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There are elements of bisexuality in every individual. In the course of a normal development, the homosexual instincts are weakened and the heterosexual come to the fore, paralleling the development of the anatomical signs of bisexuality. The nipples of the male, for example, remain in an “embryonic” state.
If the homosexual instinct does not disappear, however, but continues its development, the result will be either open homosexuality, if the individual is conscious of his tendency, or latent homosexuality, if he is unaware of it and it is hidden in the unconscious by the authority of the moral censor.
However, the thinking, the aspirations and the actions of such a person will reflect his internal conflict.
In some cases, the homosexual elements are not manifested till advanced age, appearing like a mysterious flame glowing through the ash.
It seems to us that no other perversion (or to use a better term, paraphilia), in its latent occult state, makes such liberal use of various masks and distortions as the homosexual inclination.
A close study of Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata leaves no doubt in mind that the jealous murderer Pozdnuishef is presented as a homosexual who did not know his own nature; even the author, Tolstoy, failed to realize this.
Nothing is told of Pozdnuishef's childhood. At the age of fifteen, together with his older brother, a student, he lost his innocence at a house of prostitution.
It is very probable that this older brother had a determining influence on the development of the younger boy. Psychoanalytic studies have shown that a visit to a prostitute may conceal the unconscious wish of entering in this way into symbolic contact with her other clients. This unconscious wish is even more evident in a joint visit to a brothel; a joint visit to a prostitute is one of the masks of homosexuality.