Alfred Adler, whose conception of the neurosis is based on the hypothesis of "the male protest" also associates homosexuality with this principle. In his opinion, all reactions and protective constructions or fixations of the neurotic are based on the wish to be "a complete being" as he sees it. Homosexuality exemplifies this protest in a singular form. The homosexual's ambition is (in its unconscious implications): I want to be a woman! This, according to Adler, is a male protest under the use of female means. He maintains that the homosexual attempts by this means to enhance his strength of personality. The latter turns away from woman because he fears his inferiority. He fears the sexual partner. Fear, shame, hate and disgust are the inhibitions which drive the homosexual away from the opposite sex.
Adler mentions that the over-valuation of the homosexual partner serves also to raise the neurotic invert in his own estimation. Thus, in neuroses, homosexuality, even when carried into practice, is always found to be a symbol by means of which it is sought to place the individual's own superiority beyond question. This mechanism is similar to that of a religious psychosis, in which the fancied nearness to God has the significance of an elevation. In a sense, the religious fanatic identifies himself with God, just as the non-religious psychopath may identify himself with Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander the Great, or some other character in history whose personality completely dominated its environment.
