STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME II

Sexual Inversion

by

HAVELOCK ELLIS

1927







PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.


It has been remarked by Professor Wilhelm Ostwald that the problem of
homosexuality is a problem left over to us by the Middle Ages, which for
five hundred years dealt with inverts as it dealt with heretics and
witches. To regard the matter thus is to emphasize its social and
humanitarian interest rather than its biological and psychological
significance. It is no doubt this human interest of the question of
inversion, rather than its scientific importance, great as the latter is,
which is mainly responsible for the remarkable activity with which the
study of homosexuality has been carried on during recent years.

The result has been that, during the fourteen years that have passed since