Sexuality, War, and Schizophrenia

Collected Psychoanalytic Papers

Victor Tausk

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351316705
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Tausk was a major figure among pre-World War I psychoanalysts and a prominent pupil of Freud. Twelve of his papers are collected here and introduced by Pa Roazen (social and political science, York U.). Indexed by name only. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

1

On Masturbation

The elements which are essential for a presentation of masturbation may be summarized in the following outline:

1. The subjects of masturbation
2. The origins of masturbation
3. Aim and effects of masturbation
   • the significance of masturbation for the individual and society
   • under which conditions does masturbation become harmful?

This outline might create the impression that masturbation could be clearly and unequivocally presented and explained as a well-defined phenomenon occurring in isolation. This is not possible, however. As a special phenomenon in man’s sexual life, masturbation—which in every case is representative of the subject’s entire sexual attitude—has as many relations to all manifestations of life as sexuality itself. It may be regarded, right from the start, as an illusory undertaking if anybody should venture to present the significance of sexuality in all its ramifications for life in general.

As a partial manifestation of sexual life, masturbation appears to the superficial observer as a special form of activity of the sexual instincts which results in a self-gratification and a discharge of sexual excitation without the use of any object other than one’s own body. The conception of masturbation which is based on this popular definition proves to be inadequate, however, and does not sufficiently describe the real situation, not even from a purely empirical point of view. In the first place masturbation is practiced as often with the use of outside objects of all sort as without them. Inanimate as well as animate objects, animals as well as human beings of both sexes, are used in masturbatory activities, and particularly human beings are often used in such a way that no external criterion can be applied to determine whether a masturbatory act or a full-fledged sexual act, which unconditionally presuposes the participation of a partner, is practiced. Many a man will confess that he masturbates with his penis in the vagina of the woman. Although the act of genital union between individuals of different sex is the only type of true sexual intercourse in bisexual species, it is perceived as an onanistic activity. The criterion which determines whether a sexual act is either a masturbatory one or intercourse is not given in the external form of the sexual behavior but in the psychic superstructure of the physical process.

The concept of masturbation must be defined and delimited not only in relation to coitus as a full-fledged sexual act, but also in relation to human activities which apparently do not possess the character of sexuality at all. When women become sexually stimulated by playing with the nipples, or men induce ejaculation by frictions in the anus, such acts will be recognized as masturbatory ones without objection, although they do not involve manipulation of the genitals as such. But when a person sucks his thumb, picks his nose, incessantly licks his lips, or pulls his ear lobe, one must expect that the assertion that these are masturbatory acts will be disputed.

Furthermore, we must prove that the above-mentioned activities are truly sexual activities. Here we are confronted with the problem of the limitations of the concept of sexuality, and it becomes apparent that the problem of onanism, as far as can be seen from these acts, is only a special form of the sexual function.

The concept of sexuality on which my views are based, is Freud’s concept of its scope and nature as stated by him in the various areas of the science of psychoanalysis. According to Freud, the human species possesses two basic instincts: the reproductive instinct and the instinct of self-preservation. The reproductive instinct is represented in each human being by the sexual instinct; the instinct of self-preservation, by all the other instincts, through the activity of which the individual secures his existence.¹

The special organ which serves the reproductive function is the genital organ. However, sexuality is practiced not only for the purpose of reproduction, which is in fact only the least part of its objective. It is practiced mainly for sexual pleasure and in this respect, sexuality has at its disposal—in addition to the genitals— other organs which at the same time serve the instinct of self-preservation. Freud calls these organs the erogenous zones and the genitals are spoken of as the principal or genital zone. As to the erogenous zones, a distinction should be made between those which are directly utilized for the attainment of sexual pleasure by directly furnishing sexual stimulations, and those which via symbolization and secondary cathexis assume the role of sexual zones. In the first group belong the sense organs; in the second, all parts of the body. The essential importance of this distinction cannot be further explained here. A more thorough study of psychoanalysis is necessary for its understanding. At any rate, at this point, it can be stated that every organ which can furnish sexual pleasure lends itself to sexual activity and therefore also to masturbation.

As sexual activity, apart from the genital function, we understand that activity of an erogenous zone which is undertaken in the service of an idea or fantasy of sexual activity. The hand which touches another body accomplishes a sexual act only if its action is accompanied by the idea that the body to be touched is an object for the attainment of sexual pleasure. Without this fantasy the touching hand merely performs orientation work in the service of self-preservation. Psychoanalysis teaches that the fantasy which determines a certain action need not be conscious. It can be completely unconscious, i.e., it can be deduced from the action that it had been undertaken for the attainment of sexual pleasure, although the acting person cannot give any information about the purpose of his activity.

But quite apart from the question of consciousness, even in the case of an existing sexual aim which can be demonstrated psy-choanalytically, not every activity is relevant for a definition of onanism. Sexuality also breaks through in neurotic symptoms and sublimated activities. There, however, sexual pleasure is symbolized as wish only and is not attained directly or specifically.

Accordingly, I define masturbation as that kind of sexual manipulation of the genitals or of an errogenous zone which has no partner as an indispensable prerequisite, and the aim of which consists in the direct discharge of sexual excitation. I do not include, therefore, the symbolic representation of the sexual pleasure (neurotic symptom, sublimation). Whether the masturbatory fantasy is conscious or unconscious is irrelevant to the concept of onanism.

Subjects of masturbation are individuals of both sexes in all age groups and in all social strata. However, the masturbation of children in the first year of life plays a different role. It is to be regarded in the same light as any other orientation activity of the infant on his own body, i.e., as a purely instinctual action. Only when certain manipulations, mainly on the genitals (later successively on the lips, navel, nipples, etc.) excite the specific sexual pleasure, and the activity of the child is directed toward the attainment of this specific pleasure which has already obtained psychic representation, can one speak of masturbation in the true sense of the word. The idea of the specific sexual pleasure must be immanent in the activity.

This situation certainly develops very soon. It can best be understood by the fact that children deliberately touch the genitals again and again, despite all objections on the part of the persons who take care of them. This obviously means that the child has already recognized the specific sensations of these organs and already seeks to attain sexual pleasure as such. The question whether sexual pleasure is known during the first period of childhood must be answered, in agreement with Freud, in the affirmative. Even theoretically it would be difficult to understand, indeed, why such a powerful innate instinct should not manifest its force from the beginning of human life—an instinct, whose purposeful function must be practiced both in the service of the preservation of the species and of the individualized highly differentiated means toward the attainment of pleasure, requiring a knowledge of all environmental objects. The degree to which children in the first years of life are capable of sexual tension and its discharge varies. Some authors have observed cases of orgasm-like excitation and subsequent increased sleepiness in one-year-old children. Ordinarily, however, masturbation at this age is rarely so intense. Rather it serves to bring about specifically toned pleasurable sensations and nothing else.

The origin of masturbation is plainly to be found in the sexual instinct. At first, onanism is nothing but that form of activity of the sexual instinct which corresponds to the infantile age.

The causes which lead to masturbatory activities vary according to age, environment, and the particular characteristics of the individual. The first causes are sexual stimulations induced by manipulations performed by the child on the various parts of his body for the purpose of orientation, through his sense of touch. To these stimulations, brought about by the individual himself, are added those which the persons who take care of the child habitually cause by touch and friction of the sexually excitable organs when they clean and dress the children. The manipulations of these persons are the first sexual seduction to which the child succumbs. In this way the child begins to know the source of pleasure which springs from the act of touching the sexual zones by other persons and he also learns to use this source of pleasure without arousing suspicion. These first seductions are of the greatest importance for the life of the individual. They give rise to the fact that the child makes his needs for pleasure dependent on other human beings and tries to satisfy these needs with the help of others; they plainly constitute the first and indispensable precondition for the development of affection toward human beings, i.e., for the rise of love.

Inasmuch as the secondary erogenous zones as sexually unsuspicious areas are left accessible to the child for the attainment of pleasure (and they fortunately are accessible because our anti-sexually oriented period does not attribute to the child any “sinful” desires) they effect the exchange of love and the discharge of sexual excitement by caressing and fondling in close contact with other human beings. However, the amount of sexual excitation discharged in this way is not enough to bring about a complete release. The child, therefore, resorts to the principal sexual zone which provides the greatest pleasure and the most complete discharge. By so doing, the child comes in conflict with his guardians who do not tolerate a manifest sexual activity of this kind and try to suppress it by the use of all available educational means. Then it will depend upon the strength of the instinctual drive whether the need for sexual pleasure or the educational measures are victorious. From this conflict results the largest part of the significance which masturbation can acquire in the life of an individual. This conflict, indeed, is not the conflict between a permitted and a non-permitted form of sexual activity. The conflict of sexuality in nuce, manifesting itself in masturbation, clashes with the social law which is conveyed through the prohibitions of the guardians, and later, when education is removed from the care of individuals and transferred to society, it awaits the child with reward and punishment as the old prohibition under the new name of “moral law.”

The degree to which the sexual fantasies can be removed from consciousness determines the degree to which the liberated energies can be employed in the service of other functions. Part of these energies are utilized, in the form of cultural or spiritual interests, by “sublimating” them into activities of a “higher” order. But another part cathects the erogenous zones and becomes active as specific sexual pleasure without genital fantasies. In this way the erogenous zones are sensitized for corresponding libidinous objects, and the manner in which the child reacts to them determines his attitudes of sympathy and antipathy toward the persons of his environment. Objective observation shows that the child’s likes and dislikes are expressed according to the same erotic reaction forms as we see them in adults. Body odor, hair color, organ contours, tenderness, etc., determine the attitude of the child toward other persons. However, inasmuch as one or several of these erogenous zones grow oversensitive for certain reasons (for instance, through a particular type of frequency or their use or through constitutional disposition) we notice in the child a spontaneous use of such a zone. The child then picks his nose, licks his lips, sucks his fingers, voluptuously touches various parts of his body, craves for strong smells, and so on. These infantile activities impress as “naughty,” but they are in most cases true masturbatory acts connected with the erogenous zones, i.e., infantile precursors of perversions. Of particular significance as a precipitating factor in masturbatory activity is the sadistic-masochistic component of the sexual instinct. Through the fact that this component is related to punishment it gives rise to fantasies of inflicting or of suffering pain. The sexual nature of such fantasies does not remain concealed to the child for long. These fantasies, in fact are closely connected with definite genital excitations and their ideational content—if not already in existence—becomes the sexual fantasy katexochen, i.e., the genital fantasy. The child practices sadistic-masochistic masturbation by beating, biting, and scratching himself. A very common practice is that the child lies on his stomach and beats with his heels on his buttocks. Well known also is nail-biting or scratching legs and arms until blood comes.

As soon as imagination is sufficiently developed, conscious fantasies accompany the onanistic acts. They can also function as releasing agents by transferring the excitation obtained through reading, talking, or looking, to the principal genital or erogenous zone. The fantasies retain this significance also later on. Under certain conditions their use can become so independent that an interplay of such fantasies alone becomes sufficient to effect a complete discharge of the sexual excitation without any need for supporting physical manipulations. This is called psychic onanism. Just as the fantasied sexual aim of a masturbatory act can be unconscious, the specific fantasy which underlies the act can also be unconscious, such as a single fantasy or a combination of fantasies with a well-defined ideational content derived from the objective reality of pleasure-providing objects. The ideational content of an unconscious masturbatory fantasy can be elicited either by the individual himself—if the fantasy later becomes conscious—or by analysis of the special type of masturbatory activity.

The content of the first masturbatory fantasies centers around defecation, urination, fantasies of a masochistic and sadistic nature, as well as fantastic infantile ideas about sexual acts practiced by adults among themselves, by adults with children, and by children among themselves. It often is not easy to unmask these fantasies as sexual in nature because the fantasied pleasure objects are not always the genitals. Freud succeeded in establishing the true character of these often entirely bizarre and incomprehensible fantasies; he did so by means of the investigation of infantile sexual theories, the understanding of which frequently requires the application of Freud’s method of symbolic interpretation. In this way one can invariably detect in the persons appearing in the first masturbatory fantasies—apart from the child himself—parents and nurses, as well as servants and siblings. Often enough there appear in these fantasies animals as well as inanimate objects (dolls, urinals, etc.) as objects of sexual pleasure. On the basis of my experience, I have enumerated the persons occurring in the masturbatory fantasy in the order of the frequency of their appearance. This sequence is determined by the intensity of affection which governs the child’s relation to these persons. Siblings appear last in this sequence. This has its good reasons. Sibling love is a late product resulting from the habit of living together. Hate, envy, resentment, and jealousy precede sibling love. However, as soon as a child has reconciled himself to the fact that he has brothers and sisters, the siblings, in most cases, take first place in the incest fantasies. The reasons for this are obvious. Siblings are free from shame in front of each other, and provide each other with sexual notions which the child has no reason to reject since they are offered to him with the permission of the parents. If children are not intimidated, one can easily induce them to confess these fantasies at any time. If the person in charge suspects that the activities of the siblings are of a sexual nature and therefore prohibits them, the incestuous siblings fantasy nevertheless remains in force, because such fantasies are composed of real images, based on distinct sensory impressions, which are not easily erased from memory since they form part of the actual life experiences, repeated each day.

Under the impact of these more recent fantasies, the older and more remote fantasies involving the parents recede. The child’s sense of the immediate present replaces in his fantasies the vague, long-past impressions connected with the parents’ bedroom with the actual and well-defined ideas related to the nursery. (In neurotic regression, we notice the occurrence of the opposite process: the present disturbing reality loses its significance for the creation of fantasies in comparison to the old childhood fantasies.)

However, in so far as children continue to derive direct and intense sexual pleasure from the parents also later on, the incestuous fantasy centering on the parents has a good chance to become fixated. This is especially the case with children who sleep with their parents. By touching, smelling, and looking, they form quite realistic ideas of the parents’ importance as sources of sexual pleasure. Precisely because these ideas correspond to an actually existing reality, they prove to be as resistant to repression as the sexual fantasies about siblings. The role of servants in the sexual fantasies of children is of the utmost importance. There is little doubt that servants commit true acts of seduction much more frequently than is ordinarily supposed. On his part, however, the child uses servants to release his own sadism by identifying himself with the parents and physically attacking the servants in violent outbursts of anger. Observation teaches that on such occasions the child tries to touch preferably the buttocks, the genital region, and the stomach. On the other hand, the child takes refuge with the servants against parental severity, thus intuitively perceiving the servants’ hostility toward the master and allying himself with them. Such children like to stay close to the servants, always hang around the kitchen, establish close friendships with the personnel, and gain many and highly pleasurable sexual experiences by such apparently innocent contacts.

The masturbatory fantasy not only...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 On Masturbation
• 2 Compensation As a Means of Discounting the Motive of Repression
• 3 A Contribution to the Psychology of Child Sexuality
• 4 Psychoanalysis of Philosophy and Psychoanalytic Philosophy
• 5 On the Psychology of the Alcoholic Occupation Delirium
• 6 Diagnostic Considerations Concerning the Symptomatology of the So-Called War Psychoses
• 7 On the Psychology of The War Deserter
• 8 Some Comments on Abraham’s Paper on “Ejaculatio Praecox”
• 9 On the Origin of the “Influencing Machine” in Schizophrenia
• 10 Ibsen the Druggist
• 11 Short Contributions to the Interpretation of Dreams: The Use of Clothes and Colors in Building Up the Dream Picture
• 12 Contributions to the Psychopathology of Everyday Life
• Index