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agalmatophilia
May. 16th, 2017 08:08 amagalmatophilia - n., sexual attraction to a statue.
Or mannequin, doll, or similar figure for a human. Real cases (as opposed to pornographic fantasies) have only rarely been documented, including supposedly one Clisyphus in the 3rd century BCE broke into a temple of Aphrodite and attempted to have sex with the goddess's statue (which would have been a nude ivory, painted to have lifelike features, and then clothed). The clinical psychologists who cover this at all mostly try to distinguish this from Pygmalionism, as while Pygmalion did (in the myth) fall in love with a statue, that condition is understood more to be falling in love with one's own creation. Agalmatophilia was coined from Greek roots, as you might expect: agalma, statue, + -philia, love.
---L.
Or mannequin, doll, or similar figure for a human. Real cases (as opposed to pornographic fantasies) have only rarely been documented, including supposedly one Clisyphus in the 3rd century BCE broke into a temple of Aphrodite and attempted to have sex with the goddess's statue (which would have been a nude ivory, painted to have lifelike features, and then clothed). The clinical psychologists who cover this at all mostly try to distinguish this from Pygmalionism, as while Pygmalion did (in the myth) fall in love with a statue, that condition is understood more to be falling in love with one's own creation. Agalmatophilia was coined from Greek roots, as you might expect: agalma, statue, + -philia, love.
---L.
