the opposite sex—in fact, they are frequently scornful of members of it, excepting, of course, the idealized parent of the opposite sex.
On the other hand, they form strong friendships with members of their own sex. Prominent in the classification of adolescent homosexual attractions are the school friendships of girls, which are known variously as "crushes,"
"flames" and "raves." Elaborate romances are sometimes bound up in these attachments, with their courtships, love letters, jealousy and other manifestations of erotic affection. Havelock Ellis states that while these alliances are sometimes sexual in the physical sense, they often are not so, but are full of "psychic erethism."
The subject of homosexuality, and its causes, is too involved to go into at length. Suffice to say at this point, however, that it would seem to be largely a psychological problemn, due to faulty early environment, and sometimes possibly accentuated by an irregularity of the endocrine glandular system.
It is believed that an over-attachment by the male for the mother, or other female—the fixation which has already been discussed—is one of the principal determining causes. In this way the boy unconsciously patterns his psycho-erotic reactions and conduct after those of his mother, and as her sexual interest normally is in men, the boy's, too, gravitates in that direction, so that in adulthood he has sexual feeling only for persons of his own sex. The over-attachment of the girl for the father may result in the homosexual woman. In most cases probably the homosexual feelings are repressed.
Hermaphroditism. When the generative organs of the two sexes are combined in a single individual, the condition is known as hermaphroditism. True hermaphrodites—possessing the complete genitalia of the two sexes—are not
