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FETISHISM (1927) -EDITOR'S NOTE

( 1927) EDITORISCHE VORBEMER.K UNG

FETISCHISMU'S

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(a) 1927 1927 1928 1931 1948 (b)

GERMAN EDITIONs:

Almanach 1928, 17-24. lnJ. Z· Psychoanal., 13 (4), 373-8. G.S., 11, 395--401. Sexualthtorie und Traumlehre, 220-7. G.W., 14, 311-17.

De11tsche A11sgaben: 1927 Almttnach 1918, 17-24. 1927 Int. Z. Psychoanal., Dd. 13 (4), 373- 8. 1928 G. S., Bd. 11, 395-401. 1931 StXNaltheorie und Traumlehre, 220-7. 1948 G. W., Bd. 14,311-7.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

'Fetishism' 1928 Int. J. Psyclw-Anal., 9 (2), 161-fi. (Tr. Joan Riviere.) 1950 C.P., 5, 198- 204. (Revised reprint of above.) The present translation is a modified version of the one . published in 1950. This paper was finished at the end of the first week of August, 1927 Qones, 1957, 146), and was published almost simultaneously the same autumn in the Almanach 1928 and in the last issue of the Zeitschrifl for 1927. In his earliest discussion of fetishism, in the Three Essays (1905d), Standard Ed., 7, 153-5, Freud wrote that 'no other variation of the sexual instinct that borders on the pathological can lay so much claim to our interest as this one', and he in fact returned many times to a consideration ofit. In this first account he did not go much further than maintaining that 'the choice of a fetish is an after-effect of some sexual impression, received as a rule in early childhood', and he left it at that in some passing comments on foot-fetishism in his study on Gradiva (l907a) a year or two later (ibid., 9, 46-7). His next approach to the subject seems to have been in an unpublished paper 'On the Genesis of Fetishism', read to the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society on February 24, 1909 (Jones, 1955, 332); but we have unluckily not been given access to the Society's Minutes. At that time he was on the point of preparing the 'Rat Man' H9

Dieser Aufsatz wurde am Ende der ersten Augustwodte 1927 abgeschlossen {jones, 1962 b, 167) und erscbien im Herbst des gleidten Jahres fast gleidtzeitig im .Aimanach 1928 und im letzten Heft 1927 der lnternationalen Ztit-

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In seiner frUhestcn Erortcrung des Fetischismus in den Drei Abhandhmgen (1905 d), St11dienausgabe, Bd. 5, S. 63- 5, sdtrieb Freud: •Keine andere ans ·Pathologiscbe streifende Variation des Sexualtriebes hat so viel Ansprudt lluf unser Interesse •.•« Und in der Tat hat er sicb mehrfadt damit auseinandergesetzt. In jener ersten Erorterung geht er nocb kaum iiber die Feststellung hinaus: •In der Auswahl des Fetisdt zeigt sidt ... der fortwirkende EinfluB cines zumeist in fruher Kindhcit cmpfangenen sexucllen Eindruckes .. ,«; dabei belieB er es aucb, als er in seiner wenig spatcr verfaBten Gradiva-Studie (1907 a) kurz das Thema des Fu6fctiscbismus streifte (Studienausgabe, Bd.tO, S. H-6). Die nacbste Diskussion des Themas findet sicb in einem am 24. Februar 1909 vor der Wiener Psydtoanalytisdten Vereinigung gehaltenen Vortrag •Zur Genese des Fetiscbismus< (Jones, 1962a, 351). Freud war datrial~ gerade im Begriff, die Analyse des •Rattenmannesc (1909 d) fur den Druck vorzubereiten, und dort erwahnt er einen neuen Gesicbtspunkt - namlich den

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l· 150

FETISHISM

analysis (1909d) for publication, and in it he mentioned a fresh point-the connection of fetishism with pleasure in smell (ibid., 10, 247)-which he enlarged upon in a footnote added to the Three Essays in its second edition ofl910 (ibid., 7, 155). But soon afterwards a new and more important connection must have occurred to him, for this same added footnote contained the first assertion that the fetish stands for the missing penis of the woman, which had figured prominently among the infantile sexual theories to which he had recently devoted a paper (1908c), ibid., 9, 215- 18. This new explanation of the fetish was also mentioned (as Freud remarks on p. 153n. below) in his study on Leonardo (1910c), ibid., 11, 96, published very soon after the Three Essays footnote. The special question of the origin of foot-fetishism (referred to in the present paper, p. 155 below) attracted Freud's attention a few years later. On March 11, 1914, he read another paper to the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society, on 'A Case of Foot-Fetishism'. This too remains unpublished, but this time we fortunately have a summary of it from Ernest Jones (1955, 342-3). The explanation of the choice of the foot as ·a fetishapproach to the woman's genitals from below-, which was arrived at there, was published in a further addition to the same footnote of the Three Essays in its third edition of 1915. Another similar case history was reported very briefly by Freud in Lecture XXII of his Introduct()ry Lectures (1916-17). But . though the present paper is of importance as bringing together and enlarging on Freud's earlier views on fetishism, its major interest lies in a very different direction-namely, in a fresh rnetapsychological development which it introduces. For several years past Freud had been using the concept of 'disavowal' (' Verleugnung' ) especially in relation to children's reactions to the observation of the anatomical distinction between the sexes. 1 And in the present paper, basing himself on fresh clinical observations, he puts forward reasons for supposing that this 'disavowal' necessarily implies a split in the subject's ego. At the end of his life Freud took ~p this question again and widened its scope: in an unfinished and posthumously 1

See, for instance, the paper dealing explicitly with that subject (1925j) as well as the earlier ones on 'The Infantile Genital Organiza· tion' (1923e), 'The Economic Problem of Masochism' (1924c) and 'The Loss of Reality in Neurosis and Psychosis' (1924e).

Zusammenhang des Fctiscbismus mit der Riedtlust (Studienausgabe, Bd. 1, S. 102) -, uber den er sich in einer den Drei Abhandlungen anlaBiich der z~ei­ ten Auflage 1910 hinzugefiigten Fufinote naher ausla6t (Studienausgabe, Bd. 5, S. 65, Anm. 2). Bald darauf mu6 ihm eine weitere, nodt widuigere Verbindung aufgegangen sein, denn die gleiche nachgetragene Anmerkung enthalt zum erstenmal die Behauptung, der Fetisch ersetze den vermi6ten Penis des Weibes, der in den infantilen Sexualtheorien eine so groBe Rolle spielt; diesen Theorien hatte er kurz zuvor eine Arbeit gewidmet (1908 vgl. StNditnausgabt, Bd. 5, S. 176-8. Diese neue ErkHirung des Fetisches wird (wie Freud unten, S. 384, Anm. 1, erwahnt) auch in der Studie uber Leonardo (1910c, Studienau!gabe, Bd. 10, S. 122), angefiihrt, die schr bald nadt der Einfiigung )_en:!' FuBn_ote in die Drei Abhandlungtn hcrauskam.

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Die spezielle Fragc des Ursprungs des FuBfetischismus (auf die in der vor- · liegendcn Arbeit, S. 386, unten, Bezug gcnommcn wird) fcsschc Freuds Aufmerksamkeit einige Jahre spatcr. Am It. Mar7. 191-4 hielt cr, wicderum vor dcr Wiener PsydtOanalytisdlen Vereinigung, einen Vortrag, betitclt •Ein Fall von FuBfetischismus