A critical analysis of two texts of the XVIII century about the ′′harmful effects on health produced by masturbation and sexual excess′′.
Grimaldi , A. R.*,1, Vellani, E.1, Greco , E.3, Forleo, Romano1, 1 Tor vergata University, Roma, Italy3 Erectil Dysfunction Research Center, Roma, Italy
ABSTRACT- This study is based on a critical analysis of two texts of the later Eighteenth century: ′′De l′Onanisme: dissertation physique sur le maladies produtes par la masturbation′′ (Lausanne,1760) by S.A.D. Tissot and ′′La Nymphomanie ou traitè de le fureur uterine′ ′ (Amsterdam,1772) by J.T.D. Bienville,. These books, and especially the first, are considered to be pretty much significant in the history of behaviours and believes concerning sexuality Although their rhetoric strongly recalls moral religious issues these texts are introduced as scientific treatises also addressed to a wider range of public. Their major is to educate people through knowledge and divert them from risky habits that could lead to extremely heavy consequences. Onanism and nymphomania are not treated as morally degrading sexual habits. They are rather assumed to be dangerous activities undermining human health, incurring terrible pathologies such as blindness and progressive paralysis, and leading at least to death. These works were republished until the first decade of the twentieth century as sexual hygiene texts. Because of the success they had, they contributed to create several fears and discomforts, linked to potential harmful effects on human health produced by masturbation and sexual excesses.
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