are usually forgotten. It is only the result of the association that is retained. The general predisposition to psychopathic states and the sexual hyperæsthesia of such individuals are all that is original here.[1]
Like the other perversions thus far considered, erotic (pathological) fetichism may also express itself in strange, unnatural, and even criminal acts: gratification with the female person loco indebito, theft and robbery of objects of fetichism, pollution of such objects, etc. Here, too, it only depends upon the intensity of the perverse impulse and the relative power of opposing ethical motives, whether and to what extent such acts are performed. These perverse acts of fetichists, like those of other sexually perverse individuals, may either alone constitute the entire external vita sexualis, or occur together with the normal sexual act. This depends upon the condition of physical and psychical sexual power, and the degree of excitability to normal stimuli that has been retained. Where excitability is diminished, not infrequently the sight or touch of the fetich serves as a necessary preparatory act.
The great practical importance which attaches to the facts of fetichism, in accordance with what has been said, lies in two factors. First, pathological fetichism is not infrequently a cause of psychical impotence.[2] Since the object upon which the sexual interest of the fetichist is concentrated stands, in itself, in no immediate relation to the normal sexual act, it often happens that the fetichist diminishes his excitability to normal stimuli
- ↑ Though Binet (op. cit.) declares that every sexual perversion, without exception, depends upon such an “accident acting on a predisposed subject” (where, under predisposition, only hyperæsthesia in general is understood), yet such an assumption for other perversions than fetichism is neither necessary nor satisfactory. For example, it is not clear how the sight of another’s punishment could excite sexually even a very excitable individual, if the physiological relationship of lust and cruelty had not been developed into original sadism in an abnormally excitable individual.
- ↑ When young husbands who have associated much with prostitutes feel impotent in the face of the chastity of their young wives—a thing that frequently occurs—the condition may be regarded as a kind of (psychical) fetichism in a wider sense. One of my patients was never potent with his beautiful and chaste young wife, because he was accustomed to the lascivious methods of prostitutes. When he now and then attempted coitus with puellis he was perfectly potent. Hammond (op. cit.) reports a very similar interesting case. Of course, in such cases, a bad conscience and hypochondriacal fear of impotence play an important part.
