Description: Masturbation: The History of a Great Terror is a funny and frightening look at attitudes toward masturbation throughout history and how they have affected the sex lives of anyone living and breathing today. The French biologist Tissot was the original spoil-sport who turned masturbation into the scourge of young men everywhere. Saying that a little self-induced pleasure caused wasting, insanity, and finally death, Tissot put the clamps (literally, in some cases) on the greatest relaxation inducer known to humankind. From Tissot's work to the punitive postures of the German courts to the surgical preventatives of continental Europe and England (don't ask!) to the handbook of the Boy Scouts of America, spanking/wanking/yanking/choking and other assorted diddling became the big no-no. Stengers and Van Neck give us the whole story and it isn't pretty, but it will fascinate everyone who agreed with Woody Allen when he said "Hey, don't knock masturbation! It's sex with someone I love".

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