Concerning Specific Forms of Masturbation

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"Concerning Specific Forms of Masturbation" (originally published as Über Spezifität der Onanieformen) is a 1922 essay by Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. It was written while he led the Vienna Outpatient Clinic for sexually-related problems and is an early work in his career which was to develop around the subject of human sexuality.

In the seven and a half page essay Reich accepts the prevalent notions on the roles of unconscious fantasy and the subsequent emerging guilt feelings which he saw as originating from the act itself. Reich built on papers written by other professionals of his time; however, he decided to probe deeper into the myriad variations of both female and male masturbation.

The essay was presented to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society on October 10, 1922 and was published in the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse in 1922. It formed the basis for Reich's later views on the role of genitality in the therapy of neuroses.^[1]