Case of Fetishism Treated by Aversion Therapy

Abstract

Fetishism, or more accurately erotic fetishism, is the tendency to be sexually attracted by some special part or peculiarity of the body or by some inanimate object. Of all the sexual aberrations, fetishism is one of the most intriguing, perplexing, and varied. The literature is rich in detailed case reports and in speculation about theories of causation. I have been able to find, however, only three apparently successful results in established cases; one attributed to a co-operative wife (Hirschfeld,1939), one to psycho-analysis (Romm,1949), and the third to temporal lobectomy (Mitchell, Falconer, and Hill, 1954). I have been unable to find any previous record of a fetishist who responded favourably to aversion therapy. The following case is also of interest in that the fears implicit in psycho-analytical theory, and stressed by East and Hubert (1939), of releasing homosexual or sadistic drives, have not so far been confirmed. The patient, a married man aged 33, was referred in November 1954, from the outpatient department of a mental hospital for consideration of a prefrontal leucotomy after he had attacked a perambulator. This was the twelfth such attack known to the police, and because of his previous incidents they were taking a serious view of his recent actions in following a woman with a perambulator and smearing it with oil. The patient said that he had had impulses to damage perambulators since the age of 10 and that he had attacked perambulators many times more than the incidents known to police. Among the documented incidents were slashing empty prams on a railway station and setting them on fire; several times he slashed prams and spread mucus from his handkerchief; several times he used his motorcycle to bump a pram that contained a baby; he also used his motorcycle to drive through muddy rain puddles to splash the pram and the mother; he carried with him containers of oily liquids and would squirt the substance on the perambulator and the woman who pushed it..... Language: en