Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In ManEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
"Little or nothing was done to prevent, discover, or remedy the
pernicious habit into which I was falling unknowingly.
Circumcision was perhaps little thought of in those days as a
preventive of juvenile masturbation; at any rate, it was not
resorted to in my case. I remember, indeed, that a nurse
discovered that I was practicing masturbation, and I think she
made a few half-hearted attempts to stop it. It was probably
these attempts which gave me a growing feeling that there was
something wrong about masturbation, and that it must be practiced
secretly. But they were unsuccessful in their main object. The
practice continued.
"I went to school at the age of 10. There I came in contact
almost without warning, with the ordinary lewdness and grossness
of school conversation, and took to it readily. I soon became
conversant with the theory of sexual relations; but never got the
opportunity of sexual intercourse, and probably should have felt
some moral restraint even had such opportunity presented itself,
for coitus, however interesting it might be to talk about, was a
bigger thing to practice than masturbation. I masturbated fairly
frequently, occasionally producing two orgasms in quick
succession. I seldom masturbated with the hand; my method was to
lie face downward. There was probably little or no homosexuality
at my first school. I never heard of it till later, and it was
always repugnant to me, though surrounded with a certain morbid
interest. Masturbation was discountenanced openly at the school,
but was, I believe, extensively practiced, both at that school
and at the two others I afterward attended. The boys often talked
about the hygiene of it; and the general theory was that it was
somehow physically detrimental; but I heard no arguments advanced
sufficiently cogent to make me see the necessity for a real moral
effort against the habit, though, as I neared puberty, I was
indulging more moderately and with greater misgivings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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