The Cause Of Human Fetishism

 Clinical Psychology
The Cause Of Human Fetishism
Name
Institution
Introduction
At the moment, there is no definitive known cause for human fetishism, and my research paper
does not contest the fact that a general root cause for human fetishism probably doesn’t exist.
(Bancroft, 2009). However, my research paper explores the idea that certain conditions may be
set in place that may lead a person to towards fetishism. In my conclusion, I liken the
phenomenon to smoking cigarettes where even though smoking doesn’t cause cancer directly, it
does increase a person’s chances of getting cancer. My research paper explores the idea that
certain conditions may increase a person’s likelihood of leaning towards fetishism.
Essay Body
Conditioning is a frequent topic of discussion in the area of fetishism and case-file examples are
commonplace these days, especially in our media age where the child-related misconduct of
catholic priests and worshippers of Islam is becoming more exposed than it was before the
Internet existed. Conditioning, fetishism, and the highly publicized actions of certain religious
worshippers is a common topic of discussion because it offers a clearly defined “second cause,”
and as John Bancroft suggests, conditioning alone is not enough to evoke fetishism and that at
least one other factor (cause) is always in play. (Bancroft, 2009). In the case of Catholic priests
and followers of Islam, the forces suppression of sexual exploration or gratification is the second
factor, and yet this fact doesn’t go hand-in-hand with the fact that some sexual fetishisms
develop prior to puberty when sexual urges are not present, which is the case made on page 700
by the American Psychiatric Association (Fetishistic Disorder, 302.81, 2013). Their argument
suggests that sexual urges are not a prerequisite of human fetishism, but that doesn’t mean that
human sexual urges and the need for gratification is not a important component, it is that it may
be absent in some cases i.e. it is not a key/vital component to human fetishism. (Darcangelo,
2008). In fact, there are cases where people have been chemically castrated and their leaning
towards human fetishism has increased. (Ramachandran, 1994).