Auto-Erotism - A Psychiatric Study of Onanism and Neurosis

Wilhelm Stekel

Description

This vintage book contains a psychiatric study of "Onanism and Neurosis" written by the seminal Austrian psychologist, Wilhelm Stekel. An interesting and comprehensive treatise on the subject written by the authority on early psychoanalytical theory concerning sexuality, this book constitutes a must-have for student’s psychology and collectors of Stekel’s work. Contents include: “The Social Function of Onanism”, “Masturbation and Neurosis”, “Masturbator – Analysis of a School Boy Who Committed Suicide”, “Cryptic Masturbation”, “Psychogenesis of Guilty Conscious”, “Masturbation and Religion”, and “General Considerations”. Wilhelm Stekel (1868 - 1940) was an Austrian psychologist and physician. He was an early follower of the seminal Sigmund Freud, often described as Freud's most distinguished pupil and commonly hailed as one of the founding fathers of modern psychoanalytical methodology. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Sujets

• Psychoanalytic theory

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 28 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528765046
• Langue: English

Extrait

Auto-Erotism
A Psychiatric Study of Onanism and Neurosis
By Wilhelm Stekel, M.D .
With a Foreword by Emil A. Gutheil, M.D.
With an Introduction by Fredric Wertham, M.D.
Authorized Translation by James S. Van Teslaar, M.D.
Copyright 2013 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Wilhelm Stekel
Wilhelm Stekel on 18 th March 1868 in Boiany, Bukovina, in present-day Ukraine.
Stekel was a physician and psychologist. He was one of Sigmund Freud s earliest followers and is credited along with Freud as having founded the first psycho-analytical society. However, Stekel and Freud eventually fell out and their vision of psychoanalysis took different paths.
Stekel made several important contributions to psychoanalytic theory. His work on dream symbolism was acknowledged in Freud s The Interpretation of Dreams , as having taught Freud to form a truer estimate of the extent and importance of symbolism in dreams . Stekel also explored the notion of obsessional doubt, saying In anxiety the libido is transformed into organic and somatic symptoms; in doubt, the libido is transformed into intellectual symptoms. The more intellectual someone is, the greater will be the doubt component of the transformed forces. Doubt becomes pleasure sublimated as intellectual achievement.
On the theory of fetishism and perversion, Stekel contrasted what he called normal fetishes from extreme interests, saying They become pathological only when they have pushed the whole love object into the background and themselves appropriate the function of a love object, e.g., when a lover satisfies himself with the possession of a woman s shoe and considers the woman herself as secondary or even disturbing and superfluous.
As well as being an innovator in therapeutic technique, Stekel produced many papers and books on the subject, including Sexual Root of Kleptomania (1911), Compulsion and Doubt (1922), and Sadism and Masochism: The Psychology of Hatred and Cruelty (1929).
Stekel suffered from prostate problems and diabetic gangrene. He put an end to the pain by taking an overdose and committing suicide. Stekel died on 25 th June 1940.
CONTENTS
F OREWORD BY E MIL A. G UTHEIL , M.D.
I NTRODUCTION BY F REDRIC W ERTHAM , M.D.
I T HE S OCIAL F UNCTION OF O NANISM
The Sexuality of the Child-Coitus During Childhood-Why Physicians Have Overlooked the Sexuality of Children-The Asexualization and Idealization of the Child-Account of Infantile Onanism-Two Types of the Practice-Masturbating Children Regarded as Epileptic-Freud s Views Regarding Infantile Onanism-The So-Called Latent Period-Prevalence of the Habit among the Talented and among the Neurotic Children-Paraphilia, Parapathy, and Parology-New Names for New Viewpoints-Discredited Views Regarding Masturbation-The Question of a Definition-The Various Forms of the Habit-Various Statistical Data on the Frequency of the Habit-Everybody Is Addicted to the Habit-Neurosis Is a Consequence of Abstinence, Not the Result of the Habit-Does Masturbation Lead to Neurasthenia?-Analysis of a Case of So-called Neurasthenia-Analysis of Person Fond of Children Who Protects Himself against Crime through Masturbation-A Masturbating Asocial Personality-Masturbation as Social Protection against Sexual Crimes.
II M ASTURBATION AND N EUROSIS
Masturbation a Defence Manifestation-Nervous Disorder and Masturbation-The Neurosis Sets in When the Habit Is Broken Off-Case of an Abstinent Student-A Physician s Wife Who Read Her Husband s Professional Books-Her Struggle against Masturbation-Her Suicide Letter-Suicide and Masturbation-Masturbation the Only Adequate Form of Gratification for Many Persons-Chronic Suicide through Masturbation-Masturbation and Incest-The Stammering Masturbator-Analysis of a School Boy Who Committed Suicide-Significance of the Specific Phantasy Associated with the Habit-A Case in Which the Habit Was Due to the Fixation of a Phantasy-A Case of Masturbation-Consequences of the Habit-Physical Constitution and Masturbation-Transference from Masturbation to the Allerotic Form of Gratification-There Exists No Norm for Sexual Intercourse-Various Criminal Phantasies of Masturbation-The Neurotic as Actor (Exhibitionist).
III C RYPTIC M ASTURBATION
Pollution as a Form of Onanism-Case of Follen Cabot-Case from Personal Observation-A Woman Who Suffers from Pollutions-The Struggle against Pollutions-Sleeplessness and Headache-A Student Complaining of 4-5 Nightly Pollutions-Search for the Specific Phantasy-Onanism during the Hysteric Attack-Alleged Dangers of Onanism Induced by a Guilty Conscience-Sweet Fainting-Excitation of Erogenous Zones-Prolongation of Fore-Pleasure at Expense of End-Pleasure-Cryptic Orgasm-Dermatoses as Substitutes for Onanism-Pruritus Vulv -Spermatorrhoea-Anal Eroticism-Luther s Illness-Day Dreams with Psychic Onanism-Case of Compulsion Neurosis Following the Abandonment of the Habit; Recovery after Habit Was Resumed-Ungratified Persons Become Criminals.
IV P SYCHOGENESIS OF G UILTY C ONSCIENCE
Case of Psychic Onanism, Descriptive Account by Krafft-Ebing-A Case of Cryptic Onanism Cleared Up through Analysis-Fixation of a Traumatic Scene through Onanism-Secondary Effect of Prostatic Massage-Therapeutic Efficacy of Magnetism Depends on Sexuality-A Woman treated by a Magnetizer-Influence of Massage on Eros-The Enterocleaner-Gonorrhoea and Neurosis-Case of a Miraculous Cure through Prostatic Massage-Analysis of the Masturbator s Guilty Conscience-Masturbation as Symbol for Every Form of Guilt-Illustration of the Shifting of Responsibility-The Contrary Influence of Taboos and Proscriptions-Danger and Guilt as Provocatives of Gratification-Prophylaxis of Early Masturbation-Educational Blunders-Onanism and Potentia-Onanism as Infantile Regression.
V M ASTURBATION AND R ELIGION
Religion the Guardian of Sexuality-Masturbation and the Problem of Fertility-A Case of Religious Neurosis-A Minister s Influence on His Congregation-Glossolalia (Gift of Tongues)-Dementia Following Struggle against Masturbation-The Masturbator Himself a God-Sexuality Pervades Religion-What a Minister Writes about the Dangers of Masturbation-The Mental Hygiene of the Future-A Modern Instance of Mental Hygiene-Marcinowski s New Religion.
VI G ENERAL C ONSIDERATIONS
The Compulsive Mannerisms of a Philosopher Who Has Overcome His Masturbation Habit-His Water-Closet Ceremonial-His Morning Ceremonial-Leaving the House-Mannerisms in the Public Park-Solution of His Compulsive Mannerisms-Psychology of Asceticism and Abstinence-The Craving for Intoxication-The Abstinence Movement a Social Phobia-Social Safeguards against Masturbation-Parents as Sexual Guardians over Children-The Asexualization of the Child-The Masturbator in His Own God-Fixation of the Habit through Contrariness (Negativism)-The Revolt against the Teleological Standpoint-The Schooling of Sacrifice and Love-May Masturbation Be Uprooted?-Sublimation of the Sexual Energies.
G LOSSARY
I NDEX
FOREWORD
by
E MIL A. G UTHEIL , M.D.
We usually take medical progress for granted and are inclined to forget that at the beginning of each advance stands an individual, an independent thinker and intuitive observer who dares to disagree with the existing views and to expose himself to the animosity of his conservative contemporaries.
Today we consider the aseptic management of obstetrical deliveries as self-evident and we tend to forget that there was a time when an individual, Semmelweiss, working at an obstetric clinic in Vienna, dared to challenge his profession with the bold pronouncement that it was the physician himself who with his unsterile hands was carrying the puerperal infection and death to the women in childbirth. Ridiculed and ostracized at first, Semmelweiss later was rightly referred to as the Savior of Mothers.
Conditions in the field of sexology were also controlled by ignorance. Today, when Kinsey in his study is able to state that the majority of human beings have masturbated at one time or another; when the problem of auto-erotism represents a topic of frank discussions in study groups and mental hygiene classes of colleges, we do not bother to acknowledge the fact that many years before Kinsey, Freud proved the pansexualism of the child, and Stekel came out with his epoch-making clinical observations regarding masturbation. Stekel maintained that if it were true that masturbation was as harmful as the contemporary medical world believed, the majority of human beings in this world would be found in hospitals and insane asylums.
What at first caused the pioneering Stekel to suffer a great deal of opposition from and distrust by his colleagues was his claim that, in sexual matters, doctors were dangerous laymen! Dangerous, because they gave professional advice to their trusting patients; laymen, because in sexual matters they were not free from superstitions and prejudices to which they themselves had been exposed when they were young. Stekel s ingenious observations which constitute the contents of the present work have dealt a deadly blow to these superstitions. By submitting this work to the scrutiny of the medical profession, Stekel helped to free the young generation from the all-pervading feeling of anxiety, the hypochondriacal anticipation, and the profound guilt feelings caused by misinformation. For this accomplishment alone, the great psychotherapist deserves the name Savior of Youth.
According to Stekel there are two types of masturbation. One is physiological; the other is pathological. The first, accor