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In 1912 Freud concluded a symposium on masturbation with the statement that the subject of onanism is inexhaustible. Of necessity I can focus only on a few points, mainly on masturbation in the latency period, its varieties, and their consequences.
Many facts to which I will have to refer are, of course, well known; for instance, that the psychoanalytic definition of sexuality is not limited to genital activity; that sexual life does not begin at puberty but rather is clearly manifested soon after or at birth; that we divide it into the oral, anal and phallic phases; that infantile sexuality reaches a climax after the fifth year, after which the so-called latency period sets in; and further that an amnesia covers the early sexual experiences.
We define masturbation as autoerotic manipulations of the genital as well as of other erogenous zones. By erogenous zones we understand "a portion of skin or mucous membrane in which stimuli produce a feeling of pleasure of definite quality" (Freud, 1904). Manipulations of such zones lead to a discharge of instinctual tension and provide pleasure. According to Freud (1904):
… sexual excitement originates (a) as an imitation of a gratification which has been experienced in conjunction with other organic processes (like intake of food or elimination); (b) as the appropriate peripheral stimulation of erogenous zones; (c) as an expression of some "impulse," like the looking and cruelty impulses, the origin of which we do not yet fully understand [p. 599].
In the very beginning the oral zone plays the most important role in the stimulation of autoerotic activity. Feeding satisfies the infant's hunger and simultaneously provides sexual pleasure. It is this sexual pleasure which we assume the child experiences also in thumb sucking. The facial expression of an infant falling asleep after feeding or after