ABSTRACT
A part of the neurotic disturbances caused by onanism is certainly of a purely psychical nature and can be traced to the apprehension that, in the earliest years of childhood, had been brought into an indissoluble associative connection with the idea of self-gratification. There are men who have frequent sexual intercourse with their wives, in spite of a diminution in "sexual hunger," but who replace in their imagination the person of their wife by another, and, therefore, so to speak, perform onanism per vaginam. Whether the onanism is performed by rubbing with the hand or through friction of the member against the vagina of a non-satisfying sexual object two processes are essentially altered in comparison with normal intercourse. Dreams use tooth-pulling as a symbol for castration, the punishment in the place of the onanism. With onanism the normal fore-pleasure is absent, whereas the share taken by the phantasy is enormously increased.
