How do sexual kinks/fetishes develop?
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There are a number of disparate views on this, as evident in the comments already.
I think Freud’s take on it was in regards to *pleasure* and *symbolism.* Wherein any pleasure we recieve, be it comfort, familial, from children, from flavours, smells etc… is inherently linked with any sexual pleasure (an evolution of basic pleasure in general as we mature), and as such the overlap in the mind creates intense symbology.
I would take it a step further based on modern neuroscience. While philosophically many have argued that everything is defined by its opposite. I would also go as far to say that is true in our brains. Love and hate. Pain and pleasure. Hard and soft. Hot and cold. I postulate that each of these singular concepts are a single ‘pattern’ in the brain, and the opposite is literally the the exact same pattern, but activated differently. Imagine the love/hate circuit. A number of neurons and synapses connected in a very specific way. Well perhaps we experience love when it gets a ‘positive’ signal and hate when it gets a ‘negative’ signal. This explains so much peculiar human phenomenon imo. How we can hurt those we love the most, and find comfort in the least universally comforting things. Because all it takes is a little bit of ‘noise’ in the circuit to turn it into its opposite for all intents and purposes.
Thus, they develop in the same way that anything develops, natural selection, competition, fitness etc.
Even if they are quirks of random noise, apparently there isnt a strong ‘fitness’ failure that comes with it. It could even be that the ability to fetishise something otherwise dangerous/damaging is considerably more ‘fit’ in terms of survival than otherwise. As such fetishisation could be on the rise not just because of its social stigma changing, but because it’s a skillset that makes us even *more* adapatable and able to cope with modern challenges.
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