Fetishism is an orgasmic preference for, or an inordinate and persistent sex-
ual arousal to, inanimate objects or parts of the body. Often the fetishes are
related to the human body, for example, to female or male clothing,
although other objects have been described. An outstanding feature in the
study of fetishism is the number of attempts that have been made to classify
the fetishes. Krafft-Ebing (in Raymond³⁹) divided the fetishes into parts of
the female body, her clothing, special materials and animales. Epstein¹⁵
noted that objects with certain surface characteristics such as glistening
(wetness or rubber), metallic shining, leathery, silky, and velvety or those
objects with unusual accentuation of shape such as high heels; often serve as
fetishes. Balint³ claimed that many fetishes are objects which can serve as
receptacles in the fetishist's acts, for example, shoes, corsets, and so forth,
and even in one case the hollow part of an artificial leg was used. The recep-
tacle of course symbolizes the vagina and the womb so the use of the penis
in contact with these symbols is understandable.

Gebhard¹⁸ has devised a typology of fetishes. They are either inanimate
objects or some physical attribute of a person (partialism). One may be par-
tial to redheads for example and find them more erotic than persons with
other colors of hair. The degree of arousal differs between individuals from
mild to strong and for some men it is strong and the stimulus is essential.
Thus one may like redheads but he can react to other females or males as
well. However if one could only react to redheads, this would be a necessary
fetish according to Gebhard. We are all fetishists in this sense since we
display some idiosyncratic sexual arousal to a wide range of stimuli. Normal

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