The Deeper Meaning of Why we Like This

[Random_Azn_Guy]

I'm not a psychology major but I've thought of why I like tickling in a scientific perspective.

I think that it was mentioned somewhere that in biology, ticklish sensations might have been evolutionary in respect to the fact that many insects (some of which may be poisonous) may elicit this response. It actually would seve as an instinct against getting stung or bitten so to speak and I thought that this made a lot of sense.

Also, I know this has probably been raised before, but many psychologists have stated that pleasures from our adulthood may stem from childhood experiences. I assume that many of us has had some experience when we were young and it was pleasurable for us. My theory is that during puberty and the time when sexuality arises, many of us want to associate and get close to the opposite sex. Tickling, a safe way of doing so, might have been a pleasurable and harmless way of doing so, and because it poses as something pleasurable, it actually turns into a healthy obsession psychologically.

Just my 2 cents. Oh and it's 5 am here so I'm randomly posting and excuse the grammatical//spelling mistakes.

 

[Musicroxmysox]

Hmmm....

I'm an ed major so I learn a lot about psych. I think that like you said it does relate back to childhood somehow. I really don't have any idea, but I would be interested in knowing why we find it much more appealing than the average person too.

 

[cloudgazer2k]

Buttered...shark...fins? wow...i thought i was weird...

a good post, Random. i've seen that many of the members who regularly post tell a tale of their tickling youth and the origins of why they enjoy tickling so much. for most of us, tickling has been that one thing that we enjoy getting or recieving just for fun. then for some, it's a sexual thing, regardless of what some headshrinker thinks.

i know my love for tickling stems from my boyhood, when i was tied up and tickled by the cute sisters that lived a few blocks from me. and when i got my revenge, i targeted their feet. ever since then, bondage, feet and tickling went hand in hand for me...it was as if those sisters flipped a switch and i knew exactly what it was i enjoyed.

 

[the wiz]

I'm not a psychology major but I've thought of why I like tickling in a scientific perspective.

I think that it was mentioned somewhere that in biology, ticklish sensations might have been evolutionary in respect to the fact that many insects (some of which may be poisonous) may elicit this response. It actually would seve as an instinct against getting stung or bitten so to speak and I thought that this made a lot of sense.

Also, I know this has probably been raised before, but many psychologists have stated that pleasures from our adulthood may stem from childhood experiences. I assume that many of us has had some experience when we were young and it was pleasurable for us. My theory is that during puberty and the time when sexuality arises, many of us want to associate and get close to the opposite sex. Tickling, a safe way of doing so, might have been a pleasurable and harmless way of doing so, and because it poses as something pleasurable, it actually turns into a healthy obsession psychologically.

Just my 2 cents. Oh and it's 5 am here so I'm randomly posting and excuse the grammatical//spelling mistakes.

HuH????????????????

 

[Fire_Sprite]

I don't think tickling is me reliving my childhood, because I've liked it since I was three. Its possible some experience in those first three years shaped my tickling fetish for the rest of my life, but I just assume its random. Some people like balloons, some people like clowns, some like amputees. Its a roll of the dice which fetish you get and I doubt there's any deeper meaning to it.

 

[tklmaestro]

Here's my take on this kiddies. I think your childhood has everything to do with your desire for tickling or being against tickling. Some of us like myself have gained positive input from tickling, either tickling someone at an early age or wishing to be tickled and being denied the experience. Tickling equates to love. Others like my wife for example were tickled at an early age constantly by family members to the point of discomfort. In responce she has turned away from any tickling and is no longer ticklish. Tickling equates with pain. Everything you ever needed to know or experience, you learned at an early age.

 

[milagros317]

If my interest in tickling is based on childhood experience, then it must have been very early experience. My earliest memories, at age four, are of wanting to tickle and be tickled by the little girl next door, aged five.

 

[daredevilticklr]

I don't have time to read the other replies so I apologize if this has already been said. But I read something recently where tickling was compared to animals when they play. I don't remember much of it but it was something about how the animal on the bottom, the one who's "losing" the play-fight looks like it's laughing. And that has something to do with evolution and domination and submissiveness and bonding, and I really don't remember enough of the article to sound like I know what I'm talking about, so I give up.

 

[BigJim]

Where my original foot fetish came from I have no idea, but it was rooted in me by the age of five or six. I recognise that now, even though then there was obviously no hormonal sexuality to it. Just something that was tangibly there, but indefinable.

The tickling I suspect came out of my desire to be the top in reverse to a lot of my earlier life. Just as in a huge body builder or powerful city high-flier will enjoy being dominated by a mistress, so my bullied and mostly cowed self evolved into a dom in adulthood. As tickling and foot fetishes are so closely related, that was the one I learned to express myself through.

 

[EmeraldRose]

Well, young children have been known to masturbate, not because they comprehend the implications of their actions, but because it feels good. Perhaps tickling could be a child form of sex? Tickling induces laughter, which is turn produces feel-good chemicals and a bond to the other person/people involved: similar to sex, just on a platonic scale. This same thinking could also explain why tickling is a turn-on for some people.

As for my own experience, I had very limited physical contact with my parents when I was younger; still do, in fact. Tickling fascinated me and I would have fantasies about being tickled, though generally by inanimate things. (The scene in The Sword in the Stone where fish-form Merlin and Arthur swim through a clump of reeds that tickle them as they go probably started that.) It became a way to help myself sleep and has evolved from there. (I was a weird little kid, lol!)

 

[kilitiinko1]

Welcome to the TMF,Emerald Rose! Congratulations on your first post!

While I think environmental influences in our childhood can directly impact us and whether or not we enjoy tickling,I truly believe that many of us are hard-wired as such from birth. Although I do not recall many instances of actually being tickled at a young age,I do remember fantasizing about being bound and tickled at the age of four.Obvoiusly,these have stayed with me all my life.

As to why we like tickling,I think there are many reasons.Tickling is very tactile and intimate,and I think we all desire a loving,personal touch now and then.Also,it is very playful and fun for many.We all want to have fun. Others see tickling from a dominance/submission standpoint.How better to dominate without hurting someone,than by tickling them? Likewise,what better way to submit safely,than by being tickled? I`m sure there are other reasons,such as events early in life,but these are a few that come to mind for me.

 

[PlayfulCarbonara]

I'm not a psychology major but I've thought of why I like tickling in a scientific perspective.

I think that it was mentioned somewhere that in biology, ticklish sensations might have been evolutionary in respect to the fact that many insects (some of which may be poisonous) may elicit this response. It actually would seve as an instinct against getting stung or bitten so to speak and I thought that this made a lot of sense.

Also, I know this has probably been raised before, but many psychologists have stated that pleasures from our adulthood may stem from childhood experiences. I assume that many of us has had some experience when we were young and it was pleasurable for us. My theory is that during puberty and the time when sexuality arises, many of us want to associate and get close to the opposite sex. Tickling, a safe way of doing so, might have been a pleasurable and harmless way of doing so, and because it poses as something pleasurable, it actually turns into a healthy obsession psychologically.

Just my 2 cents. Oh and it's 5 am here so I'm randomly posting and excuse the grammatical//spelling mistakes.

I dunno about all that. I guess if I had to describe it I like being able to make a pretty girl laugh. I spent most of my life building up a sense of humor that could constantly keep people laughing, I just like to get people to do that. Of course, tickling is especially fun cause there is something very flirtatious about it.

I guess when it comes down to it, I would enjoy tickling a girl Im not going out with for the fun of tickling her, if she was tied up. To make her laugh and have a good time in doing so. But if I was going out with a girl I enjoy tickling her when she isnt tied up more than anything. Just laying on the bed or something

 

[Redmage]

Where my original foot fetish came from I have no idea, but it was rooted in me by the age of five or six. I recognise that now, even though then there was obviously no hormonal sexuality to it. Just something that was tangibly there, but indefinable.

I had similar early feelings, along about age 6 or 7. I had no idea what I could do with a woman once she was tied up, but I knew I liked seeing them that way. No, I wasn't looking at bondage porn at that age. I saw lots of that tied-up ladies on TV and in movies.

For me tickling is one facet of my general sadistic bent. That too seemed to be forming about that time. It's all a part of the same thing, for me, from spankings to forced orgasms to tickling.

 

[Ace Riley]

Well, young children have been known to masturbate, not because they comprehend the implications of their actions, but because it feels good. Perhaps tickling could be a child form of sex? Tickling induces laughter, which is turn produces feel-good chemicals and a bond to the other person/people involved: similar to sex, just on a platonic scale. This same thinking could also explain why tickling is a turn-on for some people.

This is pretty much my experience with it, I share the same theory. When I was younger, we had a pretty tight group of friends, alot of the girls were always targets to our tickle play. It was a common thing during the day to give quick tickles at the park or in the pool since I was 7.

We were quite the giggle pack... (Explains the kind of shit we did in our teens, jeez...)

At around 12 tho, it became a little more personal. Even though it always illicited reaction, like you said, it wasn't always something noticible. In fact it may only have been me and these two other girls who had it grow into a fetish because it became less and less common with the other guys.

But when this girl would always come over during days we'de skip class, she would always bug me while reading a book or playing a video game. I always teased her "You keep teasing me, I swear to you I will tickle you till you cry."

...good lord, how she teased.

First Base, Second Base, Third Base? I wasn't even in the ballpark. I was under the bleachers making out with the pitcher. >)

...sigh, we're older now. Despite the reactions I didn't identify it as a fetish until I was out of school. I see it now that we both had the fetish, but I lost contact with her. We were kids, I assumed it was some sort of pre-teen foreplay back then, I didn't identify it as anything particularly specific.

I wonder if she still remembers...we're both 24 now...

...yikes I went off on a tangent didn't I?

 

[Tickler Bart]

I have no idea where my passion for tickling & bare soles came from.
All I know is that when I was 5 years old I was watching a Popeye cartoon. It's the one where Olive Oyle is dangling by her foot from a gurter of a building under construction. Bluto peeled back the sole of her shoe & tickled her bare sole.
I saw that & IMMEDIATELY was drawn to it. It was NOT funny to me. It was . . . NICE. I was smiling & got VERY excited. As if I found a treasure.
From that moment on a watched EVERY Popeye cartoon patienly waiting for another foot tickle scene to come on. The next one I remember seeing was when Popeye was in an operating room & one of the doctors tickled his bare feet. I yelled at the TV, "NOOO. Not HIM!"
But this feeling of satisfaction, excitement, & euphoria came over me that first time. I didn't understand it, but I just accepted it.
I belive that we are pre-disposed to certain things carried over from a previous life. (IF you believe in reincarnation, which, to ME, seems very logical.)
I do not wish to get into a philiosophical debate over reincanation, the after-life, etc. It's just a theory of mine that I happen to agree with, mainly because it fits my thought process.

 

[PiedPiper]

Tickling is analogous to sex, itself. That's the deal.

--- Check it out. With sex, you apply some sort of physical ministrations to a "given" body part,... and elicit a strong reaction. Same with tickling, right? Tickling is symbolic sex. Plus, it contains dual provisions for the "passive-aggressive" .......or "dominant-submissive" ... components which frequently turn up in many individuals to a greater or lesser extent. This symbology is especially acute in the case of foot fetishists, as the symbology associated with the foot approaches near-biblical proportions. In any event, I see tickling as something of an analog to actual sex,.... the resultant laughter and squirming as an analog to orgasm,... and the "lee-ler" standoff as a mild reflection of gender-based "roles" (whether "reversed" or not) that could be as old as civilization. How one stumbles onto a liking or receptivity for this sort of activity is a different matter. The appeal is what I'm talking about.

 

[Ace Riley]

Tickling had little to do with sex, when I was younger. It was closer to sadism, it was closer to teasing. It was closer to masochism.

It was more like a challenge. Like when kids hold their breath to see who gives up and takes a breath first...

...or when playing the staring game...

It was a power exchange, and the girls in my youth loved it. They loved seeing us squirm, and in turn make them squirm. It was a game.

In a small way, perhaps, it was sexual. However it never was in that context. It was exploratory, but the experience was individual, not shared.

Like sex is.

Our bodies may have reacted, but it was a personal experience.

As we got older... it became shared. We became "aware" of the other.

That's the difference.

 

[Musicroxmysox]

Another Thought

Well with everyone mentioning cartoons in relation to tickling I thought I would bring up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I remember distinctly watching it when I was younger and thinking gee, I wish I could try that tied up being tickled by feathers thing. So I think the things we see when we are younger can lead to what we wind up being into. But definatly from that time on I was into the whole tickling thing.

 

[tickleshotel]

Tickling for me has always been about having fun and loving Laughter..Alot of the time it would be playing a game,sitting on the grass in a park each person tickling each others feet and seeing who could laugh the loudest or be tickled for the longest time... Also,playing the game Hide And Seek but with the anticipation of once caught,being tickled and the person finding the other had choice of where to tickle
It was in my teens when I realized that tickling had a dual effect on me,laughter and arousal at same time. Tickling is arousing but it isn;t sexual because for me personally I get aroused whether a Male or female is doing the Tickling and I am completely straight..

 

[Ace Riley]

Tickling is arousing but it isn;t sexual because for me personally I get aroused whether a Male or female is doing the Tickling and I am completely straight..

Too fine a line to say we've never crossed. The straight life has it's kinks... hence the term... >)

 

[StuGatz9]

I tried for years to understand exactly what it was about tickling females and hearing their laughter and begging and seeing their bodies squirm that literally aroused me to a point where I would tremble.

I know it started in my pre-pubescent years and I know what started it.

I've just come to accept that it's something to which I'm so addicted that it has almost defined me.

I am a tickle freak. I have to tickle. I have to watch it. I have to hear it. I have to read about it.

It's both a blessing that has given me immense pleasure and a curse, that in the pursuit of it, has destroyed certain components of my life.

Has all this been vague enough? Sorry. It's a long story I may tell in its entirety someday.