power of self-analysis with those written by
the heterosexual.

The ancient allegation that inverts have written their own
histories on the model, or under the suggestion, of those
published in Krafft-Ebing's _Psychopathia Sexualis_ can scarcely
have much force now that the published histories are so extremely
varied and numerous that they cannot possibly produce any uniform
impression on the most sensitively receptive mind. As a matter of
fact, there is no doubt that inverts have frequently been
stimulated to set down the narrative of their own experiences
through reading those written by others. But the stimulation has,
as often as not, lain in the fact that their own experiences have
seemed different, not that they have seemed identical. The
histories that they read only serve as models in the sense that
they indicate the points on which information is desired. I have
often been able to verify this influence, which would in any case
seem to be fairly obvious.

Psycho-analysis is, in theory, an ideal method of exploring many
psychic conditions, such as hysteria and obsessions, which are
obscure and largely concealed beneath the psychic surface. In
most homosexual cases the main facts are, with the patient's
good-will and the investigator's tact, not difficult to
ascertain. Any difficulties which psychoanalysis may help to
elucidate mainly concern the early history of the case in
childhood, and, regarding these, psychoanalysis may sometimes
raise questions which it cannot definitely settle.
Psycho-analysis reveals an immense mass of small details, any of
which may or may not possess significance, and in determining
which are significant the individuality of the psychoanalyst
cannot fail to come into play. He will necessarily tend to
arrange them according to a system. If, for instance, he regards
infantile incestuous emotions or early Narcissism as an essential
feature of the mechanism of homosexuality, a conscientious
investigator will not rest until he has discovered traces of
them, as he very probably will. (See, e.g., Sadger, "Fragment der
Psychoanalyse eines Homosexuellen," _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, Bd. ix, 1908; and cf. Hirschfeld, _Die
Homosexualitaet_, p. 164). But the exact weight and significance
of these traces may still be doubtful, and, e