ABSTRACT
Fetishes in the weak sense serve growth-promoting efforts and may be viewed as transitional objects or erotically invested symbols in their own right. The fetish is not a casual preference that brings pleasure. Rather, it is obligatory and fixed; it is necessary to the achievement of sexual arousal, and it is the only thing that makes sexual arousal possible. The relationship to the fetish is repetitive and routinized; indeed, it is the opposite of play and thereby gets its designation as a perverse mode of relating. The presence of anal themes and mechanisms has long been recognized in perverse scenarios. Castration fears, gender concerns, and anal preoccupations are common themes in the writings of early and mid-century psychoanalysts, as well as later theoreticians of the more classical persuasion. The construction of a one-person fantasy renders examples in the classical literature helpful in delineating some typical meanings of fetishistic activity.
