Page:Homo-sexual Life by William John Fielding (1925).pdf/13



Some of the greatest sexologists and psychiatrists of modern times have concerned themselves with the causative factors of homosexuality. So much new material relating to unconscious mental activities has been uncovered in recent years, that many of the older authorities, whose opinions have long carried much weight, are now considered obsolete, at least in respect to homosexual problems.

Krafft-Ebing, for instance, a widely quoted authority, and still a factor through his works in influencing both the profession and laymen, originally conceived homosexuality as the result of a hereditary transmission. This contention has never been fully corroborated by the observations of later investigators.

To this extent only is homosexuality an inherited trait beyond fear of any contradiction: Everybody inherits homosexual tendencies.

As we observed in the previous chapter, every child is homosexual in disposition. Therefore, heredity per se does not give us the key to the problem, except possibly in those instances where the hereditary constitution furnishes certain predisposing factors to homosexuality. And this predisposition may be overcome, wholly or in part, in a healthy, constructive environment; or it may be cultivated in the opposite kind of environment.