How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

It is a symptom of an isolated and timid style of life. It is always the symptom of some deep-lying discourage¬ ment, never in itself the “ cause ” of any psychological abnormality, neurosis, or insanity. It is the sexual asylum of those timid souls who fear that in normal sexual relations they will lose the primacy of their ego. The fact that masturbation in adults is almost always accompanied by phantasies of power and sexual conquest betrays its psychological origin in discouragement. Masturbation in children is an unimportant manifestation of adolescence. Its continued practice, after sexual maturity has been reached, indicates not only a mistaken sexual pattern, but a general withdrawal from reality. The Cure of Masturbation If you practise this form of sexual activity, open some windows and doors, and emerge from your self-built sexual vault. Sexual relations have been practised since time immemorial. Men and women have been falling in love, getting married, having sexual congress, establish¬ ing families, and finding happiness in these relations for so many thousand years that it is ridiculous for you to pit your private fears against the ancient and imposingly effective devices of nature. Love and marriage cannot possibly be as dangerous as you think they are. If you were not discouraged, and if you did not misinterpret the facts, you would have found someone to love and, eventually, a sexual mate, and would have said good-bye to such childish sexual practices as masturbation. But the more you masturbate, the more you discourage yourself ; and the more you discourage yourself, the less worthy you think you are of approaching a member of the opposite sex. This is the vicious circle of masturba¬ tion. You cannot stop masturbating by making war on masturbation. You must change the whole vicious circle into a beneficent one. The “ cure ” of this condition does not consist in making war on it, or spending endless hours making