"Get me a handkerchief from her bosom--a garter of my love."
--FAUST.

The case becomes pathological only when the striving for the fetich
fixes itself beyond such determinations and takes the place of the
normal sexual aim; or again, when the fetich disengages itself from the
person concerned and itself becomes a sexual object. These are the
general determinations for the transition of mere variations of the
sexual impulse into pathological aberrations.

The persistent influence of a sexual impress mostly received in early
childhood often shows itself in the selection of a fetich, as Binet
first asserted, and as was later proven by many illustrations,--a thing
which may be placed parallel to the proverbial attachment to a first
love in the normal ("On revient toujours à ses premiers amours"). Such a
connection is especially seen in cases with only fetichistic
determinations of the sexual object. The significance of early sexual
impressions will be met again in other places.

In other cases it was mostly a symbolic thought association, unconscious
to the person concerned, which led to the replacing of the object by
means of a fetich. The paths of these connections can not always be
definitely demonstrated. The foot is a very primitive sexual symbol
already found in myths.[18] Fur is used as a fetich probably on account
of its association with the hairiness of the mons veneris. Such
symbolism seems often to depend on sexual experiences in childhood.[19]


(_b_) _Fixation of Precursory Sexual Aims_