Babies should not be carelessly caressed, and a fretful infant must never be soothed by playing with the genitals, as is done innocently by some mothers and nurses, and by others from motives more questionable.  Freud showed that there are subconscious sexual desires in infants, which die out until reanimated at puberty in Nature’s own way.  If exaggerated by exuberant fondling, they gather force in the dark corners of the mind, and are later manifested in morbid sexual or mental perversity.

If you have good grounds for believing the habit has already been contracted, enlist medical advice.  A great factor in the successful treatment of self-abuse is early recognition, and, after the unhygienic nature of the habit has carefully been pointed out, the child’s sense of honour should be invoked.

Without further reference to the matter, try to become your child’s confidant, for he will have to fight fires within and foes without.  See that his time is filled with healthy sport and play, and ennoble his ideas with talk, books and plays which lay stress on chivalry and manliness.  Give him plain food, tepid douches, and a firm bed with light, fairly warm clothing.  Get him up reasonably early in the morning, and let him play until he is “dog-tired” at night.

Let children rub shoulders with others, keep them from highly exciting tales, let them read but little, and train them to be observant of external objects all the time.

Neuropaths develop very early sexually, and contract bad habits in the endeavour to still their unruly passions; with them, the future is darker than with the normal child, and the parent who neglects his duty may justly be held accountable for what happens to his child or his child’s children.

Puberty is always a critical period in epilepsy, many cases commencing at this time, while in a number, fits commence in infancy, cease during childhood, and recommence at puberty, the baneful stimulus of masturbation being undoubtedly a factor in many of these cases.

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CHAPTER XXIII

WORK AND PLAY

Although most people would assume that epileptics are unable to follow a trade, there is hardly an occupation from medicine to mining, from agriculture to acting, that does not include epileptics among its votaries.

Outdoor occupations involving but little mental work or responsibility are best, but unfortunately just those which promise excitement and change are those which appeal to the neuropath.

A light, clean, manual trade should be chosen, and those that mean work in stuffy factories, amid whirring wheels and harmful fumes, using dangerous tools, or climbing ladders, must be avoided.

For the fairly robust, gardening or farming are good occupations, such workers getting pure air, continuous exercise, and little brain-work.  Wood-working trades are good, if dangerous tools like circular saws are left to others.