why do people have fetishes?

[blackbarbie]

i'm not talking about semi-socially accepted fetishes, like roleplaying or feet. i mean stuff like wanting someone to defecate on your chest or throwing up on your nuts.

do you think it's caused by childhood abuse? do you think it's a mental problem, or it's just a personal thing that they like that may not be "normal" but is okay because it works for them?

[The Dude Of Life]

different strokes for different folks. some people like wearing womens panties, some dont. i fall into the dont category, so i dont really mind the do category, as long as no one trys to throw up on my nuts ;)

[slipknotpsycho]

i'm sure alot could be attributed to their up bringing and experiences.... but not all are.... it's like asking why you like males/females rather then the opposite... it's just what attracts you.... not because you had a bad experience with the opposite..

[birdgirl73]

Read this, Barb. It has a fairly good explanation. Not unlike some of what I remember reading last year in psychopathology.
Sexual fetishism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_fetishism)

[qdavid]

I'm telling you. Go psych. You'll love it.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I think some people become more quickly decensitized to practicing the same sexual activities over and over. It's the same thing with porn, they no longer get aroused by the same old imagery so they have to keep bringing it to further extremes to rekindle the excitement.

But of course some fetishes are inborn early on in ones sexuality, and I guess there's no clear answer. One theory on foot fetishes is that the main nerves running from the feet to the brain go nearer to the gentials and thereby relate foot and sexual stimulation in the same areas of the brain. I think peripheral neurology plays a part in a lot of it, even the most extreme cases.

[cannabis campbell]

Well obviously the simple answer would just be to say "everyones different" but about the weird and more taboo fetishes there could be any number of reason as to why people like it, I dont think it could be linked to child abuse in any way I think it mostly comes down to personal preferance.

[Oh My High]

Back in college, I took classes on criminal profiling. All sexual behaviors, abnormal and normal, have the following four components: fantasy, symbolism, ritualism, and compulsion. Naturally enough, the key difference is when the need to commit an act overtakes control of someone's life. Fetishes arise out of the feedback cycle in which there is greater desensitivity, less reward, less pleasure, as they commit the acts, and thus they gradually up the ante to maintain the high. Sexual offenders in particular usually start off innocently enough as peeping toms and exhibitionists, then progress into bizarre fetishes. They characteristically have multiple fetishes.

The origins of fetishes are still largely unknown, as there is nothing these people which in any way is unique to them, although there are an exceptionally high rates of alcoholism and disruptive/abusive childhoods, yes. Pent up sexual deprivation is also an usual suspect; they have a sort of "intimacy" with the object because they can't achieve intimacy with human beings.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a feet fetish, that's a partialism. Everyone has partialisms. The word "fetish" is thrown around so loosely nowadays that it has lost much of its clinical significance, but it's important to understand its classical definition when trying to understand why people do the really bizarre things such as "defecate on your chest or throwing up on your nuts."

[snowblind]

freud spoke of the psycosexual devlopment of a child. based on suckling, the relif of taking a poo. pleasure from urintaing. an excess or deficit of these can result in fetishism. he also spoke to include parental discipline. im not too sure i usually just slept or schemeid on the cute girl with big tits in psyc

snow

[psychocat]

Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Unusual_Sex_Practices)

One of my favourite books.