Osphresiolagnia
(pronounced aus-free-see-a-lan-gee-ah)
A
paraphilia characterized by recurrent sexually arousing fantasies, sexual
urges, or behaviour involving smells.
Early-mid
twentieth century: A coining in clinical psychiatry the construct being
osphres(is) + lagina. Osphresis was from
the Ancient Greek ὀσφρῆσις (osphrēsis) (sense of smell; olfaction). Lagina was from the Ancient Greek λαγνεία
(lagina) (lust; sexual desire), from λᾰγνός
(lagnos) (lustful; sexually aroused). Osphresiolagnia
thus translated literally as “lust or sexual arousal related to or induced by one’s
sense of smell”. Osphresiolagnia & Osphresiolagnism are nouns and osphresiolagnic
is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is Osphresiolagnias.
The synonym
is olfactophilia (sexual arousal caused by smells or odors, especially from the
human body) and in modern clinical use, that’s seems now the accepted form. Although now rare, in clinical use a
renifleur was paraphiliac who derived sexual pleasure from certain smells. Renifleur was from the French noun renifleur (the feminine renifleuse, the plural renifleurs), the construct being renifler + -eur. The construct of the verb renifler was re- (used in the sense of “to do; to perform the function”) + nifler (to irritate, to annoy); it was from the same Germanic
root as the Italian niffo & niffa (snout) and related to the Low
German Niff (nose, mouth, bill), the Dutch
neb (nose, beak) and the English neb (nose, beak, face). The French suffix -eur was from the Middle French, from the Old French -eor or -or, from the Latin -ātōrem & -tor and a doublet of -ateur. It was used to form masculine agent nouns
from verbs (some of which were used also as adjectives).
Pioneering
Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) never developed his hypothesis
of osphresiolagnia into a fully-developed theory and in his papers it’s
mentioned only as an aspect of the psychoanalytic exploration of human
sexuality, specifically focusing on the role of olfactory stimuli (sense of
smell) in sexual arousal. It was part of
a body of work in which he explored his concept of fetishism and infantile
sexuality. In psychoanalysis, osphresiolagnia
described the condition (“the state” might now be thought a better way of
putting it) where certain smells become associated with sexual pleasure or
arousal and to Freud these naturally were those related to bodily functions,
such as sweat, skin, or other natural odors because he believed different
sensory experiences, including smell, could become a focus of sexual fixation,
particularly if something in early psychosexual development caused this association.
The tie-in with fetishism was that an
obsessive focus on the sense of can form as a way of displacing or substituting
more normative sexual interests. Freud
spoke also of the significance of the senses (including smell) in early
childhood development and linked them to psychosexual stages, where early
experiences with stimuli can influence later adult sexuality and while he didn’t
use the word, he believed a smell associated with some significant childhood experience,
could, even decades later, act as a “trigger”.
Although it’s been in the literature for more than a century, osmophresiolagnia
(also now sometimes called “olfactory stimulation”) seems to have aroused more
clinical and academic interest in the last fifteen years and while the psychological
and physiological responses to certain smells have been well-documented, it was
usually in the context of revulsion and the way this response could influence the
decision-making processes. However,
positive responses can also be influential, thus the renewed interest.
In medicine
and the study of human and animal sexuality, the significance of “olfactory
attraction” has been researched and appears to be well understood. At its most, the idea of olfactory attraction
is that animals (including humans) can be attracted to someone based on scent;
in the patients seen by psychiatrists, they can also be attracted to objects
based on their smell, either because of their inherent quality or by their association
with someone (either someone specific or “anyone”. The best known aspect of the science is the
study of pheromones (in biology A chemical secreted by an animal which acts to affects
the development or behavior of other members of the same species, functioning
often as a means of attracting a member of the opposite sex). Human pheromones have been synthesised and
are available commercially in convenient spray-packs for those who wish to enhance
their desirability with a chemical additive.
More generally, there is also the notion of “fragrance attraction” which
describes the allure another’s smell (either natural or the scent they wear)
exerts and this can manifest in “objective transference” (keeping close during
periods of absence a lover’s article of clothing or inhaling from the bottle of
perfume they wear.
The
opposite of being attracted to a smell is finding one repellent. What is known in the profession technically
as ORS (olfactory reference syndrome) has never been classified as a separate
disorder in either the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM) or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases
(ICD). The DSM-III-R (1987) did mention
ORS in the context of “aversion”, noting “convictions that the person emits a foul odor…are one of
the most common types of delusional disorder, somatic type”, the
idea extended in DSM-IV (1994) which referred to the concept as a type of
delusional disorder, somatic type, although the term “olfactory reference
syndrome” was not mentioned.
In October
2024, it was reported by Greek news services that a court in Thessaloniki (the
capital of the Macedonia region and Greece's second city) in the north of the
country had imposed a suspended one-month prison sentence on a man convicted of
“…disturbing his neighbors by repeatedly sneaking into their properties to
smell their shoes.” According to the AP
(Associated Press), the 28-year-old man was unable to explain his behaviour
although he did tell the court he was “embarrassed by it”, adding that he had “…no intention of
breaking the law or harming anybody…” and his neighbours did testify
he never displayed any signs of aggression during his nocturnal visits to the
shoes, left outside the door to air. The
offences were committed in the village of Sindos, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) west
of Thessaloniki and the police were called only after the man had ignored requests
sent to his family that his conduct stop.
According to the neighbours, there had in the last six months been at
least three prior instances of shoe sniffing.
In addition to the suspended sentence, the defendant was ordered to
attend therapy sessions.
The postman always sniffs twice, Balnagask Circle, Torry, Aberdeen, Scotland, August 2024. Helpfully, the video clip was posted by the Daily Mail and from his grave of a hundred-odd years, old Lord Northcliffe (Alfred Harmsworth, 1865–1922) would be delighted.
Osphresiolagnia
is however not culturally specific and in August 2024, a postman delivering
mail to an address on Balnagask Circle in the Torry area of South Aberdeen,
Scotland was captured on a doorbell camera, pausing to “to sniff girl's shoes”. All appeared normal until the osphresiolagnic
servant of the Royal Mail had put the letters in the slot but then he turned
and, after a grief glance at the shoe rack, bent down and picked up a white
trainer which he sniffed before leaving to resume his round (and possibly his
sniffing). The mother of the girl whose shoes
fell victim to the postman posted the video on social media, tagging the entry: “I would just like
to let everyone know just to watch out for this postman; he sniffed my daughter's
shoes; what an absolute creep.”
The clip came to the attention of the Scottish police which issued a
statement: “We
received a report of a man acting suspiciously in the Balnagask Circle area of
Aberdeen. Enquiries were carried out and
no criminality was established. Suitable advice was given.” It wasn’t made clear what that advice was or
to whom it’s been delivered but presumably the constabulary’s attitude was no
shoe being harmed during this sniffing, all’s well that ends well.
Shoe-sniffing
should not be confused with Podophilia (a paraphilia describing the sexualized
objectification of feet (and sometimes footwear), commonly called foot
fetishism although the correct clinical description is now “foot partialism”). The construct was podo- + -philia.
Podo- (pertaining to a foot or
a foot-like part) was from the Ancient Greek πούς (poús), from the primitive Indo-European pṓds.
It was cognate with the Mycenaean Greek po, the Latin pēs, the
Sanskrit पद् (pad), the Old Armenian ոտն (otn)
& հետ (het), the Gothic fōtus and the Old English fōt (from which Modern English gained “foot”). It was Sigmund Freud who admitted that,
lawfulness aside, as animals, the only truly aberrant sexual behavior in humans
could be said to be its absence (something which the modern asexual movement
re-defines rather than disproves). It
seemed to be in that spirit the DSM-5 (2013) was revised to treat podophila and
many other “harmless” behaviors as “normal” and thus within the purview of the
manual only to the extent of being described, clinical intervention no longer
required. Whether all psychiatrists
agree with the new permissiveness isn’t known but early reports suggest there’s
nothing in the DSM-5-TR (2022) to suggest podophiles will soon again be labeled
as deviants.
Point of vulnerability to osphresiolagnism: Lindsay Lohan taking off her shoes and putting them on the shoe rack. The photo shoot featured Ms Lohan as a nueva embajadora de Allbirds (new Allbirds ambassador), in a promotion for Allbirds (Comfortable, Sustainable Shoes & Apparel) and the shoes are the Tree Flyer in Lux Pink which include “no plastics” in their construction. The photo session may have been shot on a Wednesday.
Shoe sniffing is different and clinicians define it as an instance of “intimacy by proxy” in a similar class to those who steal women’s underwear from their clothes lines; an attempt to in some way be associated with the wearer. This differs from those with an interest in shoes or the garments as objects because they can fulfil their desires (conveniently & lawfully), by buying what they want from a shop. How prevalent are such proclivities isn’t known because, being lawful (and in most cases presumably secret) fetish, unless self-reported, clinicians would never become aware of the activity.
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