"After a diffident attempt at normal sexual activity, undertaken at the time of his puberty, a thin, sinewy foot like that of his governess, had become the sole object of his desires. The man was carried away irresistibly if other features, reminiscent of his governess, appeared in conjunction with the foot. Through this fixation, the man did not become neurotic but perverse, a foot fetishist, as we say."
I wish to call the reader's attention to the expression "after a diffident attempt at normal sexual expression." It indicates a feeling of inferiority, likely to cause failure and also increased by failure which is always in evidence in every neurotic and which drives him toward easier goals, along the line of least effort.
Some of the Freudians have suggested that foot fetishism is due to the repression of an early craving for the unpleasant odors emitted by perspiring feet. As against such a far-fetched explanation, I would offer the fact that foot and shoe are always associated in the unconscious of neurotic patients with the male and female genitals, respectively.
We find the association of shoe and genitals clearly indicated in the old custom of throwing shoes and rice at departing newlyweds (rice symbolising the fertilising seed).
Odors, sounds, tactile sensations, etc., may also be powerful fetishes or antifetishes, according to the impression they may have made on the nursling. This will be discussed in more detail in the Chapter entitled "The Senses in Love."
Fetishes may be of a non-Physical Kind. A profession may be a fetish, and so can a mental attitude, in short, anything which in childhood may have been considered as a source of safety, comfort, egotistical gratification, etc.
Age itself, is at times a fetish. Gerontophilia is a neurosis, the victims of which are only attracted to very old men or women, safety, comfort and food having been assured them probably by a grandfather or grandmother to whom they clung for neurotic reasons.
Many Fetishes are Purely Symbolical. Some women fall in love with a uniform because that type of garment symbolises to them physical strength, virility, courage, etc.
A uniform fetishist who consulted me during the war had given herself to half a dozen officers who appeared to her irresistible until they undressed or donned civilian clothes. After which she felt indifferent to them and suffered remorse.
Antifetishes, parts of the body or their symbols which repel us in persons of the opposite sex, can be due either to unpleasant experiences of childhood connected with such parts of the body or to a neurotic fear of incest. A neurotic's resistance to a mother fixation may be so strong that in his (unconscious) fear of committing incest, he shuns everything which in any woman reminds him of his mother.