Male Fetishism

While current studies of perversion focus on spectacular symptoms and neglect subjectivity, Freud and Lacan study perversion as a possible organization of subjectivity. Male fetishism illustrates the function of symbolic castration in subject-formation: when it is integrated, the subject structure will be normal; when it is kept at a distance by continuous anticipation, the result is the constitution of a fetish. The fetish inherits the value of the phallus, and functions like a metonymic object, like a veil that protects the subject from anxiety. Fetishists, who lack the paternal metaphor, are characterized by a splitting of the ego. Consequently, treatment should focus on structural understanding of the fetishistic subject, not at superficial behavior change.