Essay Questions

Why, according to the text, wouldn’t all individuals who have sex with animals or children be said to be insane?

Freud explains, “the sexual abuse of children is found with uncanny frequency among school teachers and child attendants, simply because they have the best opportunity for it. The insane merely exhibit any such aberration to an intensified degree; or, what is particularly significant, it may become exclusive and replace normal sexual satisfaction entirely.” Accordingly, insanity is not the only sole factor that would influence individuals to engage in acts such as mating with animals and children. Instabilities of the sexual instincts can occur in sane individuals in the same way as it occurs in the insane people. Moreover, sane people can resort to abusing children sexually because they have an opportunity to mollify their sexual desires due to the helplessness of children. Cowardice encourages others to seek sexual gratification in animals. Such sane people consider the animal and young children to be viable options for their sexual objects.

Why are other body parts material during intimacy?

Freud elucidates, “The extension of sexual interest to other regions of the body, with all its variations, offers us nothing that is new in principle; it adds nothing to our knowledge of the sexual instinct, which merely proclaims its intention in this way of getting possession of the sexual object in every possible direction.” Intimacy is not restricted to the genitals only. Examples of body parts which amplify sexual excitement include ‘the mouth and anus.' Involvement of other regions of the body contributes to wholesome sexual excitement.

Deconstruct the implications of fetishism.

Freud elucidates, “What is substituted for the sexual object is some part of the body (such as the foot or hair) which is in general very inappropriate for sexual purposes, or some inanimate object which bears an assignable relation to the person whom it replaces and preferably to that person's sexuality (e.g. a piece of clothing or underlinen).” Fetishism results in obsession with another object; the object facilitates sexual satisfaction in the obsessed individual. Fetish interaction is weird because it results in individuals gratifying their sexual desires using nonconventional sexual objects. Fetishization is a pathological situation that removes individuals from the ordinary sexual aim that entails human genitals' involvement. Early childhood impressions, sexual experiences, can be contributory to the fetishization of some objects. Fetishized objects take the place of human beings in the mollification of sexual urges.