There are several known psychological disorders in the human race. Fetishism is one of the many common forms of such disorders that have the potential to disrupt one’s life to a large extent. The disorder takes its name from the Portuguese word ‘feitico’ signifying obsessive fascination.
To come to think of it, every human being has a minute level of fetishism in his or her behavior. For instance, there are men who get aroused at the mere thought or mention of a woman’s buttocks. However, warning bells generally set off when such forms of arousal cross the threshold of fascination and show streaks of compulsive behavior. Some of the signs indicating towards fetishism include sexual mania towards an animate object or non genital body part, and difficulty in sexual arousal and contentment without the presence of the object of fetish.More...
Being fascinated by a thing could be taken as a form of admiration but fetishism goes beyond the realm of fascination and is slotted under the head of psychological disorders. Fetishism is defined as sexual stimulation resulting from either a body part or inert object that in particular does not have any apparent sexuality linked to it.
A sexual fetish is designated as a disorder only when it disrupts routine functioning of the concerned individual. Some of markers of this disorder include repetitive sexual fantasies associated with the fetish object, the use of the fetish for sexual arousal or satisfaction, psychological distress owing to the fetish, and adverse implications on one’s personal and professional life.More...