Here is a case of pleasure in cruelty, directed against the patient’s own person.
Fetichism.—The word fetichism denotes the condition in which an object by virtue of association with sentiment, personality, or ideas exerts a charm. Erotic fetichism makes an idol of physical or mental qualities of an individual of the other sex or even of objects used by this individual. Erotic fetichism is physiologic in nature. Hence pathologic fetichism is generally, like masochism and sadism, not so easily diagnosed. Sometimes it is almost impossible to define sharply the beginning of the perversion. Fetichism of a considerable high degree is found in normal love as well. The preference for some particular physical or psychical characteristic in a person of the opposite sex is not pathological. The breasts and hips of a woman are not seldom made the object of a fetich, still this fact does not denote pathological fetichism. One man may be charmed by the sweet voice of his beloved, another man is raving over her soft blond hair. Some man is enchanted by the delicate white arm, another is enraptured at the sight of her dainty foot, or is fascinated by the fairy-like nimble gait of his girl and sobs out of excitement when inhaling the sweet odor of her hair. Many a girl becomes extremely excited when kissed by mustached and bearded lips, while a smooth face leaves her cold. Another girl is thrilled when looking into the serious, thoughtful eyes of a man.
Hence the enthusiasm extended to certain portions of the body or to articles of attire, still lies within the limits of physiological fetichism, if the awakened powerful emotions are associated with a certain beloved person. When the royal singer in the Bible (Solomon’s Song, chap. 4) extols the dove’s eyes of his bride and praises her comely speech, when he compares her hair to a flock of goats, her teeth to a flock of shorn sheep, her lips to a thread of scarlet, her temples to a piece of pomegranate, her neck to the tower of David, and her two breasts to two young twin roes; when he tells us that milk and honey lie under her tongue and that the smell of her garment is like the smell of the Lebanon, no one would declare him for that reason a degenerate fetichist. The sweet, red, coral-like, quivering, laughing lips of the mother of the human race have been extolled in verse and prose since the dawn of history.
Hence if certain parts of the body of a certain person or certain pieces of its clothing are worshipped because they arouse strong sexual emotions, this fact, as such, does not prove pathological fetichism. It may still be normal. But with the normal individual the main attraction is after all the man or the woman themselves with their respectively primary and secondary characteristics. Every part of the body excites and even the clothes that may cover the part. But there must be a personality behind these clothes or such parts. When, however, the stimulation emanating from these parts or their coverings is entirely independent from the personality, when the fetichist abstracts the part from the whole or the clothing from the wearer, then such emotions become pathological.
In pathological fetichism the creation of lust is effected through a certain part of the body or through a certain piece of clothing of the other sex without any reference to any personality. The fetich creates tumescence which may lead to the desire of effecting detumescence either concarnatione aut stupro manu. Not seldom the libido enjoyed by the fetich affords the patient complete satisfaction and nothing more is sought or desired. In the latter case the anomaly is complete. The more the normal desire concubitus recedes, and the fetich becomes the only aim, the more the fetichistic desire becomes pathological. This pathological condition, wherein some part or physical peculiarity of the person or a part of its attire is the object of erotic desire to the exclusion of everything else, is oftener found in men than in women. Fetichism in men often reaches the extremes in its pathological aspects. The patient goes sometimes so far in his fetich-worship of women’s hair as to stealthily cut off tresses on crowded streets, or his fetich for women’s handkerchiefs leads him to become a thief.
The following case offers a very good illustration to which extremes the fetichist may go:
A man of thirty, married, father of two children, gets peculiar attacks every two to three months which generally last no longer than three to five days. During this time he has the irresistible impulse se stuprare while fondling a woman’s handkerchief. His desire for procuring women’s handkerchiefs is so strong and irresistible that he steals them whenever opportunity is afforded. In this way he accumulates hundreds of handkerchiefs during the three to four days of each attack. After the attack is over he destroys the ill-gotten articles. He is very unhappy and miserable over this anomaly. He is constantly in fear that some day he might be caught and thus cause a scandal which will disgrace his prominent family.
Dühren relates the case of an Englishman who kept up pulchram puellam for the following purpose: At certain hours of the day she had to undo her hair so that he could run his hands through them. This action gave him the highest libido.
In Blinet’s case a young man becomes sexually very excited at the mere sight of the pretty hand of a woman.
The author once treated a student who, while separated from his girl, would take along her petticoat with him and would place it under his pillow when going to bed at night. Otherwise he could not fall asleep. A few years later he died in a sanitarium from an abscess of the brain.
A man, thirty-five years of age, married, father of two children, as a very young boy, saw his governess taking off her shoes and making a few steps in her stockings. Since then he gets excited at the sight of women’s stockings. When once in a department store, he saw a woman in her stockings trying on a new shoe, the excitement caused ejaculation and orgasm. At puberty he began to practise stuprum manu. During the practice he always managed to handle a woman’s stocking. He assured the author that even the stockings in the store windows are able to excite him sexually.
In another case a young man of twenty-five saw as a child the servant-girl of the family washing her feet. Since then he gets excited when he happens to see pretty naked feet of a woman. He has then the irresistible impulse contrectandi et osculandi eos. He is unable to go bathing at the seashore; for some fair bather’s feet may provoke in him the most violent desire to touch and kiss the same. Sometimes he visits fornices, ubi puellam pulcherrimam pedum eligit who has to take off her shoes and stockings so that he may fondle and kiss her feet. He never has any other carnal relations with her.
The perversion of fetichism is, like sadism, a rare anomaly in women. In most cases recorded, the woman, as a rule, makes a fetich of the entire person, not of one of its parts or of its clothing. Still there are some cases of fetichism even among women where the fetich is directed toward articles of attire.
The case of a young woman, twenty-one years of age, came under the author’s observation wherein the patient, whose lover died several years previously, kept for years thereafter his drawers under her bed-pillows. Otherwise she could not find the desired sleep. At times she experienced great sexual excitement when fondling them.
In Howard’s case of a woman thirty-nine years of age, the patient stole a pair of trousers of a certain man and by fondling them lovingly induced orgasm.
Howard relates of another case of a young woman of twenty-seven years of age, of a good family, who up to the time mentioned had had undifferentiated sexual feelings. At a summer resort, she met a man who was very attentive to her in an upright manner. The first evening she met the man, he unconsciously displayed a portion of the garter that held up his silk hose. At the time the patient simply noticed the carelessness of the act and had no other feelings in the matter.
Upon her return to her home, there began for the first time in her life distinct, clear and culminative erotic dreams. These commenced by subconscious visualizing of the blue garter. The association of the garter with the night reveries increased to day ideation. One day the patient went into a shop to buy a present for a friend and, on the counter, saw an exact duplicate of her fetich. It was instantly appropriated and the patient went immediately to her bed-room, where she gave way to the effect the fetich had upon her. She soon found herself a victim of fetichistic manu stuprum. This was never practised without the psychical aid of the garter, and to have the act culminate satisfactorily she must have a new garter each time, which must be attained unseen surreptitiously. A garter purchased would have no effect upon her sexual nerves.