Mental masturbation: a correction

On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> As for how to say "mental masturbation" in one's conlang... the term
> (as we have seen!) is just RIDDEN with negative connotations.  It
> means to indulge oneself in a worthless mental pursuit, which is how
> Matt's psychiatrist meant it, however un-ironically.
Just to set the record straight, the "mental masturbation" comment
was not made by my psychiatrist.  I do not have, and never have had,
a psychiatrist or a therapist.  The comment was made by an acquaintance
of mine (the host-father in the family I stayed with while I was
an exchange student in Sweden) who happens to be a child psychologist.

(N.B.: I make this correction out of an interest in historical
accuracy, and not because I have anything against therapy.  There
are many times when I've longed for a good therapist, but lacked the
funds to hire one.)

Given the unfortunate direction this thread has taken, I suppose
I should apologise for bringing up the incident in the first place.
I must say, though, that I fail to see what all the fuss is about.
Brian's masturbation comment did not seem especially offensive to
me (if anything, I found the Esperanto farting thread to be more
off-colour), and I'm a little surprised that it resulted in such
heated feelings and (IMHO) willful misunderstandings on both sides.

I agree that we should try to keep things on-topic, and avoid
sarcasm and soapboxing as much as possible, but I find it odd that
that particular comment should have caused such an explosion of
feeling.

Matt.