Basic Types of Sexual  Behavior

1. Sexual Self-stimulation: History

Graham and Kellogg

In 19th-century America, the two greatest fighters against the evils of masturbation were radical proponents of “healthy living”. By conflating old psychiatric fears with a new concern about diet, they conquered new territory and greatly influenced middle-class culture in the US. Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister, may still be remembered today as the inventor of “Graham crackers”, and, indeed, he also championed a vegetarian diet that would dampen the sexual urges. However, he first became known as a popular lecturer and writer against “self-abuse”. He succeeded in scaring his large audiences and many readers by tracing practically every possible health problem to this “loathsome habit”. The next, even more influential anti-masturbation crusader was a physician: Dr. John H. Kellogg. The fanatical vegetarian ran a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he treated his patients with enemas and a diet of various grain products (among other things, he developed toasted corn flakes). He also disapproved of all sexual activity as unhealthy. His own marriage remained unconsummated, and he considered masturbation especially harmful, calling it “the silent killer of the night”. Confirmed masturbators were not admitted to his clinic, because he considered them beyond help. Conversely, any illness that proved resistant to treatment was traceable to secret masturbation.

(left) Sylvester Graham (1795-1851) (right) John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943)