What do you know about sex? (Vol. II) (Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Vol II - Havelock Ellis)

Member Name: sottovoce1982

Product:	Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Vol II - Havelock Ellis
Date:	15/01/08 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Informative, entertaining, and not difficult to read

Disadvantages: More recent studies can be more accurate

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume II
Sexual Inversion
By
Havelock Ellis


Although the term sexual inversion might not be favourable for some, Havelock Ellis' second volume of Studies in the Psychology of Sex is considered, even now, as one of the most open minded treatises on homosexuality. The book discusses various issues starting with homosexuality in animals and ending with the society's attitude towards this sexual trend. This is, of course, in addition to important topics like temporary homosexual tendencies, the prevalence of homosexuality in men and women, and the endeavours to prevent it.



The first chapter of the book, which is simply entitled Introduction, sheds light on homosexuality among animals and the "lower human races," but the most interesting section of it, for me, remains to be that which discusses the homosexuality of famous artists like Michelangelo and Walt Whitman. Although he refused to marry, Walt Whitman denied any relation between the physical friendship between men that he ardently celebrates in his Leaves of Grass, and considers any reference to the subject as damnable, as Ellis explains. This is very interesting, in fact, especially if you still remember Whitman's famous lines: "I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning,/How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over upon me,/And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue/to my bare-stript heart,..." Yes, I think I'll never forget these lines.



The second chapter of this book examines the studies that were made on sexual inversion by prominent psychoanalysts and sexologists like Casper, Krafft-Ebing, and Moll. Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) is the writer of the famous book Psychopathia Sexualis, in which he enlists several cases of different sexual trends and an examination of the "patient's" pathological history. All the studies that Havelock Ellis chooses to talk about are discussed very briefly, yet a sufficient amount of information is given on each of these psychoanalysts' attitude toward the subject and the methods he used to study it.



The book becomes much more interesting in the third and fourth chapters in which sexual inversion in men and women is studied. The important question of the difference between inborn and acquired homosexual tendencies is one of the topics discussed here. The fifth and fourth chapters are about the nature of sexual inversion and the theories which were written on it, or in other words how it was analyzed and to what it has been attributed. In addition to that, relevant and very interesting appendices like "The School-friendships of Girls" are added to the book.



"The question of the treatment of homosexuality must be approached with discrimination, caution, and skepticism. Nowadays we can have but little sympathy with those who, at all costs, are prepared to 'cure' the invert. There is no sound method of cure in radical cases." This book was published in 1927, so, I believe, if you read it with a view to all the studies which made out of homosexuality a terrible illness, you'll appreciate it.

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I don't think it is necessary to repeat here what I wrote earlier in my review of the first volume; please be aware that you can read this volume, or any other, without having to read the rest although some cross referencing is made occasionally. As for Sexual Inversion in particular, apart from the other volumes, the vast majority of the studies and books which are written on homosexuality mention Havelock Ellis' research. Indeed, this volume in particular has always been given more attention than the rest, so I definitely recommend it, if you are interested in the main topic it tackles.



<<< Price and Book Info >>>

Price: £14.24 from Amazon
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Dodo Press (18 May 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1406524867
ISBN-13: 978-1406524864
Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm

Summary: Sexual Inversion.