Homosexuality

By the majority of individuals, and even of medical men, homo sexuality has simply been regarded as a disgusting perversion which merits no further interest or investigation. This disgust and revolt of the moral sense is explained by Freud as due in great part to the existence in the ordinary mind of a homosexual component of the sex instinct, which finds indirect expression in condemnation of homosexuality in others, in the same way as the repression of the sexual instinct in the prude expresses itself in the condemnation of normal sexual activity. This idea seems to be confirmed by the great tolerance of homosexuality we see in some countries where sex repression is also much lessened. We must bear in mind that man is not the purely reasoning individual he deludes himself he his, and it is certain that he is largely swayed by unconscious emotional forces which warp his thought and action. The student of science is by no means an exception, and we should do well when new theories come before us, and controversy is apt to be rife, to dip thoughtfully into the chapters on the psychology of belief.