What is fetish and how people develop fetishes?

Erotic fetishism also known as sexual fetishism is a term that we often find in the media. We don't heard about it much in Sydney Australia, but it's quite common in our bedroom. There are many definitions of this term, but the most common one is that fetishism of this kind is sexual arousal in people created by physical objects or certain situations. This situation or object is called fetish while the person who has a fetish toward this situation or object is known as fetishist.

Generally speaking, fetishism is giving special value and power to certain situation or object. We can separate fetishism into two categories – material and spiritual love. When it comes to spiritual fetishism, fetish is a specific mental occurrence, similar to attitude, opinion, social status or professional role, while when we talk about material love, the fetish is focused on items like clothes, shoes, animals, body parts, certain textures etc.

In the past, people were unaware of this term although fetishes were present for hundreds of years. Once they noticed this behavior they were trying to figure out how this happens. Why and how fetishes are developed? By looking at the development of human sexuality, we will surely have to focus on Freud and emphasize the fact that children are created to enjoy their own body and satisfying all their physical needs. This doesn’t mean that this sexuality is the same with the sexuality of adult persons.

Although there is a small number of studies in this field, some of the studies conducted in the past years suggest that the age between the third and seventh year of our lives is the time when we create sexual interests and the objects of sexual desire and this is when they become part of our world and how we perceive the world. This is the period of our lives in which we physically detach from the most important person in our life, usually the mother, who has provided help for all of our physical needs. Children at this age find transition objects of pleasure which can later become the root of fetish (under certain circumstances).

If you are looking for a way to find the root of your fetish, try to remember the things you’ve done and how you felt when you were between three and seven years old. What were the things around you, what did you do, what you considered to be acceptable, what helped you find comfort, what was allowed etc. This is where people find the roots of all their sexual interests.

Of course, fetishes are part of what we consider attractive in our life – body parts, objects, scenes and situations which stimulate our sex drive and sexual arousal. By looking at our childhood we can find some signs and traces of the cause of our sexual fetish. The environment was definitely playing a significant role in our development. At this age, there might have been some material things, but also some activities and moments that were very important to us and as we grew older and developed sexuality they have become part of this sexuality.