性行為的基本類型

1. 自我性刺激：對自我性刺激認識的簡史

20世紀對自我性刺激的認識

在逼近19世紀末，當大多數西方社會已經全面啟動了工業化發展和開始享受工業化成果的時候，緩慢發展的性自由主義化（sexual liberalization）進程便開始降臨，有關手淫的主流醫學準則開始受到質疑。首先，一些精神病學家開始懷疑手淫是否就不是精神病的病因，而是精神病的症狀。隨後，有人認為手淫與精神病就根本沒有任何聯繫。“自瀆（self-abuse）”可能只是一種“壞習慣”或是一種“發育遲緩（arrested development）”的症狀。儘管如此，一些醫生仍舊堅持認為男青年適當的身體發育有賴於固精，還認為他們過早浪費精液可能因此而使身體虛弱。不過，因為缺乏證據，甚至這種理論不久也必須被廢棄。因此，只是警告人們不要“過度”手淫就時興起來，並且一度證明這是一種策略運用。因為，“過度”永遠不會有確切的定義，不必要提出什麼科學證據，然而人們依然阻止任何預期的手淫發生。另一方面，像威廉·賴希（Wilhelm Reich, 1897-1957）這樣的一些心理分析學者卻把手淫作為一種治療方法，至少對女性來說是這樣的。最後需要指出，現代性研究成功地證實：手淫不可能導致任何的身體或精神損害，而且“手淫過度”只是一個相對的條件。雖然有一些人在其一生中從未有過手淫，而另有一些人卻在數十年裏每日有數次，而且這兩種行為方式都是“自然的”、“正常的”和“健康的”。

20th Century

Toward the end of the 19th century, when most Western societies had become fully industrialized and started to enjoy the fruits of their new affluence, a slow process of sexual liberalization began to set in, and the prevailing medical doctrine about masturbation began to be questioned. First, some psychiatrists began to wonder whether it might not be the effect rather than the cause of a person's insanity. Then it was doubted that any connection existed at all. "Self-abuse" was perhaps only a "bad habit" or a symptom of "arrested development". Still, some doctors continued to insist that a young man's proper physical growth depended on the preservation of his semen and that he could therefore weaken his body by wasting it prematurely. However, soon even this theory had to be abandoned for lack of evidence. It therefore became fashionable to warn only against "excessive" masturbation, and, for a while, this proved to be a comfortable fallback position. Since the "excess" was never clearly defined, no scientific proof had to be offered, and any prospective masturbator was nevertheless deterred. On the other hand, some psychoanalysts like Wilhelm Reich began to see masturbation as therapeutic, at least for females. Finally, modern sex research succeeded in demonstrating the obvious: Masturbation as such cannot do any physical or mental harm, and "excess" is a relative term. While some people never masturbate at all in their entire lives, others masturbate several times a day for decades, and the one behavior is just as "natural", "normal", or "healthy" as the other.