A neurotic and a pervert, in other words, are exactly the same,

although one of the greatest psychologists of all time, Sigmund Freud, mistakenly thought otherwise. A prevert or sex deviant is actually a sexual neurotic; and a neurotic is nothing but a non-sexual deviant. The definitive characteristic of both the neurotic and the pervert is that they both arbitrarily narrow down a potentially wide field of action into a very limited act which they feel, out of irrational fear, that they must perform if they are to be comfortable or satisfied.

The fact neurotics and perverts are really the same may, as I point out in my book "The American Sexual Tragedy," clearly be seen if we forget about sex perverts for a moment and talk about individuals whom we may call food perverts. Suppose, for example, and individual who is in good physical health and has no special allergic reactions insists on eating nothing but meat and potatoes; or suppose he only will eat once a day, at three in the morning, and will not touch a bit of food at any other time, even if he is starving; or suppose he will only eat off a particular set of blue plates, and will absolutely refuse to eat if these are not available. Obviously, in the popular parlance, this individual would be crazy; more technically, we would call him a neurotic or a food pervert.

By the same token, sex perverts are just as obviously neuroticare emotionally disturbed individuals who are fetichistically attached to one particular mode of sex activity-and who usually, though not always, became fetichistically attached to this form of behavior because of peculiarities or fixations which arose during their childhood. Sexual neuroses are essentially the same as other forms of neurosis— except that, in our antisexual society, we emotionalize them and tend to view them in a special light.

Are, then, all individuals who engage in homosexual activity perverted and hence neurotic? By no means so. As Dr. Kinsey most effectively points out, most individuals who engage in homosexual activity do so for only a few years of their lives or do so along with their equally satisfying heterosexual experiences or other sex experiences. If one wishes to call all such individuals "homosexuals," then there is no question that all "homosexuals" are not perverted or neurotic.

If, however, by "homosexual" we mean an individual who exclusively desires homosexual participation, who derives little or no satisfaction from heterosexual activity, and who either avoids heterosexual relations or is heterosexually potent but anesthetic, then we are, almost by definition, describing a sex pervert or neurotic. For such a "true" or "essential" homosexual is quite arbitrarily and illogically, out of some underlying or concious fear of heterosexual behavior, narrowing down his sex activity and/or desire to inverted behavior. By exactly the same token, any individual who exclusively enjoys masturbation, sadistic or masochistic sex practices, sex relations with animals, or any one form of sex act, and who under no circumstances can truly enjoy and receive orgasm through some other kind of sex acts-that person is indubitably a sex pervert or a neurotic.

one

10