Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXportance; in his case the fetichism was well marked, butit was never extreme, and the shoe, however attractive,was not an adequate substitute for the woman.Eccentric as foot-fetichism may appear, it is thus simplythe reemergence, by a pseudo-atavism or arrest of development,of a mental or emotional impulse which wasprobably experienced by our forefathers, and is oftentraceable among young children today. The occasional reappearanceof this bygone impulse and the stability whichit may acquire are thus conditioned by the sensitive reactiono an abnormally nervous and usually precociousorganism to influences which, among the average and ordinarypopulation of Europe today, are either never feltor quickly outgrown, or strictly subordinated in thehighly complex crystallizationswhich the course of loveand the process of tumescence create within us. An interestingcase was elaborately psycho-analyzed byL. Binswanger:Gerda, as a child, had acquired the habit of sittingon her heels with her shoe pressed against the vulvaand anus. This would cause excitement in these erogeniczones and she would find pleasure in urinating (perhapsas a form of detumescence) The shoe became her friend.and lover and darling, to be carefully protected andguarded from the eyes of others. The foot and especiallythe shod foot became blended with all her sexual ideas,the representative o the phallus, and even, as amongprimitive peoples, the symbol of all fertility. On thisfoundation phobias and other symptoms in time developed,to some extent overlying and diminishing the originalmanifestations.It may be added that this isby no means true of footfetichismonly. In some other fetichisms a seemingly congenitalpredispositionis even more marked. This is notonly the case as regards hair-fetichism, fur-fetichism, etc.[170]