From Onanism to masturbatory psychosis

Other meanings of the term in disuse :

- "Masturbare" : "manu" and "turbare" and "manu estuprare": "Epigrams" of Martial (40-104 AD) (Our poet and epigrammatic philosopher Bilbilis, Zaragoza).

- "Self-healing" of our Letamendi, doctor from Madrid. (quoted by H. Ellis)

- Geistige Onanie ": Hufeland (principles XIX): "excitement with the fantasy of voluptuous images without the body losing its chastity"

- Onania psychica. H. Kann 1844, in his " sexual psychopathy " :

- "Monosexual idiosyncrasia " Gustav Jaeger: (animal forms of masturbation)

- " Autofilia" Dr. Laipts (Dr. St. Paul): "for lonely vices"

- "Autoerotism" by Havelock Ellis.

"the phenomenon of spontaneous sexual emotion generated in the absence of an external stimulus proceeding, directly or indirectly, from another person."

- " Onanism". SA Tissot. 1774

Here we have a classic definition of onanism:

JB Serrurier. "Pollution" and "Masturbation " Dictionnaire des sciences médicales 1819.

"That young man, ... in the most absolute morass, his sight completely off. Wherever he was, he met the needs of nature. His body exhaled a nauseating smell. His skin was earthy, his tongue hesitant, his eyes sunken, his teeth were fleshy, his gums were ulcerated, ... Death could no longer be for him but the happy ending of his prolonged suffering. .. "

Abusing sexual activity was detrimental to health since Hippocrates.

But no classical author refers to masturbation as a disease.

To prove it, I have in my library a facsimile of the original manuscript of the fifteenth century, entitled: “Speculum al Joder” o Tratado de recetas y consejos sobre el coito. (Cod. Bibl. Nac. De Madrid. nº 3.356, Fol.. 35-54. Ed. Mediavalia.)

I'll list some chapters to give you a clear idea:

- The first chapter deals with the " Damage that causes a lot of fuck".

- The second chapter of the " remedies for the damage of fuck a lot".

- The third chapter " about when men should fuck."

- The sixth chapter It deals with how to produce sperm, to increase it, to thicken it, to dilute it, according to the benefit and the strength that it gives to fuck.

- The seventh chapter It treats of the meats and compound medicines that benefit and engender the sperm and of the medicines and enemas that encourage the fuck.

- The eighth chapter it deals with the ointments that straighten and give strength to the member.

A little gem of medieval knowledge, full of good advice for "The fuck".

What else can be said about the praise of masturbation ?

The German philosopher and librarian Forberg publishes his study in Latin "De Figuris Veneris" ("Manual of classic Erotology), a collection of ancient Greek and Roman texts that refer to a great variety of sexual behaviors, and in which the masturbatory technique remembers us without shame, and he cites some verses of the demigod Priapus :

What you see wet in this organ

For which I certify being Príapo

Do not think it's rain or dew

It is he who is relieved

With the memory of a complacent maid.

How do we get to discover the sickness of onanism?

How is such a sudden change of opinion?

We are already approaching the supposed disease that concerns us:

Let's see what the famous doctor Boerhaave says in his " Institutes of Medicine" at the beginning of the 18th century. (1708).

He refers to us like this: "The profuse discharge of semen produces fatigue, weakness, convulsions, thinness, dryness, flushing, and pains in the membranes of the brain, together with dullness of the senses - in particular the sight -, tabes dorsalis, stupidity and similar disorders" .

The church had always been concerned about the masturbation of its faithful, finally their prejudices were now confirmed by medical opinion.

Thanks to radical theologians such as Juan Gerson (1363-1429), the " Doctor christianissimus" that hardened repression, we can see the rigor for the " harassment of guilty caresses" .

Let's see a classic of confession manuals. (church of Côme). (See "Brief history of sex" by Béatrice Bantman.).

"Have you touched with your hand or otherwise, for pleasure parts of the body that modesty obliges to hide ". "You have contributed to excite the virile member of your boyfriend"

And now, without warning, burst the work that will change our lives for more than a century:

Onania or the Heinous Without Self-Pollution and All its Frightful Consequences in Both Sexes Considers, with spiritual and physical advice to those who have already injured themselves by the abominable practice . 4th edition London 1718.

Of unknown author, although some attribute it to a certain Bekker, a petty doctor, who became famous with his pamphlet.

Let's see what it says about the clinic of the English patients.

This is what suffer and suffer those who practice such a harmful vice . I classify it in eleven points. Does it sound like an ICD-10 disease?

- Weakening intellectual faculties: Memory is lost, ideas are obscured, slight dementia.

- Internal restlessness continuous, with anguish and remorse of conscience, even crying.

- Alteration of body strength. Debilitation.

- Cough, fever maintained.

- From almost continuous drowsiness to perpetual vigil.

- They become hypochondriacs or hysterics.

- Acute pains : The head, chest, stomach, intestines, rheumatism and stiffness.

- Not only pimples on the face, but also Superficial pustules on the face, nose, chest, thighs, and with intense itching.

- The genital organs : from impotence to the loss of semen before the most timid erection.

-Priapism . Dyshoria, strangulation, testicular pain. Sterility.

-Persistent diarrhea, hemorrhoids and anal discharge of fetid matter.

The doctor by Samuel-Auguste Tissot, He published in Louvain in 1760 his most famous book :

Onanism . (3rd ed.,1774). « L'ananisme ou Dissertation physique sur les maladies produites for masturbation ". ¡ 62 reissues until 1905.¡

I present the first clinical case: One such L. D. , healthy and sensible watchmaker until 17 years old.

From the age of 17, he resorted to frequent, daily masturbation.

"Not a year had passed, when a great weakness was seized. His soul devoted to these indecencies, he did not know how to think about anything else, the reiterations of his crime were more and more frequent ".

Too late to retire from the quagmire, says the author. Already the evil had progressed without solution, and its genital parts so irritable and weak, this wretch!

He no longer needed to perform a new manual act to spill sperm .

This is how our patient suffered.

In the book by Tissot, dear alienists, we find clinical cases about masturbation in women. Paradigms of this disease that was going to devastate Europe and their consciences:

A girl of 18 years, who had enjoyed good health, fell into vice of onanism. An alarming weakness seized him, he lacked appetite, with insomnia, edematous inflammation, horrible. Until a skilled surgeon suspected, he interrogated her and she confessed. That infamy had thrown her into the saddest state. "Dejection, languor , pain and death. " When that dangerous maneuver ceased, the progress of evil stopped.

But be careful, in addition to masturbation or manual action, there is another type of " stain ", of " sin " that we could call clitoral, whose origin goes back to Sappho of Lesbos , and the practice of "tribadism " (rubbing between women to obtain sexual pleasure).

The anatomist Renaldus Columbus (1516 - 1559), describes the "clitoris" (Pleasure of Venus)

What a misfortune, more than horrendous, does not persecute his followers!

"Mozas of Lesbos, beloved, you made me infamous."

("Lesbides, infamem quae me fecistis amatae"). Ovid In "Herodias"

Dear alienists of the 21st century and young residents of psychiatry, how difficult it is to explain the enormous influence of this work - " Onania" - through the times.

¡¡ The crusade against masturbation that crossed Europe. ¡¡

the French doctor CF Lallemand, claimed that masturbation had not developed just in antiquity ..

"This hypocritical vice seems to belong to modern societies, because it does not require accomplice or even complete virility, because it hides its maneuvers and mocks the vigilance [...]; lonely and concentrated passion, leads to lies, dissimulation »

- Lallemand , M .: Of involuntary seminal losses, Barcelona, ​​Imp. S. Verdaguer, 1838)

- Fco. Vázquez García and J. Benito Seoane. Univ de Cadiz. " Spain and the crusade against masturbation". ( 1800-1900). Rev. Hispania, LXIV / 3, num. 218 (2004)

Other like the scholar Jules Christian (1881), he did not admit this " masturbatory madness," he adds: "in 20 years of clinical experience, I have never seen the symptoms of the alleged masturbatory disease ".

And Charles L ségue (1884) refers: "L'ananisme est le symptôme d'un état morbide, d'une névrose cérébrale: il n'existe pas de folie consécutive à l'onanisme". (sic)

Havelock Ellis . (1901), of which we will later see his book on "autoerotism", tells us:

"The book elevates masturbation to the category of atrocious nightmare, " and accused Tissot of confusing his reputation as a doctor with the fanaticism of a converted Christian.

Petite histoire de masturbation Pierre Humbert , Jérôme Palazzolo Odile Jacob, Apr 17 2009 ) EH Hare ^(a1 Masturbatory Insanity: the History of an Idea, Journal of Mental Science , Volume 108 , Issue 452 January 1962 , pp. 1-25

But the " Madness ex Onania " (following the text of EH Hare) was already unstoppable.

In the "Involuntary Seminal Losses " by Claude F. Lallemand (1842), Doctor of Montpellier, we are told:

« masturbation as a danger to the future of civilization. "

Our classic and dear Philippe Pinel in his "Traité sur L'aliénation Mentale" (1809, mentions masturbation without attributing to it psychic causality.

"Frequent in maniacs", "more like the result, than not its cause ".

The first psychiatrist who studies it is Benjamin Rusch (1812) (from Philadelphia):

B. Rusch "Medical Inquiries and Observations on Diseases of the Mind". (1812).

" Onanism as a cause of madness ". Tells us:

"Produces seminal weakness, impotence, dysuria, tabes dors , tuberculosis, dyspepsia, vision loss, vertigo, epilepsy, hypochondriasis, memory loss, mamalgia, stupidity and death."

Esquirol , disciples of Pinel, in his " Des Maladies Mentales" (1822), tells us:

" Onanism is a serious symptom of mania, if it does not disappear it prevents healing.

When diminishing the defenses it produces in the patient stupidity, phthisis, marasmus and death ". "It leads to melancholy and suicide."

In England, other famous doctors, like Prichard (1835), they alert us:

James Cowles Prichard (1786 - 1848). Researches into the physical history of mankind of 1813 (teroria evolution, precursor of Ch. Darwin)

"Sexual vices are a common cause of madness, as Esquirol points out."

In his article "Madness", from the Dictionary of Practical Medicine (1844) of Copland, is said:

"Any great organic and nervous exhaustion predisposes and directly causes insanity".

"The three major factors for exhaustion are masturbation, sensuality, (libertinism, hedonism, perversión) and toxic stimuli; although debauchery does not cause insanity similar in degree to masturbation. " (Beware of residents following the letter literally!).

And what about the German alienists.

From 1830, they express a more moderate and scientific opinion.

Flemming (1838), dares: "I hope I'm not accused of apologizing for masturbation, for questioning Tissot's position ."

For the same Griesinger in 1861:

"The increase in sexual desire of some patients at the onset of insanity is a symptom, not the cause of the disease." The pathological effects of masturbation are due to the shame and anguish caused by the inability to resist it. "

Other European authors as Morel, in their "Traité des Maladies Mentales" of 1860, they study the subject.

Others like the Belgian Guislain (1852), said:

"The habit of solitary vice provokes multiple evils, among them, hysteria, mania, melancholy, suicide, and above all "dementia due to paralysis "". "Many acquire the habit after falling ill."

But the "monomania masturbatoria" was not described .

Remember our Catalan alienist Giné and Partagas , follower of Guislain in Spain and his "Tratado sobre frenopatología".

Let's go back to England, with the famous Henry Maudsley, in 1879, his «Madness of masturbation», In its first edition of "Pathology of the Mind.", and in its second edition:" insanity and self-abuse ", he insists:

"The mental disorder of masturbation is difficult to distinguish from the simple madness of adolescents. Even when masturbation is proven, it can not be assured that it is a symptom or a cause. "

In the American continent, the " masturbatory madness " was defended by E. Charles Spitzka, neurologist, alienist, jurist of New Y ork.

"The accused selfishness, malice, falsehood, and cruelty of these patients , is such that the most kindly and philosophical of the alienists may be unable to perceive them as anything other than repulsive monstrosities and strong physical and moral contamination for others. patients. "

How to explain this madness that invades the medical culture and the moral prejudices of the time ?.

Let me turn to Michel Foucault, his excellent text "The abnormal ones". (Course of the Collège de France. Class of March 5, 1975.)

The problem of masturbation: the Christian discourse of the flesh and sexual psychopathology. and "The control of sexuality" .

Foucault warns us of this "scientific Fabulation" of the disease, and speaks of the "Attribution of guilt", of responsibility to the patient, and of the techniques of "confession":

"What did you do with your hand? " What did you do with your body ? "

¡ Medical power in action¡ propaedeutics and the prevention of onanism, lead to the following therapies documented and widely used. We classify them by:

1. Mechanical methods. Between them we have:

-The night shirts, corsets, bandages, and other physical coercive means.

-The belt of Dr. J. Laffond, the most used in the early nineteenth century.

-Wender's rod (1811)

- Permanent Urinary catheter in the urethra of males.

2. Chemical means.

-The opiates used by Dr. Davila.

-Baths or enemas with different solutions.

-Dr. Larrey, Napoleon's Surgeon, invented an excellent solution of sodium bicarbonate for application in the urethra.

- Ortigas were also used for their acetylcholine.

-Although the most modern, it was undoubtedly «Apparatus for burning the inside of the penis » of Acton, William, in 1857.

When the methods of physical restraint were not effective. we can attend the following clinical case of Dr. Dubois.

Clinical case. Dr. Antoine Dubois. (XIX century).

" A sick woman who had tried to heal in vain by tying her hands and legs. Her clitoris was removed "from a single blow of a scalpel", "she cauterized the stump by means of a fire button" "The success was complete"

What else can I tell you about the rise of anti-turbulent therapies?

Read below, and hold your breath:

-In 1822, the surgeon Graefe, practices the ablation of clitoris in patients.

-In 1883 the surgeon Garnier practiced the ablation of the clitoris to the girls who gave themselves up to masturbation.

-IB Brown : clitoridectomy enthusiast. Published in The Lancet in 1866 ..

IB Brown. Clitoridectomy. The Lancet. june 30. 1866. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)67415-X

Let's follow closely the great theoretician of masturbation.

Dr. Deslandes (1835), and his justification of "take extreme measures", that is:

" Clitoris ablation " for these patients is lesser evil: This is justified by us:

"With the amputation of the limb, a part is sacrificed for the whole"

"Category - so numerous - of women insensitive to the pleasures of love.

"What does not prevent them from being good mothers and model wives".

De l'onanisme et des autres abus vénériens considérés dans leurs rapports avec la santé / par Dr. Deslandes 1835 . https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9765756h.texteImage

And for the males, we had "The technique of infubulation ", well developed in Scotland, in 1878, by Yellowlees: the technique of silver wire.

"He placed rings on the penis of all masturbators until more than 1892."

D. Schultheiss JJ Mattelaer FM Hodges . " Preputial infibulation: from ancient medicine to modern genital piercing". BJUI international. 27 October 2003 .

Yellowlees, D. " The prevention of masturbation ! Med Surg Reporter 1876 ; 35 :195

What bibliography can we recommend?

Do not miss the following texts.

"Tout sur l'onanisme, seul et à deux »

- P. Garnier. Onanisme, seul et à deux, sous toutes les formes et les conséquences. Paris. 1883. (in English: Librairie Garnier, 1934. (first: 1891) about masturbation and non-coital sex, with the snug title 'Masturbation alone and together'.

- G. Jalade Laffond . "Confection des corsets et des ceintures propres à s'opposer à la pernicieuse habitude de l'onanisme. Nouveaux moyens de s'opposer à l'onanisme. Paris. 1821..

- L. Deslandes . De l'onanisme ..., op cit pp 430.

- EAG Grafe "Guérison d'une idiote par l'extirpation du clítoris". In: Nouvelle Bibliotheque médicale, IX, 1825.

- Acton, William, 1857 . The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Youth, in Adult Age, and in Advanced Life. London

- John Harvey Kellogg, MD, "Treatment for Self-Abuse and its Effects," Plain Fact for Old and Young Burlington, Iowa: F. Segner & Co. (1888).

- Haveock Ellis . Autoerotism In Sexual Psychology Studies. Madrid. 1913

And a text in Spanish:

- MARTÍN DE LUCENAY, A. Masturbation and autoerotism. The eroticism of the exhibitionists. Origins of masturbation. Its effects on men and women. Erotic dreams. Autoerotism in religion .. M., Edit. Phoenix, 1933

To put a good end to this masturbatory hypothesis, we look at the text of Edward H. Hare: The origin of mental illness.

( The origin of mental illnesses, EH Hare, Ed Triacastela, 2002).

« The masturbatory madness: story of an idea », And in a" History of sexual repression " by Jos Van Ussel, together with " Eros and civilization" of Marcuse.

What can explain this medical madness ?

- The reason for the "Extremely cruel persecution of masturbators". Spitz ( 1952).

- Better a conclusion of faith, even if it is false: "the most stubborn error of all philosophy, the most damaging to progress, is to believe that a wrong conclusion is better than nothing"» Isaac Ray (1873 ).

- "It is more important that a hypothesis be useful than true". AN Whitehead :

- "The Oedipus effect".(influence of a prediction on the event). Karl Popper ( 1957).

- "Patients do what they are expected to do". Fl. Nightingale (1861).

Let us leave aside the medical morality that condemned onanism!

We move in the right direction.

I present to you Havelock Ellis (1859-1935), he never practiced as a doctor, but his desire for knowledge, his scientific illustration of sexuality, led him to write between 1897 and 1910, his seven volumes on " Studies in the Psychology of Sex ".

Top work of the human sexual behavior description.

Suffice it to say that he was prosecuted for it. (like his contemporary Oscar Wilde, for different reasons). Ellis significantly influenced the work of Freud.

I leave you with his work: AUTOEROTISM :

" Study of the spontaneous manifestations of sexual impulse l".

We can read it in the Spanish edition of 1911. (Sons of Reus, Editors. Madrid.)

Let's focus on your Chapter 1º.: Definition of autoerotism.

Let's see its content.

- "Masturbation is only part of the autoerotic field.

- Autoerotic phenomena in animals, between wild and barbarian races. - The "Rin-no-toma" Japanese and other special instruments for autoerotic pleasures .

- Abuse of utensils and objects of daily life.

- Frequency with which the hairpins appear in the bladder. - Influence of horse riding and travel by rail. - The sewing machine and the bicycle .

Passive and active sexual arousal . - Delectatio morosa . - Daydreaming. - Pollutio, - Sexual excitement during sleep. - Erotic dreams. - The nocturnal autoerotic phenomena in hysterics. - Frequency of its painful nature, etc.

As a clinical example, patient appointment of Dr. T. Morris. (New York, 1892):

"Very religious woman , that she has not allowed to have sexual thoughts with reference to men, but she masturbates every morning, standing in front of the mirror, rubbing herself against a key of the dresser. A man never excites his passions, but the sight of a key in the drawer of the dresser awakens in it irrepressible erotic desires ".

Quote Freud, referring to the sexual pleasure of swinging. And adds:

"Swinging another may be a source of voluptuous arousal, and one of the 600 ways to enjoy sexually, listed in Les 120 journées de Sodome by the Marquis de Sade, is to vigorously push the swing of a young woman.

In the Chapter 2, H. Ellis, it illustrates us with amplitude "About hysteria and autoerotism."

It describes here, widely the works of Breuer, Freud and Charcot, among others.

It also describes the works of Dr. King, called by the latter: "Sexual hysteria in women". (A.F.A. King: "hysteria." New Jork, 1891)

In the 3rd Chapter, Ellis describes the masturbatory behavior observed in the general population according to culture and criticizes the so-called masturbatory psychosis.

Here is his agenda:

- "Predominance of masturbation. Its existence in childhood and childhood. - Is it more frequent in males or in females?. - After adolescence more frequent in appearance in women. - "Alleged evils of masturbation. - Historical sketch of the judgments issued. - Masturbation in men of genius. (It reminds us of Melancholy in the men of genius, of Aristotle). - Masturbation as a nervous sedative. - Typical cases. - Attitude of the Greeks with regard to masturbation. - Attitude of Catholic theologians .- Attitude of the Mohammedans. - Attitude of modern science. - In what sense is masturbation normal ?, and the "immense role that represents in life the transformed autoerotic phenomena".

Reminding Havelock Ellis and his "Studies in the Psychology of Sex", in Appendix C, describe the "The autoerotic factor of religion."

Remember the classic texts of:

-"El cantar de los cantares" (The song of the songs). The Christian mysticism and its sexual coloring.

-The genius of Raimundo Lulio: "Book of the lover and the friend". (the great Catalan humanist).

- Sexual mysticism, the great school of Spanish mystics."The delicious agony", the "gentle martyrdom" of Santa Teresa.

In "Concepts of loving God " .... "Kiss me with the kiss of his mouth, ..." (from the Song of Songs). In the work "The Imitation of Christ": III. " Of the wonderful effect of divine love".

Ellis himself, as a farewell, recommends us among his books, the following readings:

- «L'erotomanie des mystiques chrétiens» 1903 . B. de Montmorand. .

- "La logique des sentiments». From Th. Ribot.

- «Des psychoses religieuses» Ball, Morselli, Vallon and Matie .(in Arch. Neurologie 1897)

- "La volupté, la cruauté et la religion". From the great psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing.

( We already know his magnum opus: Psychopatie sexualis. 8th ed. 1901)

- «The sentiment religieux dans l'extase» E. Murisier . In Revue phylosophique. 1898

We continue on our way through the trails of onanism.

Thanks to the exalted text of J. Postel and C. Quétel. History of psychiatry. (ed. FCE. Mexico), I tell you something about the life of the great psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing Richard. ( baron von ). (1840-1902) .

You know that studied with Griesinger and that in 1863 he published his thesis on "Delusional states", in 1902 he succeeded Meynert in the chair of Vienna.

Two great texts: Legal Psychiatry and Manual of Psychiatry, 1879, and the one that will occupy us for a few minutes, his immense magnum opus : Psychopathia sexualis, published in 1886.

You can not finish your residence without having enjoyed the descriptive psychopathology and the scientific inquiry of the sexual behaviors described in its text.

He was a pioneer in classifying "sexual perversions" according to two types: Abnormalities of choice of object (eg fetishism) and of purpose (eg: sadism).

We owe him the famous psychiatric terms: " Sadism " ("by the divine Marquis de Sade") and " masochism " (for the life of Léopold von Sacher Masoch

And to give you an example, I present the clinical case of "Pathological onanism " of Mr. X. 29 years old:

" As a child, he had scarlet fever, accompanied by delirium, until he was 14 years old, he was affable and affectionate and, from then on, lonely and "melancholic". At eleven he learned to masturbate and practice mutual onanism with other children. 17 years old, seduced in mutual onanism by a man who loved men.

He never felt love towards his own sex, despite his sexual practices with loving men. I never try to copulate for fear of infection; I did not know if it was powerful or not with women, I thought it could not be because lately I only dreamed of men. He felt bad, since onanism dominated his life.

He suffered from headaches, nocturnal testicular neuralgia, insomnia, and obsession with onanism. He was afraid of the future, he feared the consequences of his behavior. He had started a relationship with a woman, which was nice to him, and he liked the idea of ​​making her his wife. For five days he abstained from onanism, by himself, he was unable to overcome the habit. Lately he had felt very depressed, without interest in work, tired of life.

¡¡ we are forgetting Tissot, and his therapies against masturbation ¡¡

Through illustrated physicians as H. Ellis and Krafft-Ebing , we are overcoming moral prejudices and we are changing the century. The Victorian era comes to an end.

In 1897 Krafft-Ebing together with Meynert, they propose to a tan Sigmund Salomon Freud ( 1856-1939) for extraordinary professor, It would not be until March 5, 1902 when the emperor Joseph ratified it. Then began the famous meetings of the "Psychological Society" on Wednesdays. The life of Freud will be confused, from then on, with the history of psychoanalysis.

In 1895, his "general theory of neuroses", in which he opposed, the neuroses properly said (neurosis of anguish and neurasthenia) whose origin would be the current sexual life of the patient, at Psychoneurosis (hysteria and obsessive neurosis) linked to a sexual traumatism - real or phantasmagoric- that goes back to early childhood.

Then come the theoretical model for hysteria, "The interpretation of dreams" (1900), and the "Psychopathology of everyday life" (1904).

Overcoming the individual, it reached the domains of religion, culture, art and philosophy.

His later works: " Three essays on a theory of sexuality " (1905), "Totem and taboo" (1912), Introduction to metapsychology (1915), "Beyond the pleasure principle" (1920),

"The I and the id "(1923)," Inhibition symptom and anguish "(1926)," The future of an illusion "(1927) or "malaise in civilization" (1930).

We owe him essential concepts such as the notion of Repression (the forbidden impulses are expelled from the field of consciousness, conserving its energetic potential), Transfer , the Libido, (or energy of the sexual instincts in the different maturational stages of the child : oral, anal, phallic and genital), and the Oedipus complex as the central nucleus of neurosis.

We know of his painful terminal illness, and of his exile to London, following the persecution of Nazism, and finally cremated in the cemetery of Golden Grenn.

What does Freud tell us about onanism and sexual life, and its relationship with neuroses ? .

In 1895, Freud published his Neurosis of Anguish. (See his "Obras completas". Biblioteca Nueva. Tomo I ( Pág. 184)).

"The disturbance to which we give the name" neurosis of anguish "".

In his chapter: Appearance and etiology of the anguish neurosis .

Is it an etiological process, of a hereditary tare ?, he asks.

In the acquired neuroses, the disturbances and harmful influences of the sexual sphere are referred to: In men : quote below ..

a) Anguish of the voluntary abstainers , combined with defense symptoms (obsessive representations and hysteria) ..

b) Frustrated excitement during the courtship, and those who, for fear of the consequences of sex trade are content to touch or contemplate the woman.

c) Men who practice coitus interruptus. (Only one of the spouses usually gets sick in a marriage)

d) Anxiety of men of critical age: their power declines and their libido increases.

Two valid cases for both sexes:

- Neurasthenic because of masturbation , fall into the neurosis of anguish to abandon such a form of sexual satisfaction. Unable to withstand abstinence (see clinical case Krafft-Ebing)

- The anxiety neurosis only acquires a considerable development in even powerful men and non-anesthetic women. Thus, in neurasthenics whose potency has been severely damaged by masturbation, the neurosis of emergent anxiety in case of abstinence only acquires little development and limited to: "Forms of hypochondria and slight chronic vertigo".

A woman with "anesthesia" - thought to be always powerful - will thus be less accessible to the neurosis of anguish. (page 190) (see: contributions to the Symposium on masturbation ).

Contributions de S. Freud to the Symposium on masturbation. 1912

No doubt, an agreement on the following:

a) On the importance of the fantasies that accompany or replace the masturbatory act.

b) On the importance of the feeling of guilt linked to masturbation, whatever its origin.

c) On the impossibility of indicating a qualitative condition for the harmfulness of masturbation (in this regard unanimity is not general, Freud tells us).

What Freud tells us about the "neurosis of anguish" in women:

"Neurosis occurs in women in the following cases":

Let's see the following clinical presentations:

to) As virginal anguish or anguish of adolescents. Following a sudden revelation of the hitherto hidden, a reading, a conversation, a vision of the sexual act. Combined almost typically with hysteria.

b) As an anguish of the newly married: Those newly married women who in the first cohabitations have remained under anesthesia of sensitivity often contracted a neurosis of anguish.

c) Women with husbands afflicted with ejaculatio praecox severe

d) Those whose husbands practice coitus interruptus or reservartus . Whether or not they reach sexual satisfaction in intercourse. (see page 189)

e) As the anguish of widows or voluntarily abstinent women, combined with obsessive representations.

f) As anguish in the climacteric, as the last rise of sexual necessity.

Next, S. Freud, in his " Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" 1905 (1st ed.)

(See "obras completas" Ed. Biblioteca Nueva 1981. pp. 1172 to 1194),

We equate the "sexual instinct" with the term "libido" and describe the types and forms of " sexual aberrations". (Following H. Ellis and Krafft-Ebing).

These are the types described by Freud in his "three essays for a sexual theory"

Deviation on the sexual object.

a) The inverted (or homosexuals) Types:

b) children and youth.

c) animals as sexual objects .

Deviations related to sexual purpose.

A) Anatomical transgressions :

a) Sexual employment of labial and buccal mucosa.

b) Sexual use of the anal orifice.

c) Importance of other parts of the body.

d) Inappropriate substitution of the sexual object : Fetishism.

B) Appearance of new sexual fine.

- Touching and contemplation (exhibitionism):

- Sadism and masochism. (Krafft-Ebing).

- "Algolagnia" active or sadism.

- "Algodinia" passive or masochism. (pain, cruelty)

As we see in this classification of " deviant " sexual behavior, we no longer include that onanism that caused so much damage to Tissot patients.

From Neurosis we turn to the psychogeny of psychosis,

Continuing with our history of masturbatory psychosis, we have to describe the work of psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer (188-1964), who in 1918 describes the " delusion of relationship" of the sensitive: A reactive delusion to interpersonal relationships, interpretative basis, and based on the blaming reference, the " burden of failure".

"the weight continued and exhausting to fail"....."tired of failing"

There would be - for E. Kretschmer - a characteristic asthenic disposition and depressive features in these patients, which would lead to psychosis.

We can enjoy his work: “El delirio sensitivo de referencia”. (The sensitive delusion of reference) . (1st edition of 1919) (In Ed Triacastela, Madrid, 2000),

In this text, in chapter 4, entitled: "The delusion of masturbators", we have the latest clinical descriptions of what concerns us.

E. Krestschmer details us, the inclination of the sexual neurotics toward self-reference:

"masturbators..., the idea that on the forehead they have written their vice, and that others recognize it and make it notice", this allusion of harm will go from slight feelings of reference, associated with their neurosis, to paranoid psychosis.

He presents the now famous clinical case of "The Machinist Bruhn", which will serve as a paradigm of the delusion of the masturbator:

"This young man, with vivid erotic sensations, but too shy and unskilled with the girls, falls into the vice of intense masturbation, which he fights with a feeling of guilt". Thus, a strict, scrupulous ethical conception is appreciated, a "Shameful insufficiency. Thus a useless struggle of a scrupulous ethic against the insurmountable natural instinct is established: "the vice of masturbation leads to terrible remorse of conscience".

The moral conceptions of society and the reading of Tissot's "Onanism", lead him to a severe anxious depression with hypochondriacal fears, and to a delirium of reference and allusion . The psychosis culminates with an attempt of suicide . (page 145).

Bruhn's character is sensitive: shyness, depth and softness of mind.

A long containment of the affective life, with severe and scrupulous ethical conceptions. A great professional aptitude, and social hypersensitivity produce the rest.

The experience, the amorous passion futilely fought by the sensitive, comes to produce a " shameful insufficiency ", produced by the useless struggle of a scrupulous ethics against the insurmountable natural instinct.

The conflict, insists Kretschmer, does not have a purely ethical-individual development, but rather it is the fixed moral conceptions of society, which cause misfortune.

Thus, in all cases of masturbators, the popular scientific revelations were to blame for the psychic deviation. And our author concludes:

"Psychiatrists and neurologists have long warned of the huge misunderstanding of current concepts about the medical and moral importance of masturbation."

Other erotic affective conflicts, which share the same pathogenesis of the reference neuroses, would be :

The shy and unhappy lovers, and in women, the delusion of love (Erotomania) and erotic reference delusion of the single women.

To make clear our admiration for this author, to remember his work "Structure of the body and character ", where he describes the corporal types of the endogenous psychoses: picnics, athletic and leptosomatic, and to conclude, with the publication in 1929 of "the great men ", where he defended the mixture of races. Years later, for this reason, the Nazis made him renounce the German Society of Psychotherapy.

What remains in our psychopathological knowledge of masturbatory psychosis ?

We are nearing the end. It is the turn of Wilheim Reich ( 1897-1957).

What can we say about our beloved Reich? A little biography:

He meets Freud and in 1920 he is a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.

From 1925 to 1927 he writes : The function of orgasm (1927 ).

Founds the Socialist Society of Sexual Investigations .

He founded the German Association for Proletarian Sexual Policy (SEX-POL ).

In 1933 is expelled from the Communist Party for its mass psychology of fascism .

He is expelled from the International Psychoanalysis Association: Character Analysis .

In 1939 he moved to the USA. "The New School for Social Research."

Reich investigates on the " Orgon" creating the orgonic energy accumulator .

On December 12, 1941, he was prosecuted and arrested by FBI agents

Accused of fraud by the " Administration Food and Drug " (FDA).

In 1956, agents of the FDA destroy the material of their Institute and requisition their publications. Victim of a " witch hunt ".

He was taken to prison on March 12, 1957, where he died on November 3 of a heart attack.

Let's see the " Character Analysis " by W. Reich:

In the GENITAL character and in the NEUROTIC character, Reich describes the sexual economic function of the characterological shell , and performs the following analysis.

1. Character and sexual ecstasy.

2. Relationship between character and sexual repression.

3. Libidinal difference between genital and neurotic character .

a) Structure of the It.

b) Structure of the superego.

c) Structure of the self.

d) Sublimation, reactive formation and self neurotic.

In the "Function of orgasm" , W. Reich explains:

Each form of neurosis has its characteristic genital disturbance :

- Hysterics: lack of vaginal excitement with exaggerated hypersexuality: abstinence.

- Hysterical men: impotence and / or ejaculation.

- Obsessive neurotics: rigid, ascetic, rationalized abstinence. Impotent for orgasm.

- Neurasthenics: The penis has lost the penetrating character, ... spermatorrhea.

- Phallic-narcissistic men : " Don Juanes"

"Demonstrate to yourself your sexual potency" as defense to homophobia.

which leads to chronic hypochondriacal neurosis and its "sexual asthenia."

To conclude with the role of sexuality and masturbation in the psyche, let's see the " Theory of sexual economy " of W. Reich.

A "sex-economic" approach to psychotherapy, which with the intensity of orgasm establishes the criterion of healing in mental health.

With the " orgone" the "orgasmic energy accumulator", his theories become delirious.

¡ The fear of sexual freedom and the consequent repression are still valid to explain our nuclear neurosis. ¡

Let's see some examples of his theory of " sexual economy ":

- Psychic health depends on the orgasmic potency , that is, on the capacity of delivery in the acme of sexual arousal during the natural sexual act.

- Mental illness is a result of disturbances of the natural capacity to love and relate adequately and satisfactorily with others.

- The antisocial behavior arises from secondary drives to the suppression of natural sexuality.

- The individual educated in an atmosphere of denial of life and sex contracts anguish of pleasure (fear of pleasurable excitement): neurosis.

- That anguish of pleasure is the basis of the fear of a free and independent life.

- The neurotic person can only experience this anguish as something sinister and frightening.

- The sexual repression, biological rigidity, moralizing mania and puritanism exist everywhere.

What remains of the psychosis or masturbatory neurosis in our current psychopathology ?

Finally, another classic of psychopathology: Henri Ey (1900- 1977)

Let's see his CLINIC OF NEUROSIS ( Henri Ey and P. Bernard-Ch. Brisset, Treatise on Psychiatry, 8th ed. Toray-Masson). 1965.

¿What abnormalities of sexual activity , occur in neurosis ?.

According to H. Ey two types: "sexual inhibition " and its overcompensation: "donjuanismo".

What sexual clinic do neurotics present ? Let's see:

An Autoerotism : Masturbation . Are we going back to "Tissot' Onanism"?

- the phantasmagorical activity predominates over the reality behavior.

- there is a unique preference for sexual satisfaction: onanism.

- the absence of masturbatory behavior or systematic abstinence, on the contrary, represents a fear of the sexual drive, and also forms an unequivocal part of the neurosis.

We must ask ourselves?

- Systematic abstinence: is it a sign of virtue or a sign of neurosis ?.

- Neurotic Guilt: Can it still cause a masturbatory psychosis?

- The sensitive Delusion of reference, ¡ the masturbators, ..

Do they still have their vice written on their foreheads? Do you still believe that others recognize them and make them notice?

Let's continue with the anxiety neurosis of H. Ey, and his clinic.

- Impotence, sexual dysfunction , and masturbatory guilt.

It is necessary to perform an analysis of the neurotic behavior that maintains it.

- Disorders in ejaculation and sexual pleasure.

Are they very frequent (precocious, delayed, absent), in our neurotics today?.

The Orgasmic impotence, as a defect of voluptuous sensation, sexual anesthesia.

Is it still predominant in our neurotic anxiety?

What remains today of the Fear of castration ?

Do we still feel guilty for our genital experiences and hidden autoerotism.?

And the neurosis in women!: The frigidity in women :.

As Freud would say: "Women must always be considered powerful."

What role does anorgasmia, vaginismus and dyspareunia play in the clinic of current anxiety?

Is the Imaginary Castration Complex in women a envy or demand of penis?

What role do cultural and social events play in our sexuality today ? .

Is the Inhibition of Sexual Pleasure in Women Still a Neurotic Symptom?

Does the fear of homoerotic sexual desire still exist?

Is repressed anger the fruit of our sexual dissatisfaction? . (quoting Reich).

To conclude, a memory of the psychogeny and sexuality of paranoia:

The Ernst August Wagner, case described by Robert Gaupp (1870-1953).

Assistant to K.Wernicke, collaborator of E. Kraepelin, teacher of E. Kretschmer.

- Gaupp, R. "The Wagner case" Madrid: Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry. 1998. 1st edition. (in German of 1914).

" The remote origin of the psychosis - in the Wagner case - lies in the feelings of guilt that resulted from the onanist practices that Wagner began at 18 years of age, intensified by the zoophilic behaviors begun 9 years later ..."

- S. Freud. "Psychoanalytic observations on a case of paranoia autobiographically described", and " Memories of a neurotic" ( Judge Schreber in 1903) .

Psychosis as a defense against hidden homosexual tendencies that the subject is unable to recognize and assume : "(...) the reason for the illness was the appearance of a feminine optional fantasy (passive homosexual) (...).

patient of J. L. Día. Woman, 45 years old. Now she suffers from Erotomania, but the psychosis debuted in this way: "they saw me doing it, (autoerotism) with cameras, they filmed me a movie, and everything was known". My "fault" (the masturbatory spot) spread in the town. The voices appeared, they told me: "bitch", ... They laughed, they moved from me like a pestilence. "ashamed"

(the shameful insufficiency of sensitive people, with risk of delusion of allusion)

We can not finish this journey without remembering a figure of Spanish psychiatry, the great psychopathologist: Castilla del Pino (1922- 2009):

"Delusion, a necessary mistake".

. "El delirio, un error necesario". Editorial Círculo de Lectores. 1997

1) Erotic depreciation´ delusion :

to) the delusional of infidelity.

b) the delusional of homosexual auto-reference

c) Delusion of guilt in masturbators

The blame, the self-reproach of those who incur the vice of masturbation, and are recognized in their fault,

2) Delusional of erotic exaltation: erotomania.

For a vindication of classical clinical, descriptive and phenomenological psychopathology !

Has the clinic of neurosis and madness died today?

End of our review

From Tissot´ onanism to Henry Ey and Castilla del Pino.

From Onanism to neurosis, to psychogeny and masturbatory psychosis,

remembering Wilhelm Reich.

In tribute to WILHELM REICH

In New York City, on August 23, 1956, the FDA supervised the burning of several tons of Reich's publications in one of the city's garbage incinerators.

Among the materials burned were :

Orgone Energy Bulletin (12,189 copies)

International Journal of Sex Economy and Orgone Research (6,261 copies)

Emotional Plague Versus Orgone Biophysics (2,900 copies)

Annals of the Orgone Institute (2976 copies)

The Oranur Experiment (872 copies)

Character Analysis

Cosmic Superimposition

Ether, God, and Devil

Listen, Little Man

People in Trouble

The Cancer Biopathy

The Function of the Orgasm

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

The Murder of Christ

The Sexual Revolution

This destruction of literature constitutes one of the most heinous examples of censorship in United States history.

(Fahrenheit 451)

WILHELM REICH

(1897-Dobrzynica (Galicia) - 1957-Lewisburg Penitentiary (Pennsylvania))

In tribute to WILHELM REICH

Autor: José Luis Día Sahún

Psiquiatra. Hospital Miguel Servet. Zaragoza.

Tutor MIR psiquiatría.

Prof. Universidad Zaragoza.

jldiasahun@gmail.com