Soren Kierkegaard

lovely maiden and had awakened her sexual desire .On the page to which
Kierkegaard refers (the bottom of page 15), she had just taken off her cloth-
ing and was standing in front of a mirror, delighting in the sight of her
young, naked form; and all the while the thought of Merlin’s temptations
caused her desire to grow to the point that she finally became convinced
that without the enjoyment of a man—“ohne den Genuss eines Mannes”—
she would be utterly lost.
What the maiden did next Schlegel does not say, but it is clear that in a
similar situation Kierkegaard’s reaction to his father’s admonition was to
take matters into his own hands .Indeed, he hurried to his room to look at
himself in the mirror because it was believed that masturbation revealed
itself with a pallor and with lusterless eyes surrounded by dark circles .Mas-
turbation was generally believed to be accompanied by a host of frightful
symptoms .In section 124 of hisHandbook for Therapyunder the heading
“Spermatorrhoea,” Oluf Lundt Bang, the Kierkegaard family physician, as-
serted authoritatively that masturbation could cause hypochondria, paraly-
sis, impotence, headache, hair loss, fatigue, lethargy, weight loss, weak vi-
sion, dizziness, melancholia, and, in extreme cases, suicide .In addition to
“lascivious talk and reading,” Bang explained, “the desire to masturbate”
can stem from “currying favor with ladies; from idleness (which provides
plenty of latitude for fantasy and is most often associated with overmuch
lying awake in a warm bed); from spicy food and beverages; and from tight-
fitting clothing which stimulates the sexual organs.” The inclination to mas-
turbate—which must not be confused with “satyriasis, the unquenchable
desire for sexual intercourse, which is a mental illness”—typically reveals
itself by “a lethargic expression, a glowering look, dark rings under the eyes,
a desire to be alone, and the refusal to participate in childhood play.” As
soon as the physician has come to “certainty about the sin,” he ought to
order “the masturbator” to avoid all “psychic or physical contact with the
opposite sex.” Indeed, it is in fact “dangerous to counsel the masturbator
to have contact with ladies; it is only helpful in the beginning.” Instead,
Bang recommended “rising early in the morning, sometimes at night,
whenever an erection is felt; strenuous and tiring labor in the open air; in
the summer, bathing in cold water at the beach; in the winter, cold show-
ers.” One must also be sure that clothing is not “too warm or too tight-
fitting,” and one must absolutely avoid “sleeping on one’s back.” If this
latter cannot be “accomplished by the use of will power, it can be accom-
plished by employing artificial means, for example, a belt that has something
hard or pointed on the portion which crosses the back, thereby making
lying on the back uncomfortable; the member and the testicles must be
immersed in cold water for several minutes, three or four times a day.”