Here's a surprisingly progressive pro-masturbation article written by a minister for Sexology magazine in 1959:
Still another kind of experience is illustrated in the case of Harley Smith. Harley was initiated into the practice at an early age among a gang of boys. Curiosity then led him to experiment himself.
This learning of the practice took place in a group and therefore did not seem to him to be unusual or different. However, Harley soon heard the practice of self – gratification described as a "childish" one. Some of the reading and instruction which he had made him feel that continuing the habit is a sign that he is "immature."
As a result he is torn between his ambition to grow into a fully rounded and mature adult and his continuing desires for this form of sexual expression.
While most popular literature has gotten beyond the stage of predicting horrifying consequences of masturbation, much popular literature does condemn the practice by labeling it "immature" This arouses a somewhat different conflict, but in a way a more severe one, for the young person whose great ambition is to become a mature adult.
A Minister Discusses SELF-GRATIFICATION (Jan, 1959)
