A Contribution to the Study of Fetishism1

The clinical material upon which this paper is based is derived from an analysis which was interrupted by the War. I had hoped to have collected more material and reached more definite conclusions, but there is nothing to be gained now by postponement. In view of the paucity of cases recorded in the analytical literature, publication of my incomplete findings seems justified.

It is not my intention to deal with the literature of fetishism. It is not very extensive on the analytical side; and on the non-analytical side, although extensive, it is not very illuminating. Freud has expressed his fundamental contributions to the subject with great lucidity, and there is no doubt to my mind that they provide us with the most important line of approach. But I feel sure that he did not mean to suggest that the last word had been said on the matter. Further additions of great value have in fact been made, notably by Sylvia Payne. I should like to thank her both for the help she gave me in the early stages of the analysis and for her very stimulating recent paper on the subject.2

It will be remembered that Dr. Payne laid special emphasis on the pregenital components determining fetishism, and on the importance of introjection-projection mechanisms. She said: 'In my opinion the fetish saves the individual from a perverse form of sexuality. The component impulse which would prevail if not placed under special control is the sadistic impulse' (p. 169). The aim, she said, is to kill the love object. Ample confirmation of these views is to be found in the analysis of my own case.

This brings me to what I conceive to be the crux of the problem of fetishism at the present time, and I want to present it in as lucid a manner as possible, at the risk of appearing elementary and obvious. The problem may be stated thus: Is fetishism primarily a product of castration anxiety, to be related almost exclusively to the phallic phase, and concerned to maintain the existence of a fema