The Scandalous Fact of Fetishism: Charcot and Magnan, Binet and von Krafft-Ebing

by | Vol 33 (3) 2015

In this article, I discuss Freud’s theory of fetishism and the most important resources he draws on to elaborate his theory, namely, three texts from the end of the 19th century, Charcot and Magnan’s “Genital Inversions, and Other Sexual Perversions” (1882), Alfred Binet’s “Fetishism in Love” (1887) and von Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis (1886). I trace their respective theorizing on fetishism, where the attempt to categorize the perversions, a fascination with raw case-material and a focus on degeneracy and heredity as causes are pivotal. I also highlight observations, ideas and concepts in their texts which, while mentioned only in passing, will be crucial for Freud’s and Lacan’s later theories. A close reading of these three texts produces a theory of fetishism that can be summarized as follows: Normal love has fetishistic aspects, but these aspects are harmoniously ordered and result in “normal” sexual intercourse. Therefore, the behaviour of the fetishist cannot be seen as the defining criterion for fetishism. Rather this is a subjective psychical state that has its roots in the association of the awakening of genital excitation with an exterior fact. This association of ideas crystallizes into a fetish, which operates as a sign in a language-based scenario that is instrumental for the regulation of sexual enjoyment in an intense, non-standard way. In fetishists, one finds an ambivalent attitude towards the fetishistic object and a specific relationship to the law. I argue that by the time Freud tackles the question of fetishism, the groundwork has already been done by the early sexologists.

Related articles

  • Freud reads Krafft-Ebing: A short Genealogy of Sadism

    This contribution presents a reconstruction of the way the concept of sadism was introduced and anchored in psychoanalytic metapsychology. It focusses on the first two editions (1905 and 1910) of Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Freud's singular indebtedness to Krafft-Ebing is emphasized. Subsequently, it is argued that Freud's selective reading of Krafft-Ebing is determined by his model of hysteria. Freud seems unable to give an adequate account of sadism in his Three Essays and in his later…

  • "Frotteurism, Fetishism and co": Rare Sexual Tendencies

    In this paper some clinical fragments are presented to illustrate the delicate relationship between initial diagnostic assessment and the phenomenology that becomes visible through the gradual unfolding of an analytic cure. Examples of gerontophilia, apparently extreme narcissism, fetishism, and frotteurism illustrate that a theoretical diagnosis of perversion is far from straightforward. A cure, which is carried out thoroughly and which is faithful to its own dynamics, requires careful handling of hypothetical psychodiagnostic categories, even psychoanalytically inspired ones. Perverse onsets or…

  • Hermine von Hug-Hellmuth: Preliminary Steps for the Technique of Child Analysis

    At the 6th International Psychoanalytic Conference in The Hague in 1920 the Viennese psychoanalyst Hermine von Hug-Hellmuth presented her paper "On the technique of child analysis". Her lecture discussed the many practical problems and theoretical questions she encountered while "analysing" children in the early twenties. The author reviews the main ideas of von Hug-Hellmuth in light of the work of other psychoanalysts, such as Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Françoise Dolto. He also determines the current value of the…