What does autoerotism mean?
Autoerotism is a noun denoting sexual arousal or gratification that a person obtains from their own body, without the involvement of a partner. The term entered English in the late nineteenth century through the work of sexologists such as Havelock Ellis and was subsequently adopted into psychoanalysis, where Sigmund Freud used it to describe an early stage of libidinal development: a phase in which sexual energy, or libido, is directed toward the subject's own body rather than toward an external love object. In contemporary usage the word belongs mainly to clinical, academic, and historical registers — psychology, psychiatry, and the history of ideas — and its near-synonymous variant 'autoeroticism' has largely displaced it in everyday writing. Because of its theoretical baggage, careful writers distinguish autoerotism from narcissism, a broader term for self-directed attachment. Understanding the term is valuable for reading psychoanalytic texts and scholarship on the history of sexuality accurately.
nounSexual arousal or gratification derived from oneself, without a partner, especially through self-stimulation; more broadly, in psychology, self-directed sexual feeling generally.
- Sexual arousal or satisfaction obtained from one's own body without a partner.
- (Psychoanalysis) Self-directed sexual instinct or feeling, especially as a phase of early libidinal development in which the libido is invested in the subject's own body rather than an external object.
"Freud regarded autoerotism as an early stage in the development of infantile sexuality."
"In his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Freud described autoerotism as characteristic of the earliest phases of childhood sexuality."
"The medical literature of the late nineteenth century discussed autoerotism with considerable anxiety, reflecting Victorian attitudes toward sexuality."
Rarely pluralized; the plural appears occasionally in academic discussions of multiple forms or manifestations of autoerotic behavior.
"The survey distinguished between various autoeroticisms reported across different age groups."
The word was coined not by Freud but by British sexologist Havelock Ellis, who borrowed it from German sexology before psychoanalysis made it famous.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of autoerotism
Autoerotism combines the Greek-derived prefix 'auto-' (meaning 'self') with 'erotism', from Greek 'erōs', meaning desire or love, via French 'érotisme'. The term was coined in the late nineteenth century, emerging from continental European sexology — Havelock Ellis credited the concept to German writers and popularized it in English — before being taken up and given its technical psychoanalytic meaning by Freud and his contemporaries around the turn of the twentieth century. Its cognates include erotic, eroticism, and erotica, all tracing back to the same Greek root erōs.
Related word forms
How autoerotism is actually used
Autoerotism is a formal, clinical, or academic term found chiefly in psychology, psychiatry, and histories of sexuality; it is rare in everyday conversation. The variant spelling 'autoeroticism' is now more common in general usage. In psychoanalytic writing it carries a technical sense tied to libido theory and should be used precisely in that context.
Easily confused with autoerotism
Autoeroticism is the more common modern spelling of essentially the same word; autoerotism is the older form and is also used in psychoanalytic theory to mean self-directed sexual feeling specifically.
Narcissism refers to excessive self-love or self-regard in general, whereas autoerotism refers specifically to sexual gratification obtained without a partner.