The classical
representative of fetichism is the mediaeval knight who carried a
handkerchief, a glove, or any other article of clothing belonging to his
lady, next to his heart, thus believing himself proof against evil
influences. There we see already spiritual love groping for material
objects in order to gain earthly support; not every man is a Dante, not
every man is capable of keeping his soul free from the taint of this
earthly sphere. But even the "plait-cutter," so well known to the reader
of newspapers, the collector of garters, and similar desperadoes,
require a relic, a fetich which they apparently worship. To the same
category belongs the idolatrous cult which some men, especially
artists--but also madmen--practise with female pictures and statues
(more especially with heads). In this case the fundamental feeling of
the love of beauty, which we know as an essential factor of purely
spiritual eroticism, is made to serve sensual purposes. The desired
illusion of spiritual worship is facilitated, and is protected from
self-revelation, owing to the fact that a painted head rouses in the
normal individual no passion, but inspires him with purely spiritual
sentiments.
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