A História do Conceito Onanismo na Psiquiatria dos Séculos XVIII e XIX (Parte 1) / History of the Concept Onanism in Psychiatry in the 18th and 19th centuries (Part 1) / Historia del Concepto Onanismo en La Psiquiatría de los Siglos XVIII y XIX (Parte 1)

O presente estudo pretende retomar a história do conceito de masturbação com foco em como ele se desdobrou de um conceito fundamental para a medicina geral para, posteriormente, um conceito importante no contexto dos primeiros estudos médicos e psicológicos sobre sexualidade humana, principalmente os estudos das perversões sexuais, principal campo explorado no final do século XIX e início do século XX. O artigo, primeira parte de um estudo divido em duas partes, pretende contemplar como se deu a ascensão e decadência dos estudos sobre a masturbação na medicina, partindo do surgimento do conceito onanismo e seguindo por meados do século XIX, quando ambos os conceitos se tornaram importantes dentro dos estudos das perversões sexuais. O ponto de desfecho é a obra de Albert Moll, famoso psiquiatra alemão e um dos pioneiros entre os teóricos da sexualidade humana a questionar abertamente a relevância do conceito de masturbação dentro das teorias da sexualidade. (AU)

This study intends to resume the history of the concept of masturbation with the focus on how it unfolded from a fundamental concept for general medicine to a later important concept in the context of the first medical and psychological studies of human sexuality, especially studies of sexual perversions, the main field explored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The article, first part of a two-part study, intends to contemplate how the rise and decline of studies on masturbation in medicine took place, starting from the emergence of the concept of onanism and following through mid XIX century, when both concepts became important within the study of sexual perversions. The final point of this article is the work of Albert Moll, a famous German psychiatrist and one of the pioneers among human sexuality theorists to openly question the relevance of the concept of masturbation within the theories of sexuality. (AU)

Este estudio pretende retomar la historia del concepto de masturbación con el foco en cómo se desdobló desde un concepto fundamental para la medicina general para, posteriormente, un concepto importante en el contexto de los primeros estudios médicos y psicológicos de la sexualidad humana, principalmente estudios de perversiones sexuales, el campo principal explorado a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. El artículo, primera parte de un estudio dividido en dos, pretende contemplar cómo se produjo el auge y declive de los estudios sobre la masturbación en medicina, a partir del surgimiento del concepto de onanismo y siguiendo a mediados del siglo XIX, cuando ambos conceptos son importantes en el estudio de las perversiones sexuales. El punto final es la obra de Albert Moll, un famoso psiquiatra alemán y uno de los pioneros entre los teóricos de la sexualidad humana que cuestiona abiertamente la relevancia del concepto de masturbación dentro de las teorías de la sexualidad. (AU)

Freud and Albert Moll: how kindred spirits became bitter foes.

This article explores the antagonism between Sigmund Freud and the German neurologist and sexologist Albert Moll. When Moll, in 1908, published a book about the sexuality of children, Freud, without any grounds, accused him of plagiarism. In fact, Moll had reason to suspect Freud of plagiarism since there are many parallels between Freud's Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie and Moll's Untersuchungen über die Libido sexualis. Freud had read this book carefully, but hardly paid tribute to Moll's innovative thinking about sexuality. A comparison between the two works casts doubt on Freud's claim that his work was a revolutionary breakthrough. Freud's course of action raises questions about his integrity. The article also critically addresses earlier evaluations of the clash.

The powers of suggestion: Albert Moll and the debate on hypnosis.

The Berlin physician Albert Moll (1862-1939) was an advocate of hypnotic suggestion therapy and a prolific contributor to the medical, legal and public discussions on hypnotism from the 1880s to the 1920s. While his work in other areas, such as sexology, medical ethics and parapsychology, has recently attracted scholarly attention, this paper for the first time comprehensively examines Moll's numerous publications on hypnotism and places them in their contemporary context. It covers controversies over the therapeutic application of hypnosis, the reception of Moll's monograph Der Hypnotismus (1889), his research on the rapport between hypnotizer and subject, his role as an expert on 'hypnotic crime', and his views on the historical influence of hypnotism on the development of psychotherapy. My findings suggest that Moll rose to prominence due to the strong late-nineteenth-century public and medical interest in the phenomena of hypnosis, but that his work was soon overshadowed by new, non-hypnotic psychotherapeutic approaches, particularly Freud's psychoanalysis.

Loss of innocence: Albert Moll, Sigmund Freud and the invention of childhood sexuality around 1900.

This paper analyses how, prior to the work of Sigmund Freud, an understanding of infant and childhood sexuality emerged during the nineteenth century. Key contributors to the debate were Albert Moll, Max Dessoir and others, as fin-de-siècle artists and writers celebrated a sexualised image of the child. By the beginning of the twentieth century, most paediatricians, sexologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and pedagogues agreed that sexuality formed part of a child's 'normal' development. This paper argues that the main disagreements in discourses about childhood sexuality related to different interpretations of children's sexual experiences. On the one hand stood an explanation that argued for a homology between children's and adults' sexual experiences, on the other hand was an understanding that suggested that adults and children had distinct and different experiences. Whereas the homological interpretation was favoured by the majority of commentators, including Moll, Freud, and to some extent also by C.G. Jung, the heterological interpretation was supported by a minority, including childhood psychologist Charlotte Bühler.

The sexologist Albert Moll--between Sigmund Freud and Magnus Hirschfeld.

Albert Moll was one of the most influential sexologists during the first three decades of the twentieth century. In contrast to his rivals Sigmund Freud and Magnus Hirschfeld, his achievements have not yet been recognised adequately. The author gives a comparative account of the work of these three protagonists. This shows that Moll formed some ideas which are regarded as psychoanalytical today before Freud, and that he, in contrast to Hirschfeld, was able to reflect critically on contemporary discourses, such as the debates on racial improvement through eugenics. As scientific theories, Freud's psychoanalysis represented the unconscious, fantasy, experience and latency, while Moll's sexology represented consciousness, ontological reality, behaviour and manifestation. Moll's major disagreement with Hirschfeld's sexology was his advocacy of apolitical and impartial science, whereas Hirschfeld's aim was to achieve sexual reforms politically. Added to these differences were strong personal animosities. Freud called Moll a 'beast' and 'pettifogger'; and Moll complained about Hirschfeld's 'problematic' character. When Hirschfeld escaped the Nazi terror and went to Paris, Moll denounced him in order to prevent him rebuilding a new existence in exile.

Sexological deliberation and social engineering: Albert Moll and the sterilisation debate in late imperial and Weimar Germany.

The physician and sexologist Albert Moll, from Berlin, was one of the main protagonists within the German discourse on the opportunities and dangers of social engineering, by eugenic interventions into human life in general, as well as into reproductive hygiene and healthcare policy in particular. One of the main sexological topics that were discussed intensively during the late-Wilhelminian German Reich and the Weimar Republic was the question of the legalisation of voluntary and compulsory sterilisations on the basis of medical, social, eugenic, economic or criminological indications. As is clear from Moll's conservative principles of medical ethics, and his conviction that the genetic knowledge required for eugenically indicated sterilisations was not yet sufficiently elaborated, he had doubts and worries about colleagues who were exceedingly zealous about these surgical sterilisations--especially Gustav Boeters from Saxony.

'God's ethicist': Albert Moll and his medical ethics in theory and practice.

In 1902, Albert Moll, who at that time ran a private practice for nervous diseases in Berlin, published his comprehensive book on medical ethics, Ärztliche Ethik. Based on the concept of a contractual relationship between doctor and client, it gave more room to the self-determination of patients than the contemporary, usually rather paternalistic, works of this genre. In the first part of the present paper this is illustrated by examining Moll's views and advice on matters such as truthfulness towards patients, euthanasia, and abortion. The second part of this article discusses how Moll engaged with the then publicly debated issues of experimentation on hospital patients and the 'trade' of foreign private patients between agents and medical consultants. In both matters Moll collected evidence of unethical practices and tried to use it to bring about change without damaging his or the profession's reputation. However, with his tactical manoeuvres, Moll made no friends for himself among his colleagues or the authorities; his book on ethics also met with a generally cool response from the medical profession and seems to have been more appreciated by lawyers than by other doctors.

'Trick', 'manipulation' and 'farce': Albert Moll's critique of occultism.

In July 1925, the psychiatrist Albert Moll appeared before the district court in Berlin-Schöneberg charged with having defamed the medium Maria Vollhardt (alias Rudloff) in his 1924 book Der Spiritismus [Spiritism]. Supported by some of Berlin's most prominent occultists, the plaintiff--the medium's husband--argued that Moll's use of terms such as 'trick', 'manipulation' and 'farce' in reference to Vollhardt's phenomena had been libellous. In the three-part trial that followed, however, Moll's putative affront to the medium--of which he was eventually acquitted--was overshadowed, on the one hand, by a debate over the scientific status of parapsychology, and on the other, by the question of who--parapsychologists, occultists, psychiatrists or jurists--was entitled to claim epistemic authority over the occult. This paper will use the Rudloff-Moll trial as a means of examining Moll's critique of occultism, not only as it stood in the mid-1920s, but also as it had developed since the 1880s. It will also provide insight into the views of Germany's occultists and parapsychologists, who argued that their legitimate bid for scientific credibility was hindered by Dunkelmänner [obscurantists] such as Albert Moll.