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Foot Fetishism - Foot Fetishism Symptom, Cause, Treatment
Fetishism is a problem in which a person has sexual urges associated with non-living objects. The person becomes sexually aroused by wearing or touching the object. Foot fetishism is a pronounced sexual interest in the lower limb or anything that covers portions of them. The allure normally attributed to erogenous zones is literally translocated downward and the fetishist response to the foot is the same as a conventional person's arousal at seeing genitals. Freud considered foot binding as a form of fetishism. Moderate to high level fetishism would be classified as a type of paraphilia.
Symptoms of Foot Fetishim
A foot fetishist can be sexually aroused by viewing, handling, licking , tickling , sniffing or kissing the feet and toes of another person, or by having another person doing the same to their own feet. Some also enjoy being "trampled", which is to say, being walked upon. Some foot fetishists have their genitals manipulated by their partner's feet to the point of orgasm or ejaculation. The symptoms are includes
- Repeatedly for a period of at least six months, the patient has recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges or behaviors involving nonliving objects (such as female undergarments and shoes).
- The fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors cause significant distress or impair social, occupational or personal functioning.
- The fetish objects are not articles of clothing used in cross-dressing as in transvestite fetishism and are not designed for tactile genital stimulation such as a vibrator.
Causes of Foot Fetishim
Most men who practice cross-dressing are basically heterosexual in their orientation. Some, however, have occasional sexual encounters with other men. The cause of fetishistic behavior as a pattern of sexual gratification cannot be explained easily. A foot fetishist can be male or female (although males account for over 70%), and can have an interest in the feet of either sex, albeit usually parallel to their sexual orientation. Other fetishes such as tickling or bondage often accompany foot attraction. fetishism develops from early childhood experiences, in which an object was associated with a particularly powerful form of sexual arousal or gratification.
Treatment of Foot Fetishim
Treatment approaches have included traditional psychoanalysis, hypnosis, and behavior therapy techniques.
- Antiandrogens that drastically lower testosterone levels temporarily have been used in conjunction with these forms of treatment.
- The drug lowers the sex drive in males and reduces the frequency of mental imagery of sexually arousing scenes.
- The foot fetish may replace sexual activity with a partner or may be integrated into sexual activity with a willing partner.
- cognitive-behavioral models involves using negative stimuli to reduce or eliminate a behavior. Covert sensitization entails the patient relaxing, visualizing scenes of deviant behavior followed by a negative event such as getting his penis stuck in the zipper of his pants.
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