex. This kind of inversion thus lacks the char istic of exclusiveness terosexual feelings from their memory. [Added 1910: These suspicions ave been confirmed by psycho topb: This is no doubt an allusion to the theory expounded by Aris. hich it has had access; it has produced decisive: alterations in the o d to this much later at the end of Chapter VI of Beyond the Pleasure Principle(1920 g) 2 On these difficulties and on the attempts which have been made to arrive at the proportional number of inverts, see Hirschfeld ( 1904) investigation of inverts. I