Fantasies & Fetishes

Snap happy: photographers at one of a growing number of Erotica shows swarm around a performer

Naughty but ever so nice

The erotica industry is booming. John Walsh considers our obsession with spicing up our sex lives
From Love and Sex - a free glossy magazine with the print edition.

Inside Fantasies & Fetishes

It's a very nice house in the country (but not for an orgy)

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Jerome Taylor: Wealthy guests sipped champagne, but at midnight everything suddenly changed

It is usual, in discussions of erotica and obscenity, to talk about art and pornography as if they were opposites. In fact, argues Tom Lubbock, the whole purpose of much great art is to cause sexual arousal

My strange encounter with the world of tantric sex

Saturday, 20 September 2008

My husband Phil and I are only recently married, so we're still in the intense stage of our relationship. But when I heard about Diamond Light tantric sex workshop, which claims to transform intimacy, I admit I was intrigued.

The facts of life: fantasies & fetishes

Saturday, 20 September 2008

It was the French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857-1911) who coined the term "sexual fetishism". He meant it to describe individuals with sexual interests in non-human objects such as clothing.

Is the law tying itself in knots

Saturday, 20 September 2008

Photographer Ben Westwood has always been fascinated by bondage. But a new law could see many of his images banned and him behind bars. He makes the case for his defence

Fantasy scene: Luis Bunuel's 'Belle de Jour'

Saturday, 20 September 2008

A woman's masochistic fantasies, created by men

The art of love: Henry Fuseli

Saturday, 20 September 2008

Where sex and fear meet

Sleeping around: Fulfilling a fantasy

Saturday, 20 September 2008

'At the sex party, naked couples writhed on beds'

Sex doctor: First, choose your fantasy

Saturday, 20 September 2008

In fantasy land, there are no rules. No-one can accuse us of being right or wrong, nice or nasty, because (thank God) no-one has yet invented a device to read minds. Most of the time, fantasies revolve around things we'd never want to try in reality. But their effect on our libido is immense, and they're the cheapest, most effective sex aid around. Here's a rundown on our most common themes.

Questionnaire: What do your fantasies mean?

Saturday, 20 September 2008

Analysis of fantasies, and the closely related world of dreams, has long been the backbone of the talking therapies. Freud famously remarked that when two people make love there are four people present the two doing it and the two they are thinking about. Others have criticised Freud for having a limited grasp of maths. Jung, that other giant of psychoanalysis, built an elaborate philosophy of dreaming around a construct he called the archetype. Although modern psychologists often dismiss night dreams as (a) only 4 per cent about sex and (b) mainly full of the day's mental junk, pioneering researchers into daytime dreaming people like Nancy Friday and Shere Hite - have revealed the amazing richness and filthiness of our sexual fantasies. This quiz asks which of four broad categories of fantasy you fall into.

More fantasies & fetishes: