Thursday, November 23, 2006

Vintage Thursday Fetish


The basic idea of sexual fetishism is sexual arousal and satisfaction through an inanimate object, the fetish. The concrete definitions are not only differing but even contradictory:

In psychology, fetishism is a paraphilia, a sexual psychic disorder. The diagnosis of fetishism is justified only if the additional criteria of paraphilia are fulfilled, above all only if the affected person suffers or harms other people. According to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), fetishism is the fixation on an inanimate object, while according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), fetishism is the fixation on an inanimate object or a body part.

In common speech, any fixation on a singular inanimate object, body part, body feature or sexual practice is called fetishism. Here, fetishism is not an illness but an uncommon but mostly harmless sexual orientation.








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