Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXSuch a definition excludes the normal sexual excitementaroused by the presence of a beloved person of theopposite sex; it also excludes the perverted or deviatedsexuality associated with an attraction to a person ofthe same sex; it further excludes the manifold forms oferotic fetichism, in which the normal focus of sexualattraction is displaced, and voluptuous emotions are onlyaroused by some object which to the ordinary lover isonly of subordinate importance. The auto-erotic fieldremains extensive; it more especially includes (i) eroticday-dreaming; (2) erotic dreams in sleep; (3) narcissism,' 1in which erotic emotion isgenerated by self-contemplation;and (4) masturbation, including not only self-excitementby the hand but by a great variety of methodsexerting a direct influence on the sexual organs and othererogenous centers, even methods which are initiated centrally.BIBLIOGRAPHYHAVELOCK ELLIS, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. I,"Auto-erotism."Erotic Day-DreamingThis (whichis also termed phantasy)and important form of auto-erotism, besides being sometimesthe early stage of masturbation. The day-dream wasis a very commonlong since studied in its chief form, in the "continuedstory," by Mabel Learoyd, of Wellesley College. The continuedstory is an imagined narrative, more or less pecu-1 Some of Freud's followers (though not Freud himself) would confinethe use of the term "auto-erotism" to this particular form. I regardthis as illegitimate. In all forms of auto-erotism the subject finds satisfactionin his own self-excitement, without the presence of anotherperson being necessary, but his sexual impulse is by no means necessarilydirected towards himself.