Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1: The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-ErotismEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1: The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
should be called in question, but the wisdom and good sense of
the speaker. We ought to expect a head-master to possess both an
adequate acquaintance with the nature of the phenomena of
auto-erotism and homosexuality, and a reasonable amount of tact
in dealing with boys; he may then fairly be trusted to exercise
his own judgment. It may be doubted whether boys should be made
too alive to the existence of sexual phenomena; there can be no
doubt about their teachers. The same is, of course, true as
regards girls, among whom the same phenomena, though less
obtrusive, are not less liable to occur.
As to whether masturbation is more common in one sex than the other, there
have been considerable differences of opinion. Tissot considered it more
prevalent among women; Christian believed it commoner among men; Deslandes
and Iwan Bloch hold that there are no sexual differences, and Garnier was
doubtful. Lawson Tait, in his _Diseases of Women_, stated his opinion that
in England, while very common among boys, it is relatively rare among
women, and then usually taught. Spitzka, in America, also found it
relatively rare among women, and Dana considers it commoner in boys than
in girls or adults.[307] Moll is inclined to think that masturbation is
less common in women and girls than in the male sex. Rohleder believes
that after puberty, when it is equally common in both sexes, it is more
frequently found in men, but that women masturbate with more passion and
imaginative fervor.[308] Kellogg, in America, says it is equally prevalent
in both sexes, but that women are more secretive. Morris, also in America,
considers, on the other hand, that persistent masturbation is commoner in
women, and accounts for this by the healthier life and traditions of boys.
Pouillet, who studied the matter with considerable thoroughness in France,
came to the conclusion that masturbation is commoner among women, among
whom he found it to be equally prevalent in rich and poor, and especially
so in the great centres of civilization. In Russia, Guttceit states in his
_Dreissig Jahre Praxis_, that from the ages of 10 to 16 boys masturbate
more than girls, who know less about the practice which has not for them
the charm of the forbidden, but after 16 he finds the practice more
frequent in girls and women than in youths and men. Näcke, in Germany,
believes that there is much evidence pointing in the same direction, and
Adler considers masturbation very common in women. Moraglia is decidedly
of the opinion, on the ground of his own observations already alluded to,
that masturbation is more frequent among women; he refers to the fact--a
very significant fact, as I shall elsewhere have to point out--that, while
in man there is only one sexual centre, the penis, in woman there are
several centres,--the clitoris, the vagina, the uterus, the
breasts,[309]--and he mentions that he knew a prostitute, a well-developed
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