===Self-Stimulation *1   
      
   During the first year of life infants discover and explore parts of   
   their bodies. This early activity is more exploratory than autoerotic.   
   Autoerotism is the technical term used to refer to self-gratification   
   obtained through stimulation of one's own body, especially stimulation   
   of one's genitals. By five or six months, many infants appear to enjoy   
   pulling their ears or sticking their fingers in them. Some explore their   
   genitals at this age as well. Levine (1957) reported that after six   
   months infants gradually discontinue playing with their ears. Galenson   
   and Roiphe (1974) reported that most boys began genital play at six or   
   seven months of age, while most girls began at ten or eleven months. For   
   their sample of infants, genital play among girls tended to disappear   
   within a few weeks of onset, but boys continued casual play with   
   additional visual and tactile exploration of the genitals starting at   
   about eleven or twelve months of age.   
      
   An important distinction can be made between genital play and   
   masturbation in infancy. Infants in the first year of life generally are   
   not capable of the direct-volitional activity required for the behavior   
   that we call masturbation. Any more or less random play with the   
   genitals is nonspecific activity and should be labeled as genital play   
   and not as masturbation. Genital play need not end with the end of   
   infancy, as in the following case.   
      
   There was physical pleasure to be derived from fondling my genitals. The   
   satisfaction was enough to develop this practice into a habit., And   
   touching or holding the genitals is not only associated with erotic   
   pleasuring:   
      
   Near the age of 6 or 7, holding the genitalia would give me a vague   
   feeling of security. I would do this frequently in bed and it seemed   
   almost an unconscious act that was associated with security.   
      
   According to Spitz and Wolf (1946), in the first eighteen months of life   
   genital play is a reliable indicator of the adequacy or inadequacy of   
   mothering. In their sample of cases, when the relationship between   
   mother and infant was one in which the mother provided normal physical   
   and emotional care and attention, genital play by the infant was present   
   in all cases. When it was not provided, genital play was absent. This   
   finding has been confirmed by others.   
      
   The greatest autoerotic satisfaction, and certainly the occurrence of   
   orgasm, depends on manipulation of the genitals that is rhythmic and   
   repeated. Rhythmic manipulation with the hand does not occur before a   
   child is approximately two and a half to three years old, probably   
   because small muscle control is not well developed before that. On the   
   other hand, large muscle control is well developed and well coordinated   
   as early as six months of age. Hence, some infants form a pattern of   
   rocking that is rhythmic and repeated. They rock and bump their heads   
   against the crib with vigor. Once they are able to sit up, additional   
   types of rocking may be observed, all of which appear to bring   
   satisfaction. Some sit and sway rhythmically, some lift the trunk and   
   pelvis and bounce up and down off the surface on which they are sitting.   
   Some do both by elevating themselves up and down and swaying to and fro,   
   giving the appearance of rising as a person does when riding a trotting   
   horse (Levine 1957). Elevating to hands and knees and rocking forward   
   and backward appears to be the most frequent type of rocking and is not   
   uncommon as early as six to twelve months of age. In other words,   
   infants may discover the pleasure of rhythmic genital sensation through   
   rocking before they have adequate hand and arm small muscle control to   
   masturbate. Rocking appears more satisfying than manual genital play in   
   that infants in genital play can be easily distracted in contrast to   
   infants who rock. Rockers often rock with great vigor and tension and   
   are not easily distracted. The majority of rockers rock before going to   
   sleep and immediately on rising. Many give it up before they are   
   eighteen months to two years of age, but some continue to three years or   
   older. One subject in Schaefer's (1964:128) interview study of thirty   
   women reported that at age six she discovered that rocking and rubbing   
   herself genitally on some bedclothes bunched between her legs could be   
   continued "until something would happen-something moved, which I guess   
   was a little orgasm."   
      
   Kinsey et al. (1948) reported that orgasm is not rare among children,   
   both boys and girls, and has been observed in boys of every age from   
   five months on and in an infant girl of four months. To understand the   
   capacity of infants and small children to reach orgasm, we make a   
   distinction between those who stimulate themselves and those who have   
   been stimulated by others. Given the lack of capacity of infants for   
   sustained rhythmic stimulation of their genitals, to determine the   
   capacity of sexual response in infants would require stimulation by   
   persons other than the infant. Kinsey had access to such data and   
   reported on stimulation to orgasm of male infants under one year of age   
   as follows:   
      
   The behavior involves a series of physiologic changes, the development   
   of rhythmic body movements with distinct penis throbs and pelvic   
   thrusts, an obvious change in sensory capacities, a final tension of   
   muscles, especially of the abdomen, hips, and back, a sudden release   
   with convulsions, including rhythmic anal contractions-followed by the   
   disappearance of all symptoms. A fretful babe quiets down under the   
   initial sexual stimulation, is distracted from other activities, begins   
   rhythmic pelvic thrusts, becomes tense as climax approaches, is thrown   
   into convulsive action, often with violent arm and leg movements,   
   sometimes with weeping at the moment of climax. After climax the child   
   loses erection quickly and subsides into the calm and peace that   
   typically follows adult orgasm. (Kinsey et al. 1948:177)   
      
   Kinsey and his colleagues have been castigated for not exposing the   
   persons responsible for stimulating these infants to orgasm. Such   
   behavior is generally regarded as child sexual abuse today.   
      
   Kinsey reported an increase in the percentage of individuals able to   
   reach a sexual climax from 32 percent of boys two to twelve months of   
   age to 57 percent of those two to five years of age and nearly 80   
   percent of preadolescent boys ten to thirteen years of age.   
      
   Masturbation has been largely ignored in books on infant and child   
   development, yet it has long been recognized as a near-universal   
   phenomenon. Roberts, Kline, and Gagnon (1978) found in a sample of   
   American parents that 80 to 90 percent believed most children   
   masturbate. Galenson and Roiphe (1974), utilizing interviews with   
   parents for the first year and direct observation for the second year of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)