We have come now to a subject of great importance in human happiness, and one about which there has always been a serious misunderstanding, not to mention the well intended but willful misrepresentation, i.e., that of masturbation or self abuse. The auto-erotic field is a large one ranging from occasional day dreams through masturbation and self abuse, to the continual self manipulation so common in the insane. It is an unpleasant subject to think about or to discuss, and yet because of its importance, we must speak frankly and plainly.
The Why and the Wherefore.—The marriage rate is declining, remarkably fast. Intercourse outside of matrimony is a legal as well as a moral offense. Is it any wonder that the phenomena we have under discussion should be on the increase. Because masturbation is increasing in spite of all the grave yard propaganda that has been spread against it. Arguments based on the moral aspect are of little avail. The subject is worthy of an exacting study so that its effects may be tabulated and guarded against. In practically every case the habit is started innocently, or from idle curiosity. It is practiced only occasionally it first, but it is a habit which grows, and usually when it as become a habit and a menace to health, it is given up promptly and forever.
Day Dreams.—Many young men upon learning of the evil effects of self abuse give up the physical habit. They have more control over their bodies than they have over their minds, and they continue to practice the habit mentally. This psychic form of self abuse is of all forms the most harmful. It leads eventually to a neurasthenic condition if not to actual impotence.
Nocturnal Emissions are the most common form of sexual phenomena. A nocturnal emission is simply the sexual orgasm during sleep, commonly called a wet dream. It is an absolute fact that in healthy individuals, living a life of sexual abstinence, voluptuous dreams, with in men seminal emissions, are perfectly normal. These may occur once or twice a month even once a week without any abnormality or fear of lost manhood. Hundreds of misguided and uninstructed youth suffer all the tortures of the dammed simply because their ignorance has permitted them to believe themselves impotent, unmanly, on account of perfectly normal and perfectly natural nocturnal emissions.
Beware of the Quacks.—This is a real warning, not just a scare head. The advertising doctor agrees to take your money, and cure you of a disease which is not a disease at all, but a perfectly normal healthy condition. The only way to cure normal nocturnal emissions is to willfully destroy your manhood. Quack Doctors prey on young men through their medical museums, and abortive literature because they know (1) that practically every young man has these emissions, (2) that almost every man begins his sex life with masturbation, and (3) that few, if any, are willing to mention these matters to their parents. It seems to me that no greater sin could be laid at the door of a Father, than to have it said of him that his son was afraid to come to him when he was in trouble.
Do All Young Men Masturbate?—Away back as far as 1876 various learned gentlemen such as Brockman, Marcuse and Berger began to investigate and report on the growth of masturbation. They tell us that the percentage of young men and women who indulge in secret habits during adolescence ranges all the way from 50 per cent up to 99 per cent.
Just how they arrived at these deductions, I do not know. This is not a question that can safely be submitted to popular referendum, or turned over for solution to “The Enquiring Reporter.” Because of a perfectly natural reticence on the part of those questioned, such statistics must be, after all, pure guess work.
Personally I do not believe that the percentage is nearly as high as the lowest estimate given. Many, many young men and women, including great statesmen, judges, and welfare workers, frankly admit that it was through masturbation that they were actually initiated into sex knowledge. But that does not account for the countless others wo through proper training and development, escaped this form of vice. And may the good work go on. With the searchlight of truth and reason we can sooner or later banish the hoodwink of exaggeration and prejudice and reduce the percentage to a pitiful minority.
Masturbation in the Two Sexes.—Self abuse in very young children seems to be more common among girls than with boys. During the period of adolescence the habit of frequent masturbation is common both to boys and to girls, usually more common to boys. There seems to be no doubt but that after adolescence, masturbation is more common in women. This is largely due to the following facts, viz: (1) men early acquire some legitimate form of sex gratification, (2) the sexual impulse in normal women is usually not fully developed until after adolescence, and (3) women are to a much greater extent shut out from sex gratification, and are usually subjected to a life of inactivity and idleness. Consequently many unmarried women are driven to masturbation for its sedative effect, particularly around the menstrual period.
The Results of Masturbation.—Popular attention to the evils of masturbation was not called until early in the eighteenth century, when there was printed and sold in large quantities a serious of books by Bekkers, Tissot, Voltaire, and others, which tried to prove the frightful consequences of self abuse. The mistaken attitude and wrong ideas of many present day physicians and laymen, the popular belief that masturbation is the source of all evils, is largely the result of the teachings of these individuals, and handed down from generation to generation by tradition. It is a sad commentary that books and pamphlets which tried to tell the truth and correct these wrong ideas were quickly banished by the authorities.
An Endless List.—Almost every disease and symptom of disease known to the human race have been directly or indirectly traced by some authority or other to masturbation. Pouillet tabulated over one hundred morbid conditions among its results. These ranged from slight visual abnormality to epilepsy and insanity.
Masturbation Is Positively Not Responsible for a hundredth part of the trouble it is supposed to cause. More modern students like Griesinger, Berkhan, Vogel, and Christian have based their conclusions on wide and exhaustive investigations. They agree that insanity, epilepsy, and convulsions, and even excessive masturbation itself cannot occur except in the case of a predisposed subject.
The Modern Scientific View.—We must necessarily agree with the conclusion that in healthy, untainted persons, moderate self abuse is not the root of all evils, nor will serious results necessarily follow. In other words it is an error to jump to the conclusion that simply because a boy has abused himself during adolescence, he is necessarily doomed to a life of shame, and an early grave. Well meaning reformers have too often entirely ignored the significance of birth, nervous system, and training, and have failed to look at the matter from all angles.
Do Not Misunderstand Us.—Any excess, even in
healthy, wellborn individuals will certainly produce harmful results.
The growing girl cannot develop into the ideal of some good man, cannot
truthfully fulfill her God given privileges if she allows her thoughts
to run away with her reason. The adolescent boy must either forswear
his desire and control his passions or abandon forever that dream of
progress and achievement in the athletic and business worlds. The two
cannot go hand in hand.
There Are Bad Effects.—The skin, digestion, and circulation are easily disordered and in all cases of excess there is a general nervous let down. Neurasthenia, or a minor nervous breakdown are among the commonest of the results of excessive self abuse. If the habit is commenced and practiced vigorously before the age of puberty it has far reaching effects. In the first place it usually causes impotence in later years and quite frequently actual sterility. These cases yield usually to the right mental treatment. In the second place early masturbation, if carried to excess, causes indifference to the normal sexual relationship. This is due to the fact that after years of mechanical excitations, the organs become so toughened that the substitution of the natural method fails to produce the desired result. This phase of the subject will be treated more fully in the chapter on impotence which appears farther on.
The Masturbators Face.—Boys and young men ofter hear (and believe) that it is easy to tell a masturbator simply by looking in his face. This is absolutely false, and as this book aims to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, we are willing to go on record with the statement that there are no signs or earmarks of self abuse which are visible to the naked eye. It is true that many boys who masturbate have pimply faces, rings under their eyes, and sallow complexions, but it is equally true that these are quite often symptoms of some other physical disease. One of the most unhealthy looking boys I ever knew had been brought up in such seclusion and ignorance that he didn't even know there was a sex function. His was the typical masturbator's face and yet he had never abused himself either physically or mentally. His symptoms were the symptoms of improper hygiene.
Self Consciousness.—Among the other frequent results of self abuse are self consciousness or a marked fear of the eyes of others. This condition is purely mental and is due to the fact that the boy knows he is doing something wrong, and thinks that everybody he meets knows what he has been doing. However boys early get the idea that masturbation is unmanly, and injurious, and they soon give it up. Girls, on the other hand, seldom have any traditions that the practice is unwomanly. They have not been terrorized by exaggerated warnings and quack literature concerning the awful effects of the habit. The comparative absence of bad effects from masturbation in girls would seem, therefore, to be due to the fact that women have not been taught to expect bad effects, and they do not get them. This illustrates the power of the mind over the body. The fear of the thing is often the very cause of the thing happening.
A Private Word.—Masturbation in the healthy normal boy must at all times be discouraged. Its effects on the individual's health and development can never be beneficial. But before closing this chapter let me say just a word or two to the young man or woman who has practiced the habit and who wants to give it up. The only way to conquer any habit is to STOP, HERE, and NOW. That's all there is to it. Your own sense of manliness or womanliness is strong enough to conquer all the vices or habits of modern civilization. You cannot afford to violate your body by breaking nature's law. It's not a matter of today. It's your future happiness, your life's ambition, your children, and your children's children. The sooner you learn that what you do today is determined by your acts of yesterday, and will in turn determine what you do tomorrow, the sooner you will begin to follow nature's few simple, fundamental rules, and the happier you will be. Just make the right start today. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
In Conclusion.—And after you have stopped, throw the whole bitter memory of it out of your mind. Fill your thoughts and manly ambitions. You may have a terrible struggle. You may feel infinitely worse for a few days than you did before. But don't give up the ship. If a friend tells you that because of your past sins, you may be impotent (unable to perform the sex act properly) don't believe a word he says. Unless the habit has been extremely long and assiduously practiced, unless your whole physical system has been drained and run down, you have not lost that manhood which will grow increasingly dear to you as the years go on. You may be temporarily impotent, but as soon as the strain on your nervous energy has stopped, and your bodily health has been restored, your sexual vigor will return. No function of the body is more directly affected by general health than the sexual function. Get your health back, and your lost manhood (so called) has been restored.