Yet psychologists, medical and non-medical, almost without
exception, treat its manifestations--when they refer to them at all--in a
dogmatic and off-hand manner which is far from scientific. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the most widely divergent opinions are
expressed. Nor is it surprising that ignorant and chaotic notions among
the general population should lead to results that would be ludicrous if
they were not pathetic. To mention one instance known to me: a married
lady who is a leader in social-purity movements and an enthusiast for
sexual chastity, discovered, through reading some pamphlet against
solitary vice, that she had herself been practicing masturbation for years
without knowing it. The profound anguish and hopeless despair of this
woman in face of what she believed to be the moral ruin of her whole life
cannot well be described. It would be easy to give further examples,
though scarcely a more striking one, to show the utter confusion into
which we are thrown by leaving this matter in the hands of blind leaders
of the blind. Moreover, the conditions of modern civilization render
auto-erotism a matter of increasing social significance. As our
marriage-rate declines, and as illicit sexual relationships continue to be
openly discouraged, it is absolutely inevitable that auto-erotic phenomena
of one kind or another, not only among women but also among men, should
increase among us both in amount and intensity.
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