“The pioneering stage is over. No longer is it a risky and dangerous enterprise to approach this field, with pitfalls on every side. Now the legitimacy of the field is generally accepted”
London, 1935
PART ONE
THE EVOLUTION OF MODESTY
THE PHENOMENA OF SEXUAL PERIODICITY
AUTO-EROTISM
THE EVOLUTION OF MODESTY
“The woman who is lacking in this kind of fear is lacking, also, in sexual attractiveness to the normal and average man.”
AUTO-EROTISM: A STUDY OF THE SPONTANEOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE
“The typical form of auto-erotism is the occurrence of the sexual orgasm during sleep.”
“We are familiar with ‘masturbation’, but that, strictly speaking, only covers a special and arbitrary subdivision of the field, although, it is true, the subdivision with which physicians and alienists have chiefly occupied themselves, ‘Self-abuse’ is somewhat wider, but by no means covers the whole ground, while for various reasons it is an unsatisfactory term. ‘Onanism’ is largely used, especially in France, and some writers even include all forms of homosexual connection under this name; it may be convenient to do so from a physiological point of view, but it is a confusing and antiquated mode of procedure, and from the psychological standpoint altogether illegitimate; ‘onanism’ ought never to be used in this connection, if only on the ground that Onan’s device was not auto-erotic, but was an early example of withdrawal before emission, or coitus interruptus.”
“As our marriage-rate declines, and as illicit sexual relationships continue to be openly discouraged, it is absolutely inevitable that auto-erotic phenomena of one kind or another, not only among women but also among men, should increase among us both in amount and intensity.”
“I am informed by a gentleman who is a recognized authority on goats, that they sometimes take the penis into the mouth and produce actual orgasm, thus practicing auto-fellatio.”
“When the Spaniards first arrived at Viscaya, in the Philippines, they found that masturbation was universal, and that it was customary for the women to use an artificial penis and other abnormal methods of sexual gratification.”
“More than 9/10 of the foreign bodies found in the female bladder or urethra are due to masturbation.”
“In 1862, a German surgeon found the accident so common that he invented a special instrument for extracting hair-pins from the female bladder, as, indeed, Italian and French surgeons have also done.”
“Sexual irritation may also be produced by the bicycle in women. Thus, Moll remarks that he knows many married women, and some unmarried, who experience sexual excitement when cycling; in several cases he has ascertained that the excitement is carried as far as complete orgasm.”
“The aggravation of haemorrhoids sometimes produced by cycling indicates also the tendency to local congestion.”
“These 4 writers – the author of Onania, Tissot, Voltaire, Lallemand – are certainly responsible for much. The mistaken notions of many medical authorities, carried on by tradition, even down to our own time; the powerful lever which has been put into the hand of unscrupulous quacks; the suffering, dread and remorse experienced in silence by many thousands of ignorant and often innocent young people may all be traced in large measure back to these 4 well-meaning, but on this question misguided, authors.”
“The great Scandinavian philosopher, Sören Kierkegaard, suffered severely, according to Rasmussen, from excessive masturbation. That, at the present day, eminence in art, literature, and other fields may be combined with the excessive practice of masturbation is a fact of which I have unquestionable evidence.”
PART TWO
ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE
LOVE AND PAIN
THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN
ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE
“The first definition of the sexual impulse we meet with is that which regards it as an impulse of evacuation. The psychological element is thus reduced to a minimum.”
Seclusão Anagógica 