Freud and Sexuality

The problem Freud had with the picture of sexuality that he encountered was that it was too simple. You were born with certain sexual aims and those sexual aims have sexual objects as their goal. So the aim of doctors then was to try and find out why people were born with these sexual aims and if they could find the biological reasons for these aims then possibly they could prevent people from yearning for sexual objects or from participating in practices that were deemed perverse. Freud had issue with this picture and used the case of inversion to describe his new theory.

Freud feels that the picture of inversion painted by his contemporaries is too simplified. A man is gay so he desires a man just like a women would. So if you have a sexual aim of being with men, you have sex with a man as your sexual object. Freud takes issue with this view as being too straightforward. Freud notes that anal sex is not always or even usually the main goal of inverts. As noted on pages 11 and 12 of the book, masturbation or even something as simple as outpourings of emotion has been the primary aim of inverts. In female inverts the main aim appears a majority of the time to be kissing as well. Freud also has issue with the theory of psychical hermaphroditism which states that “the sexual object of an invert is opposite of a normal person” as seen on page 10. This is again simply too easy for Freud, he points to the fact that inverts will usually keep most of their other masculine characteristics and in fact are looking for feminine qualities in their partners. As noted on page 10 in our book male prostitutes have traditionally been seen dressed as women and have other female characteristics as well. So the inverted man desires mostly female characteristics from his partner except for in the case of their genitalia. Freud refers to this contradiction on page 7 of the book as the bisexual nature of the invert; where there are apparently contradictory...