autoeroticism /-irot″əsiz′əm/ [Gk, autos + eros, self-love] , 1. sensual, sexual gratification of the self, usually obtained through the stimulus of one’s own body without the participation of another person. It is derived from such acts as stroking, masturbation, and fantasy or from other oral, anal, or visual sources of stimulation. 2. sexual feeling or desire occurring without any external stimulus. 3. (in Freudian psychoanalytic theory) an early phase of psychosexual development, occurring in the oral and the anal stages. Compare heteroeroticism. −autoerotic, adj.
