What Causes Spanking Fetishes? A Testable Model

What Causes Spanking Fetishes? A Testable Model is an article by Chris Dugan in which he presents his own hypothesis on the question. It was originally published in July 1996 in three parts as "Origins of Spanking Fetish" on the newsgroups alt.sex.spanking and soc.sexuality.spanking.

Summary

Dugan is convinced that some (but not all) spanking fetishes, are eroticizations of childhood traumas. His hypothesis, if correct, would account both for why some spanked children develop fetishes which appear to be eroticizations of their parents' physical punishments, and for why the majority of spanked children do not become spanking fetishists.

Dugan's theory emphasizes trauma and therefore has difficulties explaining why there are many spanking fetishists who have not been subjected to any spanking at all in their childhood. To account for these, Dugan suggests other influencing factors.