Masturbation and neurasthenia: Freud and Stekel in debate on the harmful effects of auto-erotism

Believe it or not: Views of a sample of Egyptian women about sexual myths

“…For many millennia, even as recently as 1901, masturbation has been associated with tuberculosis, gonorrhea, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and 'insanity' [43] . Sigmund Freud and his orthodox collaborators stressed the connection between masturbation and 'neurasthenia' [44] . Thanks to the research works of Kinsey et al in the 1940s [45] and Kinsey et al in the 1950s [46] and the work of Masters and Johnson in the 1960s [47] , current medical knowledge does not consider masturbation as a cause of mental illness, physical weakness, or any type of disease or death.…”

The art of imitation: Wilhelm Stekel'sLehrjahre

“…Masturbation was also the last topic to be discussed in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society before Stekel was expelled from this society (Nunberg and Federn, 1962-75). Against Freud's opinion that adult masturbation is harmful in a psychological as well as a physical sense, Stekel (1950c) strongly advocated this practice, arguing that those who repress the urge to masturbate become neurotic (see Groenendijk, 1997, for a discussion of the differences between Freud and Stekel on the topic of masturbation).…”

A Silent Antipode: The Making and Breaking of Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel.

“…The historical record typically portrays Freud as an opponent, and Stekel as a proponent, of masturbation. In an excellent article, Leendert Groenendijk (1997) reviewed the literature on this subject and traces the development of and culminating point in the discussions between Freud and Stekel in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society to a particular “shared interest.” He hypothesized that, thanks to his brief therapy with Freud, Stekel realized that his “sexual problems” were related to feelings of guilt resulting from masturbatory practices and that he had to let go of these fears. Thereafter he became an advocate of its practice, while Freud, thanks to Stekel, realized he needed to maintain the view that masturbation is harmful in order to uphold his theory of anxiety neurosis, and thus he opposed its practice.…”