Reviews, Abstracts, Notes, and Correspondence

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Abstract
Eighty-four cases of hermaphroditism from the medical literature are examined, and it is shown that, in the great majority of these, the hermaphrodite assumes a heterosexual libido and sex role that accords primarily not with internal and external somatic characteristics, but rather with masculine or feminine upbringing. This is shown to be true in the case of pseudohermaphrodites, presumably true hermaphrodites, and true hermaphrodites. On the basis of these facts, the conclusion is drawn that heterosexuality and homosexuality in hermaphrodites are primarily caused not by direct hormonal or other physiologic factors but by environmental ones. Since, however, the hermaphrodites'' environment conspicuously includes his somatic anomalies, it is also concluded that the problem of "normal" and "abnormal" sexual behavior among hermaphrodites is importantly a psychosomatic one, as is, too, the broad problem of psychosexuality in normal human beings.