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The author presents conclusions based on extensive study of perverts, especially male homosexuals. In these homosexuals, after the analysis of the negative Oedipus complex, there remained a core of conflict based on defenses against the wish to suck or incorporate the breast of the preoedipal mother. Sucking the penis represented an unconscious satisfaction and a denial of the original wish. The pervert can play the role of either mother or infant. The pervert's lack of interest in normal sexual intercourse is due to unconscious fear of intercourse. The perversion is more than a lack of defense against raw instinctual wishes. What appears to be a genuine desire for the perverted act is the result of a defense against certain other prohibited pregenital cravings. Approval of a perverted action is, therefore, not equivalent to approval of the component instinct against which it defends. The component instinct that unconsciously craves satisfaction must undergo extensive changes and masking in order to be gratified in the perverted act. Id, ego, and superego connive to permit the socially prohibited action.