Literary notes about onanism (AI summary)
In literature, “onanism” is most often employed as a multifaceted term for masturbation—imbued with both moral and pathological connotations. Some works discuss it in relation to physical degeneration and various maladies, with references suggesting that its abuse leads to wasted vitality or even severe bodily disorders [1, 2, 3]. Other texts probe its psychological ramifications and social implications, linking it to deviations in sexual development or inherited neuropathies, while authors like Freud analyze its role in psychosexual dynamics [4, 5, 6]. In certain contexts, onanism is also portrayed as a subject of moral debate and a substitute for more socially acceptable sexual behaviors [7, 8, 9, 10]. This layered usage underscores the evolving cultural, medical, and psychoanalytic interpretations of self-gratification in literary discourse.
- “The most terrible and most frequent results of onanism,” says he, in a letter to M. A. Petit, “are nodosities of the spine.
— from A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses. by L. (Léopold) Deslandes - The Practice of Onanism squanders the vitality and bankrupts the constitution.
— from - Self-pollution, or onanism, is one of the most prolific sources of evil, since it leads both to the degradation of body and mind.
— from - He spares himself the shame of onanism by imagining the presence of an object for his desires in that early period.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - From the onanism complex we can now explain the other parts of the manifest dream. "
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Certainly its most immediate interpretation is castration as a punishment for onanism.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Thus, onanism," the author concludes, "is not always a vice such as is fiercely combated by educators and moralists.
— from Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism by Havelock Ellis - Onanism is practised more at the present day by married males than may at first be imagined.
— from Sexual Neuroses by J. T. (James Tyler) Kent - Thus, the abuse of onanism, and of the pleasures of love, holds a high place on the list of causes of this affection.
— from A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses. by L. (Léopold) Deslandes - Last on the catalogue comes the prohibition of unnatural lust—onanism, paederastia, and bestiality.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer
