Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/174

156 are usually forgotten. It is only the result of the association that is retained. The general predisposition to psychopathic states and the sexual hyperæsthesia of such individuals are all that is original here.

Like the other perversions thus far considered, erotic (pathological) fetichism may also express itself in strange, unnatural, and even criminal acts: gratification with the female person loco indebito, theft and robbery of objects of fetichism, pollution of such objects, etc. Here, too, it only depends upon the intensity of the perverse impulse and the relative power of opposing ethical motives, whether and to what extent such acts are performed. These perverse acts of fetichists, like those of other sexually perverse individuals, may either alone constitute the entire external vita sexualis, or occur together with the normal sexual act. This depends upon the condition of physical and psychical sexual power, and the degree of excitability to normal stimuli that has been retained. Where excitability is diminished, not infrequently the sight or touch of the fetich serves as a necessary preparatory act.

The great practical importance which attaches to the facts of fetichism, in accordance with what has been said, lies in two factors. First, pathological fetichism is not infrequently a cause of psychical impotence. Since the object upon which the sexual interest of the fetichist is concentrated stands, in itself, in no immediate relation to the normal sexual act, it often happens that the fetichist diminishes his excitability to normal stimuli