The psychopathology of fetishism and transvestism

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Abstract
This early work of Storr’s has stood the test of time remarkably well. Indeed, its concerns are as relevant now as they were over 30 years ago. For instance, Storr’s intention of showing that the teleological viewpoint can add something to the conventional psychoanalytic one, and his criticisms of Freud’s interpretation of the Medusa mythologem, are directly relevant to the project of a book such as this. Then there is Storr’s use of a phrase like ‘subjective masculinity’ (to depict what it is that some perverts and fetishists lack). This is anticipatory of the approach of Robert Stoller, who argued that gender identity, looked at from a psychoanalytic standpoint, is an internal matter, not a behavioural one. The third theme that I would like to highlight concerns the way Storr conceptualizes the interplay of masculine and feminine, male and female factors in psychopathology. On the 256personal-historical level he is referring to the relationship with the parents, as individuals and as a couple. On a more impersonal, archetypal level, he is touching on something of great complexity and importance: the struggle to wrest phallic power from the Great Mother and the unforeseen problems for the individual when that is attempted by means of identification. Finally, Storr’s reflections on what Western societies demand of men and how that affects their gendered self-conception show that, in this area at least, not a lot has changed since 1957. A.S.

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