Fetishism Health Article

Prognosis

The prognosis for eliminating a fetish is poor because most people with a fetish have no desire to change or eliminate it. Most cases in which treatment has been demanded as a condition of continuing a marriage have not been successful. Most fetishes are relatively harmless in that most do not involve other persons or endanger the person with the fetish. Persons with a fetish rarely involve non-consenting partners.

The personal prognosis for a person with a fetish is good if the fetish and related activities do not impact others or place the person with the fetish in physical danger.

Prevention

Most experts agree that providing gender-appropriate guidance in culturally appropriate situations will prevent the formation of a fetish. The origin of some fetishes may be random associations between a particular object or situation and sexual gratification. There is no way to predict such as association.

BOOKS

Gelder, Michael, Richard Mayou, and Philip Cowen. Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Kohut, John J., and Roland Sweet. Real Sex: Titillating but True Tales of Bizarre Fetishes, Strange Compulsions, and Just Plain Weird Stuff. New York: Plume, 2000.

Wilson, Josephine F. Biological Foundations of Human Behavior. New York: Harcourt, 2002.

PERIODICALS

Chalkley, A. J., and G. E. Powell. "The clinical description of forty-eight cases of sexual fetishism." British Journal of Psychiatry 142 (1983): 292-295.

FitzGerald, W. A. "Explaining the variety of human sexuality." Medical Hypotheses 55, no. 5 (2000): 435-439.

Nersessian E. "A cat as fetish: a contribution to the theory of fetishism." International Journal of Psychoanalysis 79 (Pt 4) (1998): 713-725.

Reed, G. S. "The analyst's interpretation as fetish." Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association 45, no. 4 (1998): 1153-1181.

Weiss, J. "Bondage fantasies and beating fantasies." Psychoanalytic Quarterly 67, no. 4 (1998): 626-644.

Wise, T. N. and R. C. Kalyanam. "Amputee fetishism and genital mutilation: case report and literature review." Journal of Sexual and Marital Therapy 26, no. 4 (2000): 339-344.

L. Fleming Fallon, Jr., M.D., Dr.P.H.