The inversion is not thus removed.  But if the patient is still young, and if the perversion does not appear to be deeply rooted in the organism, it is probable that—­provided his own good-will is aiding—­general hygienic measures, together with removal to a favorable environment, may gradually lead to the development of the normal sexual impulse.  If it fails to do so, it becomes necessary to exercise great caution in recommending stronger methods.  Purely “Platonic association with the other sex,” Moll points out, “leads to better results than any prescribed attempt at coitus.”  For even when such attempt is successful, it is not usually possible to regard the results with much satisfaction.  Not only is the acquisition of the normal instinct by an invert very much on a level with the acquisition of a vice, but probably it seldom succeeds in eradicating the original inverted instinct.[257] What usually happens is that the person becomes capable of experiencing both impulses,—­not a specially satisfactory state of things.  It may be disastrous, especially if it leads to marriage, as it may do in an inverted man or still more easily in an inverted woman.  The apparent change does not turn out to be deep, and the invert’s position is more unfortunate than his original position, both for himself and for his wife.[258]

It may be observed in the Histories brought forward in chapter iii that the position of married inverts (we must, of course, put aside the bisexual) is usually more distressing than that of the unmarried.  Among my cases 14 per cent. are married.  Hirschfeld finds that 16 per cent. of inverts are married and 50 per cent. are impotent; he is unable to find a single cure of homosexuality, and seldom any improvement, due to marriage; nearly always the impulse remains unaffected.  The invert’s happiness is, however, often affected for the worse, and not least by the feeling that he is depriving his wife of happiness.  An invert, who had left his country through fear of arrest and married a rich woman who was in love with him, said to Hirschfeld:  “Five years’ imprisonment would not have been worse than one year of marriage."[259] In a marriage of this kind the homosexual partner and the normal partner—­however ignorant of sexual matters—­are both conscious, often with equal pain, that, even in the presence of affection and esteem and the best will in the world, there is something lacking.  The instinctive and emotional element, which is the essence of sexual love and springs from the central core of organic personality, cannot voluntarily be created or even assumed.[260]