fetishism

Noun

fetishism (countable and uncountable, plural fetishisms)

1. The belief that natural objects have supernatural powers, or that something created by people has power over people.
   • As for ethics, they are a product of the fetishism of class society and will vanish with it. The proletariat has no need of ethics, and the norms of behaviour that it creates in its own interest are technical in character.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume III: The Breakdown, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozkład (in...
2. A form of paraphilia where the object of attraction is an inanimate object or a part of a person's body.
   • That's cross-dressing to you and me and, according to Blanchard and the APA, there are two types – fetishism and autogynephilia.2012 December 9, Paris Lees, “Transgender people get a status update”, in The Guardian
3. An irrational, obsessive belief in the power of some object or action.