Introduction

Abstract

0. What import can the presentation of research carried out into fetishism have? To answer this question we must stop and look around us. We are literally surrounded by fetishes, that is to say, by objects endowed with qualities pertaining to human Relationships. Despite their familiar appearance, it is precisely by virtue of these qualities that they take on a different aura. In this process, lifeless things come to life and, at the same time, they beguile and fascinate people. Any discussion of these mechanisms necessitates a reflection on cognitive processes, focusing attention not only on the Relations between the self and others or the self and the world, but also on the Relation of the self with the self. It is also a means to keep one’s critical awareness alive when entering places that are unRelated to the real world and are outside of time: those Platonic caves where fiction loses its frame and where the boundaries between the real and virtual world collide. Shopping centers—places where the consumer is free to look at fetish commodities without necessarily having to buy them—are an example of this.