Sexual fetishism

Sexual fetishism
Foot fetishism, one of the most common sexual fetishes
SpecialtyPsychiatry

Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part.[1] The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist.[2] A sexual fetish may be regarded as a non-pathological aid to sexual excitement, or as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life.[1][3] Sexual arousal from a particular body part can be further classified as partialism.[4]

While medical definitions restrict the term sexual fetishism to objects or body parts,[1] fetish can, in common discourse, also refer to sexual interest in specific activities.[5]

  1. ^ a b c American Psychiatric Association, ed. (2013). "Fetishistic Disorder, 302.81 (F65.0)". Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. American Psychiatric Publishing. p. 700.
  2. ^ "Common Misunderstandings of Fetishism". K. M. Vekquin. Archived from the original on 5 January 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  3. ^ "Fetishism, F65.0" (PDF). The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. World Health Organization. p. 170. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  4. ^ Milner, J. S., & Dopke, C. A. (1997). Paraphilia Not Otherwise Specified: Psychopathology and theory. In D. R. Laws and W. O'Donohue (Eds.), Sexual deviance: Theory, assessment, and treatment. New York: Guilford.
  5. ^ Scorolli, C.; Ghirlanda, S.; Enquist, M.; Zattoni, S.; Jannini, E. (2007). "Relative prevalence of different fetishes". International Journal of Impotence Research. 19 (4): 432–437. doi:10.1038/sj.ijir.3901547. PMID 17304204.