Conditioning arousal
 

My question is this, do you believe that arousal is such a primal function that it cannot be conditioned. For example, if someone were to place a certain object in their view whenever they became aroused, would they eventually associate arousal with that object itself. If anybody would like to test this claim - a fun experiment if i've ever heard of one - do post.

Umm.. this is the very source of fetishism...

Fetishes are developed by the introduction of a concept (situation, object, language) in association with sexual pleasure. After the introduction, pleasure is continued with thoughts trained on the concept. After repetition, the actual concept begins to trigger arousal.

An example: A girl dressed in rubber rain gear runs off to school in the morning. Her mother catcher her skipping school, drags her home, bends her over the bed and begins spanking her. The spanking causes incidental contact with her clit and eventually she orgasms from this punishment. Afterwards, this traumatic event is embedded in her mind. She then masturbates, remembering the pleasure of her orgasm, along with the spanking and other things about the situation, like the sound her rubber rain gear made. She starts to use this imagery to get herself aroused and climax. With enough repetition, she will begin to crave spanking to compliment her sexual pleasure and the thought/sight of rubber clothes will also arouse her.

That is how a fetish is developed. It's called classical conditioning.

That was all quite fascinating. Thanks.