Hello folks,
A number of posters have mentioned the issues that they have with saying the word 'tickle', and how it's almost impossible for them to do so. I did a dot of research on this issue a few years back when I saw it popping up on the forum.
Though you might want to hear why it happens.
The inability to speak the work is a basic case of classic self conditioning.
As a young person, most folks with a clear like for tickling, quickly found that it was something that caused sexual feelings to pop up, once they ran into puberty. Any connection to the topic tended to put them on alert and lead to some form of response. They looked for the slightest mentions in media, look the word up in dictionaries and feel secretly aroused by the fact that it is there and so on.
But the most important fact is that at this point most folks realized that what they liked was not what every one else did, and that others would not treat them all that kindly if they 'found out'. So the lesson of caution was taught, and most folks closet themselves.
Once this chocie has been made the fetishist moves into a state of worry about 'being found out' and become hyper vigilant to keep the like under wraps. And since the very mention of the word often evoked a response they work to avoid it.
The thinking is along this line: "If I say the word, people will look at me and KNOW something is up. I can never draw attention to myself in this way, so I'll never say the word." and they then proceed to do just that.
And they reinforce this message to themselves a lot. And eventully it becomes a subconcious act. And then it solidifies into conditioning. This manifests in a dissonance when they try to say the word. Thier very core says "STOP YOU CAN'T! WE'LL BE SEEN!" and they in truth become unable. They have all the classic signs of a person fighting conditioning, stutter, high pulse, churning insides, flush, eyes look down, embarassment.
Fun to play with if one is a Dom... but I digress.
Basically the person locks up and feels ill at the idea of saying the word. The fear of being discovered has led to a real lockdown on how the person can express the topic. Almost all folks I meet have found another word or phrase that they sub in for 'tickle' or 'tickling'. It ranges from direct replacements like "sensitivity" and "reaction" to non specifics like "The word which must not be spoken" and "That thing". The variety is wide and actully pretty interesting. I think there is a dirct coorolation to how deep the conditioning is based on how far down the spectrum of terms a subject goes, but agan, I digress. There is a paper in there though.
Anyhow, it makes a lot of your lives a little less fun.
Just to show you that it's conditioning do this experiment.
If you have a hard time saying 'tickle' even when alone, say the word 'Kitzel' which is German for tickle. You'll find you have no issue at all saying the word. You have no conditioning against it, as it has no past meaning to you, and steps around the conditioning, which is highly specific to your home language.
Like any conditioning, it can be undone over time, with proper support and positive reinforcement from people one talks with. Seeing the world does not end when one says it, leads to a greater ability to do so. over a few years most of the ill feelings will pass, and the conditioning will be gone.
Hope this informs/helps some folks.
Myriads
