Masturbation as a Cause of "Sexual Neurasthenia": Anton Chekhov's Medical Report (1883).

Abstract

In the 18th and 19th centuries, in Europe and the United States, masturbation was seen not only as a deviant form of sexual activity but also as a cause of nervous diseases. Masturbation was originally thought to cause insanity, but with the introduction of George Miller Beard's concept of neurasthenia, it came to be considered a form of nervous exhaustion. In the current article, we analyzed the almost forgotten medical report of a "sexual neurasthenic," written by the famous Russian writer and physician Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). This report gives us detailed information about the treatment of a patient allegedly experiencing the effects of masturbation, and thus reflects the medical discourse on masturbation in Russia in the early 1880s. It shows that although the international debate on the causes of neurasthenia had just begun, the concept of neurasthenia toward masturbation had already been put into practice at the Moscow University Clinic in 1883.