tion I may, perhaps, mention a moral quality which is very
often associated with dramatic aptitude, and also with minor degrees of
nervous degeneration, and that is vanity and the love of applause. While
among a considerable section of inverts it is not more marked than among
the non-inverted, if not, indeed, less marked, among another section it is
found in an exaggerated degree. In at least one of my cases vanity and
delight in admiration, both as regards personal qualities and artistic
productions, reach an almost morbid extent. And the quotations from
letters written by various others of my subjects show a curious
complacency in the description of their personal physical characters,
markedly absent in other cases. It is suggested by Alexander Schmid, on
the basis of Adler's views, that this vanity, which sometimes in the
inverted artist becomes an exalted pride, as of a guardian of sacred
mysteries, may be regarded as an effort to secure a compensation for the
consciousness of feminine defect.[222]

The extreme type of this preoccupation with personal beauty is
represented by the history of himself sent by a young Italian of
good family to Zola in the hope--itself a sign of vanity--that
the distinguished novelist would make it the subject of one of
his works. The history is reproduced in the _Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle_ (1894) and in _L'Homosexualite et les
Types Homosexuels_ (1910) by "Dr. Laupts" (G. Saint-Paul). I
quote the following passage: "At the age of 18 I was, with few
differences, what I am now (at 23). I am rather below the medium
height (1.65 metres), well proportioned, slender, but not lean.
My torso is superb; a sculptor could find nothing against it, and
would not find it very different from that of Antinotis. My back
is very arched, perhaps too much so; and my hips are very
developed; my pelvis is broad, like a woman's; my knees slightly
approximate; my feet are small; my hands superb; the fingers
curved back and with glistening nails, rosy and polished, cut
squarely like those of ancient statues. My neck is long and
round, the nape charmingly adorned with downy hairs. My head is
charming, and at 18 was more so. The oval of it is perfect and
strikes all by its infantine form. At 23 I am to be taken for 17
at most. My complexion is white and rosy, deepening at the
faintest emotion. The forehead is not bea