"As the youth develops,
onanism becomes a sexual act comparable to coitus as a dream is
comparable to reality, imagery forming in correspondence with the
desires. In its fully developed form in adolescence," Venturi
continues, "masturbation has an almost hallucinatory character;
onanism at this period psychically approximates to the true
sexual act, and passes insensibly into it. If, however, continued
on into adult age, it becomes morbid, passing into erotic
fetichism; what in the inexperienced youth is the natural
auxiliary and stimulus to imagination, in the degenerate onanist
of adult age is a sign of arrested development. Thus, onanism,"
the author concludes, "is not always a vice such as is fiercely
combated by educators and moralists. It is the natural transition
by which we reach the warm and generous love of youth, and, in
natural succession to this, the tranquil, positive, matrimonial
love of the mature man." (Silvio Venturi, _Le Degenerazioni
Psico-sessuale_, 1892, pp. 6-9.)
It may be questioned whether this view is acceptable even for the
warm climate of the south of Europe, where the impulses of
sexuality are undoubtedly precocious. It is certainly not in
harmony with general experience and opinion in the north; this is
well expressed in the following passage by Edward Carpenter
(_International Journal of Ethics_, July, 1899): "After all,
purity (in the sense of continence) _is_ of the first importance
to boyhood.
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