Woman by William J. Robinson (classic novels to read .txt) 📕

will not only save them and the children much needless anguish and suffering, but will make it much easier to deal with the latter, make it much easier to get them divorced from the habit.

If we look at the matter in a sensible, common-sense way, and do not tell the child caught in the practice that it has done something disgracefully vicious and criminal, but speak to it kindly and tell it that it is doing something that may injure it greatly, that may interfere with its future mental and physical health and development, then we shall have far greater success in our endeavors to break the boy or the girl of the habit of masturbation. As I have said in another place:

"In my opinion, stigmatizing even the most moderate indulgence in masturbation as a vice has a deleterious effect upon the people who so indulge and makes it harder for them to break off the habit. Every thinking physician and sexologist can tell you that picturing the masturbatory habit in too lurid colors and stigmatizing it with too strong epithets has, as a rule, the contrary effect to the one expected. The victims of the habit consider themselves degraded, irretrievably lost. They lose their self-respect, and it is, on account of that, harder for them to break themselves of the habit."

We shall accomplish a good deal more with our youthful and older patients if we leave alone, altogether, the moral side of the question—if there be any moral side to it—and emphasize the physical injuriousness of the habit. We do not want to diminish the self-respect of our boys and girls, we want to increase it; and we can not do this if we make them believe that a masturbator is a vicious criminal. Inspire your patients with confidence, tell them that indulgence in the habit jeopardizes their future growth, both physical and mental, their health and happiness, and you will find them easier to control.

I am not trying to minimize the danger of masturbation, for, if indulged in from an early age and to great excess, the results may be disastrous. But, even if I were to minimize the evil consequences, that would be less of a sin than to exaggerate them the way it has been done for so many years, by so many people in the profession and out of it. The evil results of exaggerating the influence of masturbation have been so great in the past that, if now the pendulum were to swing to the other extreme, I am sure it would not be a bad thing at all.

To deal with the subject of the treatment of masturbation belongs to a medical treatise. But, a few remarks on how to prevent children from acquiring the habit of masturbation will not be out of place.

Prevention of the Habit of Masturbation. The keynote of preventing the habit is, carefully to watch the child from its earliest infancy. We know that not infrequently stupid or vicious nursemaids, wet-nurses, and even governesses ignorantly or deliberately induce the habit in children under their charge. This, of course, must be prevented. Even children of the age of nine, ten, eleven years should not be left alone, but always be under supervision. Too close friendship between boys or girls, particularly of different ages, should be looked upon with suspicion.

A number of girls never should sleep in the same room without supervision by an older person.

The sleeping together of two in the same bed, whether it be two children or a grown person and a child, should not be permitted under any circumstances. I admit of no exceptions to this demand. It makes no difference whether the other person is a mother, a father, a brother or a sister. Leaving out of the question any deliberate element, the thing is dangerous; for, very often, unintentionally, unwittingly, masturbation is initiated by this intimate contact.

The child—boy or girl—should sleep alone, on a rather hard mattress. The covering should be light. A coverlet may be put over the feet. The child always should sleep with the arms out upon the cover or blanket, never under the same. If this is done from childhood on, it is very easy to get used to this way of sleeping, and many a case of masturbation will thus be obviated. The child should not be permitted to loll in bed: it must be taught to get up as soon as it awakes in the morning. The general bringing-up must be of a strengthening, hardening character; and this applies both to the body and the will. When the children reach the age of nine, ten, eleven, twelve or thirteen years (we must use discrimination and judgment, for, some children of nine are as developed as are others of thirteen), we must tell them that it is bad and injurious to handle one's genitals, and we must warn them to shun any companions who wish to initiate them into any manipulations of these parts or who show an inclination to talk about the sexual organs and sex matters.

Hot baths are very injurious for young children in their influence in this direction. There is no question that a hot bath has a very decided stimulating effect upon the sexual desire of adults as well as of children, both male and female; in fact, I have had several patients of either sex tell me that their first masturbatory act was committed while they were in a hot bath. Of course, the sensation having been pleasurable, they kept on repeating the experience.

Every factor liable to give rise to the habit should be removed. Thus, for instance, eczema about the genitals, strongly acid urine, seatworms, and the like, should be treated until cured. That anything having a tendency prematurely to awaken the sexual instinct should be rigorously avoided, goes without saying.

Mental or Psychic Masturbation. Some girls and women will abstain from handling themselves with their hands (manual masturbation), but will practice what we call mental masturbation. That is, they will concentrate their minds on the opposite sex, will picture to themselves various lascivious scenes, until they feel "satisfied." This method is extremely injurious and exhausting and is very likely to lead to neurasthenia and a nervous breakdown. You should break yourself of it, by all means, if you can. For it is even more injurious than the regular habit.

Chapter TwentyToC LEUCORRHEA—THE WHITES