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When Freud considered fetishism, he focused his attention on the phallic stage and regarded it as the only important phase involved. It represented the female phallus and was a denial, a defense against castration anxiety.
Dickes discusses the importance of preoedipal determinants for fetishism. Partial objects, body parts, and inanimate things which have been offered or discovered by the child as substitutes for drive and object satisfaction contribute to the concept of the fetish and become condensed in it. The author feels that the fetish, far from belonging to the conflicts of the Oedipal period, serves as a source of substitute gratification for deprivations which are mainly preoedipal and for which a tolerance normally develops. The genitality of the fetishist is curtailed and, concomitantly, certain ego deficiencies develop, such as poor reality testing and poor mastery of the environment. Fetishism usually serves a more primitive need than the defense against castration anxiety.
A good review of the literature and details from the analysis of four patients are included in this interesting paper.