rtionately they show but little of the
secondary characters of the other sex, and that they really look for
real feminine psychic features in their sexual object. If that were not
so it would be incomprehensible why masculine prostitution, in offering
itself to inverts, copies in all its exterior, to-day as in antiquity,
the dress and attitudes of woman. This imitation would otherwise be an
insult to the ideal of the inverts. Among the Greeks, where the most
manly men were found among inverts, it is quite obvious that it was not
the masculine character of the boy which kindled the love of man, but it
was his physical resemblance to woman as well as his feminine psychic
qualities, such as shyness, demureness, and the need of instruction and
help. As soon as the boy himself became a man he ceased to be a sexual
object for men and in turn became a lover of boys. The sexual object in
this case as in many others is therefore not of the like sex, but it
unites both sex characters, a compromise between the impulses striving
for the man and for the woman, but firmly conditioned by the masculinity
of body (the genitals).[12]

The conditions in the woman are more definite; here the active inverts,
with special frequency, show the somatic and psychic characters of man
and desire femininity in their sexual object; though even here greater
variation will be found on more intimate investigation.

*The Sexual Aim of Inverts.*--The important fact to bear in mind is that
no uniformity of the sexual aim can be attributed to inversion.
Intercourse per anum in men by no means goes with inversion;
masturbation is just as frequently the exclusive aim; and the limitation
of the sexual aim to mere effusion of feelings is here even more
frequent than in hetero-sexual love. In women, too, the sexual aims of
the inverted are manifold, among which contact with the mucous membrane
of the mouth seems to be preferred.

*Conclusion.*--Though from the material on hand we are by no means in a
position satisfactorily to explain the origin of inversion, we can say
that through this investigation we have obtained an insight which can
become of greater significance to us than the solution of the above
problem. Our attention is called to the fact that we have assumed a too
close connection between the sexual impulse and the sexual object. The
experience gained from the so called abnormal cases teaches us that a
connection exists between the sexual impulse