The problem of male impotence has long been one of peculiar difficulty to the neurologist and urologist. While a physical basis was occasionally encountered as an etiologic factor (scrotal hernia, hydrocele, neurosyphilis, diabetes, degenerative changes following some infections—parotitis, gonorrhea, and the like), by far the larger number of cases observed belonged to the type for which a physical basis could not be found. Even the older authorities, such as Hammond and Taylor, spoke of certain types of impotence as being psychic and, more recently, Huhner has spoken of impotence due to inhibitory psychic influences interfering with the actions of the centers.
The treatment heretofore offered was as little effective as the causes were obscure. Of recent years, psychiatry has learned much of the problem of male impotence, mainly through the psychoanalytic approach. Increasingly, clinical evidence supports the view that the operation of psychic factors may sometimes be productive of