On Masturbation

Sexual actions are actions which of their nature reach out to another and speak of love of another and readiness to give and to share; but masturbation uses these actions instead to withdraw into self and to seek solitary satisfaction.

Aptly also called self-abuse, it is defined as the deliberate simulation of the genital organs to the point of orgasm which is not part of sexual intercourse. The abuse consists in a dualistic attitude / approach of not seeing ourselves as "body-persons", but rather our "conscious desiring self" instrumentalizing or using our body / genital organ merely as a means to achieve a pleasurable experience of orgasm. It promotes self-disintegration and is hedonistic .(pleasure seeking as a norm)

The body is thus treated as a means to the end of orgasm (the sexual pleasure) and this does not respect the dignity of the human person / body. This utilitarian attitude of "using" another person's (or own as in masturbation) body is most clearly manifested in a lustful relationship such as prostitution and other illicit sexual actions. (Homosexual sex, fornication -premarital sex, adultery, rape, etc)

To summarize the harmfulness of masturbation, it is

narcissistic (excessive or erotic interest in oneself),

hedonistic (seeing pleasure as the norm of life),

self dis-integrating / dualistic (not respecting the body-self unity), and utilitarian (using / usefulness as the norm in relationships), which promotes a culture of lust, unchastity, promiscuity and selfishness.

For all these reasons, masturbation represents an intrinsic objective disorder and hence can never be morally licit.