You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This little book is a really intelligent and judicial discussion of masturbation, such as is rarely to be found in the literature of this much misunderstood subject. The discussion is conducted from a psychoanalytic standpoint and is well worth reading by the practicing physician whose habit it has been to try to tell his patient that the only way he can get over his difficulty is by using his “will-power.”
If the reviewer has any criticism of the book it would be to the effect that sufficient emphasis is not laid upon the fact that masturbation tends to continue the libido fixed at the auto-erotic level and that as in all neurotic situations there is a vicious circle, which in this particular instance runs as follows, auto-erotic fixation, masturbation, increased auto-erotic fixation, increased masturbation. The question is by no means the simple question of relieving auto-erotic tensions. The question involves the whole matter of the mental attitude of the individual and in order that the masturbator may get well he must develop a new set of ideals, a new set of drives.
White