“The Solitary Vice”

This article analyzes Brazilian doctor Álvaro Vieira’s understanding of the problem of masturbation. More than just for his profession, Vieira was known for his column in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Jornal, clarifying his readers’ doubts and questions, acting, in reality, as a cultural mediator. When dealing with the subject of masturbation, we can see that he was committed to addressing what he considered to be mystifications, prejudices and remnants of ignorance about the practice, proposing it as something normal and natural under certain circumstances. However, in his interpretation, even though he sought to distance himself from the foundations of onanism, the way masturbation has been pathologized since the 18th century, in his speeches this same pathologization is still present in some way, making his thinking more complex and less linear in the history of this sexual activity.