us to evoke the emotional response
originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the
affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most
psychological 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
establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic
impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is
inseparable 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 therefore
one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional
reaction to these stimuli.

The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways
than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the
affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the
unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For
instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to
have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly,
the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions
will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own
sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the
influence of another person.[5] Through the everyday associations in the
social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become
modified in almost any mann