From this it will be easily understood that choosing a mate solely on the strength of his or her fetishes, is likely, unless the union be of the most ephemeral kind, to lead to profound disappointment.
It behooves us then to determine accurately what every fetish means and what sort of personality is actually to be found associated with a certain set of physical characteristics.
For I repeat, a man's or woman's personality is to be studied, not in their attitude to their offspring, (for the most savage beast is transformed by the paternal or maternal instinct into a marvel of tenderness, kindness and patience), but in their relation to the social herd and to their sexual mate.
Until the study of the ductless glands was given the importance we attach to it today, the word personality denoted a set of attitudes which many psychologists considered as mainly voluntary and amenable to "moral suasion" and other forms of pedagogical approach of the individual. When we read the works of Freud, Jung, Adler, Ferenczi and their disciples, we never receive an intimation of the rôle which the endocrines may play in moulding the human personality.
Modern Endocrinologists on the other hand, seem as indifferent to psychology as the psychoanalysts of yesterday were to neurology and endocrinology. Some of them assume that the personality IS the glands and that our glands alone shape our thinking and our actions.
Both views are narrow and unsatisfactory. The personality is made up primarily of an organism which outward influences can or cannot influence easily. Pleasure and pain then shape that organism thru the memories which they leave in it in the form of infinitely small modifications of our autonomic nervous system. That system, in its turn, develops, thru constant stimulation, certain glands or allows them to remain undeveloped thru lack of stimulation or thru negative stimulation.
Some of those glands may, thru mere accident of growth, have been already overdeveloped or stunted at birth. Individuals free from complexes, however, may easily reestablish the balance of cravings and social inhibitions which threatens at times to be upset by an overdeveloped or underdeveloped gland. Complex-ridden individuals on the other hand, use their glandular inferiority unconsciously as a scapegoat for absurd or morbid behavior.
Reciprocal Influence. We cannot say, therefore, that our behavior is dictated by our glands, but it is influenced by them and reciprocally, our behavior influences our glands. As I said in a previous chapter, hyperthyroidism creates fear, but fear may also create hyperthyroidism. Overdevelopment of the sexual apparatus creates a predisposition to sexual overactivity, but sexual thoughts also have a tendency to provoke unusual sexual activity.
There is one thing, however, for which the secretions of our ductless glands are mainly responsible, and which is most important to consider in a study of fetishes. They determine the shape, color and consistency of many parts of our body, such as complexion, hair, teeth, skeletal frame and growth.
A glance at a human body enables one to determine as accurately as an autopsy would, the size of a person's thyroid, adrenals, etc.