This had
caused great shame and remorse, which, however, had not sufficed
to restrain the habit. Her mother having died, she lived alone
with her invalid father, and had no one in whom to confide.
Regarding herself as no longer a virgin, she had refused several
offers of marriage, and thus still further aggravated her mental
condition. (Eulenburg, _Sexuale Neuropathie_, p. 31.)
Since Beard first described neurasthenia, many diverse opinions
have been expressed concerning the relationships of sexual
irregularities to neurasthenia. Gilles de la Tourette, in his
little monograph on neurasthenia, following the traditions of
Charcot's school, dismisses the question of any sexual causation
without discussion. Binswanger (_Die Pathologie und Therapie der
Neurasthenie_), while admitting that nearly all neurasthenic
persons acknowledge masturbation at some period, considers it is
not an important cause of neurasthenia, only differing from
coitus by the fact that the opportunities for it are more
frequent, and that the sexual disturbances of neurasthenia are,
in the majority of cases, secondary. Rohleder, on the other hand,
who takes a very grave view of the importance of masturbation,
considers that its most serious results are a question of
neurasthenia. Krafft-Ebing has declared his opinion that
masturbation is a cause of neurasthenia.
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