Auto-Eroticism: A Psychiatric Study of Onanism and Neurosis

by Wilhelm Stekel

When this work was first published in the first half of the last century, sexology and the unprejudiced study of sexual activity was in its infancy. Kinsey in his study of human sexual behavior was able to state that the majority of human beings had masturbated at one time or another but to us today this probably remains quite an astonishing statement to have to make. The whole field was surrounded by ignorance and superstition. The medical profession was regrettably the worst offender and the most ignored. This is why this book was such a revelation step and much ahead of its time.

Genres: Sexuality

Hardcover

First published December 19, 2013

About the author

Wilhelm Stekel was an Austrian physician and psychologist, who became one of Sigmund Freud's earliest followers, and was once described as "Freud's most distinguished pupil". According to Ernest Jones, "Stekel may be accorded the honour, together with Freud, of having founded the first psycho-analytic society"; while he also described him as "a naturally gifted psychologist with an unusual flair for detecting repressed material." He later had a falling-out with Freud, who announced in November 1912 that "Stekel is going his own way". His works are translated and published in many languages.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION

Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940) was an Austrian physician and psychologist, who was one of Freud’s most prominent followers.

He wrote in the first chapter, “Our sexual life begins with the day of our birth and it ends with death. Other investigators go further and ascribe even to the fetus a certain degree of sexuality. That is something I am not disposed to deny but it is a view I cannot corroborate. On the other hand I know through my personal observations, extending over many years, that heretofore we have been wrongly instructed regarding the beginnings of sexuality.” (Pg. 3)

He continues, “At this juncture I want to trace out a fundamental difference between my account of the disorders of the sexual functions and the previous views. Formerly the account of these disorders was purely descriptive, or individual. On my part I endeavor to examine these disorders from their aspect as social manifestations and at every step to trace the relations of the individual to the social group. The oversight of the sexuality of childhood is also a significant social manifestation which discloses that humanity is struggling against sexuality. This deliberate oversight necessarily involves the medical profession. Physicians are not immune against social determinism any more than any other group. That is the reason why the most famous investigators of sexual problems have ignored certain facts.” (Pg. 4)

He observes, “I have known intelligent mothers to swear that their grown-up sons were wholly innocent and knew nothing of such ‘vile things,’ while the sons in question already possessed a large store of experience. All the obvious excitations of sexuality are belittled as accidental, as innocent play, as distant instinct. The child is something holy, pure, and noble, to the mother. Every mother feels herself a Mary who has given birth to a savior. She may admit as a last resort that possibly other children may be degenerates at an early age, but her child is a remarkable exception.” (Pg. 9-10)

He asserts, “there is no such thing as an asexual child… sexual life awakens during the first days. It manifests itself as onanism and as a pleasure-sense in connection with every form of erotic gratification. Suckling at the maternal breast is certainly an erotic act and in a certain sense so also is thumb sucking…
But I do not consider all sucking and like motions onanistic. The child merely preserves the inchoate pleasure-sense in connection with all bodily excitation.” (Pg. 12-13)

He states, “I maintain: All the injuries ascribed to onanism exist only in the physician’s fancy. All the alleged injuries are artifacts, they are the consequences of the prevailing system of morals---a system which for two thousand years has combated sexuality and all pleasure-seeking.’ (Pg. 16)

He says, “Everybody masturbates! No exception to this is admissible, once we know that onanism may be unconscious. The latter form may be called masked or larvated onanism.” (Pg. 20) He adds, “What would be the present condition of the human race if that ‘awful habit’ were actually as harmful as our busy-bodies and ignorant meddlers have tried to make out?” (Pg. 22)

He argues, “Let us, once and for all, abolish the fiction of normalcy in sexual matters... If masturbation were entirely suppressed the number of sexual misdeeds would increase to an immeasurable extent. Criminality would also increase very rapidly.” (Pg. 34)

He notes, “Out most important conclusions thus far are: … masturbation is not the cause of the neuroses… When masturbation is given up the will to live itself is given up in many cases… The mental and physical dangers of masturbation exist only in the imagination of ignorant physicians.” (Pg. 35-36)

He observes, “The self-reproaches in which the patients indulge on account of the habit are really directed against the accompanying phantasies.” (Pg. 53)

He summarizes, “Masturbation is a return to infantile gratification. It is a symptom of psychic infantilism, characteristic of the neurotic. At the right time the child abandons its childish ways if properly trained to assume the role of an adult. But this is not to be achieved through taboos and threats; it is a question of education and of growth through freedom, such as may be attained through psychoanalysis.” (Pg. 138)

He concludes, “I feel myself … but a part of the great social wave which now relentlessly insists upon greater sexual freedom. But I indulge in no illusion, and I do not hold that we are witnessing the dawn of an unhampered, free sexual life…. As physicians we witness with bleeding heart the victims of this terrible struggle and we must think of binding the wounds of those who fail. We are but Samaritans. May our work save ever so many individuals---the struggle will not necessarily cease.” (Pg. 190)

This book may appeal to those studying Stekel.

[Omar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read for a class. What a bore!