On Jul 1, 2016, at 9:46 AM, Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. <jeff.ric...@scottsdalecc.edu> wrote:
> There's a passage in the first edition of the Boy Scout's Handbook (1911) > that sounds like General Ripper's paranoid ramblings about the loss of > "precious bodily fluids" in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove. I'll find it > and send it later. Early Boy Scout handbooks propagated the claims made by medical professionals about the dangers of chronic masturbation. The first handbook was published in 1911, before the discovery of sex steroids, and therefore before their effects on psychological and physical development were known. But semen had been viewed for many centuries and across many cultures—to have powerful effects on the body and mind (a reference, of course, would be nice to have here—I’ll try to supply one later). Thus, the 1911 Boy Scout Handbook based their warnings about masturbation on this viewpoint and the pronouncements of physicians who wrote popular books and articles promoting it: In the body of every boy, who has reached his teens, the Creator of the universe has sown a very important fluid.This fluid is the most wonderful material in all the physical world. Some parts of it find their way into the blood, and through the blood give tone to the muscles, power to the brain, and strength to the nerves. This fluid is the sex fluid. When this fluid appears in a boy’s body, it works a wonderful change in him. His chest deepens, his shoulders broaden, his voice changes, his ideals are changed and enlarged. It gives him the capacity for deep feeling, for rich emotion. (p. 232) But we must feel sorrow for any boy: who has wrong ideas of this important function, because they will lower his ideals of life. These organs actually secrete into the blood material that makes a boy manly, strong, and noble. Any habit which a boy has that causes this fluid to be discharged from the body tends to weaken his strength, to make him less able to resist disease, and often unfortunately fastens upon him habits which later in life he cannot break. Even several years before this fluid appears in the body such habits are harmful to a growing boy. (pp. 232-233) In the movie,”Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” I suspect that Stanley Kubrick used the old medical claims about the dangers of chronic semen deficit when he created the character of General Jack Ripper. For example, watch this clip: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xoy89t7pdx695fl/Precious%20Bodily%20Fluids.mp4?dl=0 Best, Jeff -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social/Behavioral Sciences Scottsdale Community College 9000 E. Chaparral Road Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Office: SB-123 Fax: (480) 423-6298 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=48962 or send a blank email to leave-48962-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
