Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1946, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 450.

A case of fetishism is presented in a boy sixteen months old. To fall asleep he had to be given a stocking or brassiere which had been worn by his mother. This object he pressed between his hands, stuck a thumb in his mouth and would then fall asleep. The author believes it is necessary to adhere to the assertion that in the young child the fetish represents a substitute for the mother's body and in particular her breast. In children of this age abnormal manifestations are simple reaction formations to an inhibited or ungratified instinctual impulse.