I do not know that any apology is needful for the invention of the term “auto-erotism."[178] There is no existing word in current use to indicate the whole range of phenomena I am here concerned with.  We are familiar with “masturbation,” but that, strictly speaking, only covers a special and arbitrary subdivision of the field, although, it is true, the subdivision with which physicians and alienists have chiefly occupied themselves.  “Self-abuse” is somewhat wider, but by no means covers the whole ground, while for various reasons it is an unsatisfactory term.  “Onanism” is largely used, especially in France, and some writers even include all forms of homosexual connection under this name; it may be convenient to do so from a physiological point of view, but it is a confusing and antiquated mode of procedure, and from the psychological standpoint altogether illegitimate; “onanism” ought never to be used in this connection, if only on the ground that Onan’s device was not auto-erotic, but was an early example of withdrawal before emission, or coitus interruptus.

While the name that I have chosen may possibly not be the best, there should be no question as to the importance of grouping all these phenomena together.  It seems to me that this field has rarely been viewed in a scientifically sound and morally sane light, simply because it has not been viewed as a whole.  We have made it difficult so to view it by directing our attention on the special group of auto-erotic facts—­that group included under masturbation—­which was most easy to observe and which in an extreme form came plainly under medical observation in insanity and allied conditions, and we have wilfully torn this group of facts away from the larger group to which it naturally belongs.  The questions which have been so widely, so diversely, and—­it must unfortunately be added—­often so mischievously discussed, concerning the nature and evils of masturbation are not seen in their true light and proportions until we realize that masturbation is but a specialized form of a tendency which in some form or in some degree normally affects not only man, but all the higher animals.  From a medical point of view it is often convenient to regard masturbation as an isolated fact; but in order to understand it we must bear in mind its relationships.  In this study of auto-erotism I shall frequently have occasion to refer to the old entity of “masturbation,” because it has been more carefully studied than any other part of the auto-erotic field; but I hope it will always be borne in mind that the psychological significance and even the medical diagnostic value of masturbation cannot be appreciated unless we realize that it is an artificial subdivision of a great group of natural facts.