Masturbation and Neurasthenia

Abstract

In the historiography of psychoanalysis and of sexuality in the West the important role of the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940) in the demolishing of the once widely held belief in the harmfulness of masturbation has largely been neglected. This is undoubtedly because this warrior against the belief in the myth of Onan launched his enlightened ideas in contradiction to those of Sigmund Freud and his orthodox collaborators, who stressed the connection between masturbation and the development of neurasthenia. This contribution discusses the most important episodes of the controversy between Freud and Stekel, which ultimately led to the resignation of the latter from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The paper tries to explain why the controversy was unsurmountable: most likely because it was intertwined with problems of an intimate nature.