Throughout the century, even down to the present day, this
point of view has been traditionally preserved in a modified form. In
apparent ignorance of the enormous prevalence of masturbation, and
without, so far as can be seen, any attempt to distinguish between cause
and effect or to eliminate the hereditary neuropathic element, many
alienists have set down a large proportion of cases of insanity, idiocy,
epilepsy, and disease of the spinal cord to uncomplicated masturbation.
Thus, at the Matteawan State Hospital (New York) for criminal lunatics and
insane prisoners, from 1875 to 1907, masturbation was the sole assigned
cause of insanity in 160 men (out of 2,595); while, according to Dr. Clara
Barrus, among 121 cases of insanity in young women, masturbation is the
cause in ten cases.[322] It is unnecessary to multiply examples, for this
traditional tendency is familiar to all.
It appears to have been largely due to Griesinger, in the middle of the
last century, that we owe the first authoritative appearance of a saner,
more discriminating view regarding the results of masturbation. Although
still to some extent fettered by the traditions prevalent in his day,
Griesinger saw that it was not so much masturbation itself as the feelings
aroused in sensitive minds by the social attitude toward masturbation
which produced evil effects. "That constant struggle," he wrote, "against
a desire which is even overpowering, and to which the individual always in
the end succumbs, that hidden strife between shame, repentance, good
intentions, and the irritation which impels to the act, this, after not a
little acquaintance with onanists, we consider to be far more important
than the primary direct physical effect.
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