suggested that Adler's theory of
_Minderwertigkeit_--according to which we react strenuously
against our congenital organic defects and fortify them into
virtues--may be applied to the invert's acquirement of artistic
abilities (G. Rosenstein, "Die Theorien der Organminderwertigkeit
und die Bisexualitaet," _Jahrbuch fuer Psychoanalytische
Forschungen_, vol. ii, 1910, p. 398). This theory is in some
cases of valuable application, but it seems doubtful to me
whether it is very profitable in the present connection. The
artistic aptitudes of inverts may better be regarded as part of
their organic tendencies than as a reaction against those
tendencies. In this connection I may quote the remarks of an
American correspondent, himself homosexual: "Regarding the
connection between inversion and artistic capacity, so far as I
can see, the temperament of every invert seems to strive to find
artistic expression--crudely or otherwise. Inverts, as a rule,
seek the paths of life that lie in pleasant places; their
resistance to opposing obstacles is elastic, their work is never
strenuous (if they can help it), and their accomplishments hardly
ever of practical use. This is all true of the born artist, as
well. Both inverts and artists are inordinately fond of praise;
both yearn for a life where admiration is the reward for little
energy. In a word, they seem to be 'born tired,' begotten by
parents who were tired, too."

Hirschfeld (_Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 66) gives a list of pictures
and sculptures which specially appeal to the homosexual.
Prominent among them are representations of St. Sebastian,
Gainsborough's Blue Boy, Vandyck's youthful men, the Hermes of
Praxiteles, Michelangelo's Slave, Rodin's and Meunier's
working-men types.

As regards music, my cases reveal the aptitude which has been
remarked by others as peculiarly common among inverts. It has
been extravagantly said that all musicians are inverts; it is
certain that various famous musicians, among the dead and the
living, have been homosexual. Ingegnieros speaks of a
"genito-musical synaesthesia," analogous to color-hearing, in this
connection. Calesia states (_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1900, p.
209) that 60 per cent, inverts are musicians. Hirschfeld (_Die
Homosexualitaet_, p. 500) regards this estimate as excessive,