212 TABOO AND GENETICS 



chological literature, this focussing of the 

 emotion upon some particular characteristic is 

 termed fetishism, and the stimulus which become 

 capable of arousing the conditioned emotional 

 response is called an erotic fetish. In extreme 

 cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions can only 

 be aroused in the presence of the particular 

 fetish involved. Krafft-Ebing (6) and other 

 psychopathologists describe very abnormal cases 

 of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate 

 object becomes entirely dissociated from the 

 person with whom it was originally connected, 

 so that it serves exclusively as a love object 

 in itself, and prevents a normal emotional 

 reaction to members of the opposite sex. 



The development of romantic love has 

 depended to a great extent upon the establish- 

 ment of a wide range of stimuli capable of 

 arousing the erotic impulses. As Finck has 

 pointed out, this romantic sentiment is in- 

 separable from the ideals of personal beauty. (3). 

 As criteria of beauty he lists such characteristics 

 as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full and 

 red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have 

 come to be considered standards of loveliness 

 because the erotic emotion has been conditioned 

 to respond to their stimulation. Literature 

 is full of references to such marks of beauty in 

 its characters (Jane Eyre is almost the only well- 

 known book with a plain heroine), and is there- 



