A “correction” for “instinct disorders”: hormonal experiments and therapies in the early 20th century

experimentos e terapias hormonais no início do século XX

Abstract

This paper analyses historical thesis on “sex reversal”, “cure of homosexuality” and the “problem” of sexual ambiguities. It focuses on sex endocrinology literature throughout the first decades of the 20^th century. The methods employed are a bibliographic review and analysis of primary sources, such as scientific books, journalistic vehicles and literary volumes. The text brings up how “correction treatments” for “sexual deviance” were molded into scientific vogues of each period, but also into its moral concerns. The conclusions point to a solid bound between science, politics and morality, which turns up particularly highlighted when epistemic crisis clashes with moral panics. However, this conservative allegiance would entail an overturn: the rise of possibilities against the grain, raised by medical literature itself and reclaimed by the “sexual deviants”.