PICTURES: 15 Most Shocking Sexual Fetishes

By: Aina Hunter
Topics: News ,; Sex and Relationships

(iStockphoto)

(CBS) You've heard of foot fetishes, leather fetishes, handcuffs.

But we dug around a bit and found some fetishes so strange that it's hard to believe they actually exist.

But they do.

PICTURES : 15 Most Shocking Sexual Fetishes

But what distinguishes a fetish from say, a preference or a turn-on?

Dr. Ian Kerner, a New York sex therapist and frequent contributor to the CBS News's "The Early Show," says fetishes are only a problem if the person experiencing them reports distress.

Yet few people report distress. Kerner says that could be because many people with fetishes are comfortable with them. They may also be under-reported due to embarrassment.

Yet there is a battle waging within the psychological community as to whether a fetish is something that can be healthily integrated into a person's life, or whether a fetish is, by nature, psychologically debilitating.

Dr. Barry McCarthy, a therapist in Washington, D.C., says that the argument against fetishes is that they "inhibit a person's sexual desire for intimate, interactive sex," because a fetish is a "narrow, controlling thing in terms of sexual response."

PICTURES : 15 Most Shocking Sexual Fetishes

Still, both camps agree that there are very real cases in which a fetish poses a problem. There are basically three camps of approach to treatment, Kerner says.

1) Psychoanalysis, in which the therapist attempts to trace the fetish to a childhood trauma or unresolved parental issues.

2) Cognitive behavioral therapy, where the therapist works with the patient as he/she navigates his/her life, using behavior reinforcement tools to break the fetish.

3) Drug therapy to reduce arousal and bring the fetish under control.

16 Photos

15 Strangest Sex Fetishes: Do You Have One?

Add a Comment


by davidwr_cbs January 19, 2012 4:16 PM EST: If your fetish really bothers you, then you have a right to get treatment just like any other bothersome condition.

If your fetish is incompatible with your society, religion, peer pressure, etc. then you may decide you value conforming to your society, religion, peer group, etc. more than keeping your fetish. If you make this choice, and you can't give up your fetish practices by yourself, then you have a right to seek treatment.

In either case, you may find treatment ineffective. In this case, you will have to live with it. If living with it is too stressful, you have a right to seek help to deal with the fact that you have a part of your life you don't want to keep that you can't change.

Ultimately though, unless your fetish practices hurt others or society as a whole in a major way or hurt you to the point that your life for well-being is in serious danger, you are the one that gets to make the call to embrace or ditch your fetish. With the possible exception of people deciding "we don't want to be friends with you" or "we don't want you in our private religious organization," others should have no say-so in the matter.

For example, if you have a fetish for saliva and have a willing partner who shares her saliva with you, that's fine. But if you start forcibly french-kissing unwilling people, that's assault and you've just surrendered your right to manage your fetish.; Reply to this comment