In the case of the laboratory dogs, a permanent modification of the nervous system caused a permanent modification of the animal's behavior, which could not be "cured," (for brain injuries do not "heal," the cells of the brain being unable to reproduce themselves), but which would probably be compensated for by gradual adaptation. In the case of the "phototropic" or "galvanotropic" animals, the modification of the nervous system was only temporary but might cause a more or less durable modification of the animals' behavior, if allowed to last a considerable length of time.
The love attraction or "erotropism" is likewise due to certain more or less lasting modifications of man's nervous system caused by the fact that his nervous system was for variable periods of time exposed to the influence of certain outside stimuli.
CHAPTER III
The Quest of The Fetish
The papers now and then tell the story of some man who was caught in the act of clipping a little girl's braid of hair. That man is what is called technically a hair fetishist. Hair is his fetish, that is the part of a woman's body which attracts him more powerfully than any other part. A search of the living quarters of that variety of "delinquents" generally reveals that they are in the habit of collecting women's tresses acquired in that fashion. The tresses are almost always of the same color.
The Hair Fetishist whose unlawful activities bring him sooner or later into the clutches of the police is a neurotic who presents to an exaggerated, abnormal extent, a trait we find in all normal human beings.
Every one of us is especially attracted by some part of the human body. The young man who raves over his sweetheart's hair, the young woman who blissfully runs her fingers thru her lover's hair are also hair fetishists. But their craving is not strong enough to lead them into committing unlawful, perverse, socially inacceptable acts.
Another widely spread type of abnormal fetishist described by novelists and psychiatrists, but which very seldom gains newspaper notoriety, is the foot and shoe fetishist, who buys or steals all sorts of shoes. He too is merely the exaggeration of the man who is delighted by the sight of a Cinderella foot or a slim ankle.
With hair and shoe fetishists, the fetish is more than a mere attraction; it is generally a powerful sexual stimulant. Such fetishists experience, while kissing or caressing their fetish, sexual gratification of the autoerotic or of the involuntary type.