Fetishism

Mountian, Ilana

Abstract

Fetishism is an important notion for human sciences and medical sciences. It has been used in anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, health disciplines and has become widespread in lay discourses. Fetishism has been used for the analysis of certain forms of social relations, generally connoting a form of enchantment and consequent attachment to an ‘object’. Fetish was first used in the colonial context, derived from the Portuguese feitiço, meaning magical art or witchcraft.

In anthropology, fetishism has been used for particularly in relation to religions, in sociology Marx’s writings of commodity fetishism, and Freud has developed fetishism in psychoanalysis for the study of particular forms of sexual attachment. Modern psychiatry incorporated this notion to describe a form of mental illness called fetishism.

• Other Type: Reference Work Contribution
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2025
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 723-727
• Series Title: Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology
• ISBN: 9781461455820
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_625
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/14284861