Historical research on AB/DL?

[DaSpyda]

I was wondering if there has been much research on how far this interest/lifestyle goes back? Or is it a relatively new thing?

I would imagine that to some degree it must be a relatively new lifestyle choice. It wouldn't be impossible, but I would think it might be harder to enjoy ab/dl prior to the 1900s. Just due to the lack of leisure time, harder-working lifestyles, lack of modern convenences like disposable diapers and indoor laundry equipment, etc.

But, I'm sure there's someone smarter than me that might know of historical or maybe literary references to people engaging in such behavior, if it is little known facts of famous people. (IIRC, for example, the first British governor of New York was a cross-dresser, and would meet people at his home in 17th/18th century women's fashions.).

I was just highly curious is all.

[Maverick]

I'm pretty sure infantilism can go back pretty far. Even though people didn't have disposable diapers or much leisure time, I think they probably would've made makeshift cloth diapers and suck on their thumbs, etc. As far as I know, there's no evidence to support it going back very far. It's quite rare and not as commonly-known as cross-dressing might be, for example.

[Pramrider]

As much as infantilists keep it a secret part of their lives in our present day, it appears it would be particularly hard to find any history of it in the past. One possibility for finding old documentation is with past individuals personal diarys. Personal infantilist desires would def be private diary material. Though, no telling how many old diarys you'd have to find and read before coming across any AB/DL related entries. From my own personal feelings, as well as other older members here, I can assure you forms of it have been around since the 1950s, so there's 50 years of history to start with.

~Pramrider

[Jaiden]

It's hard to say. Relatively speaking, nappies themselves haven't existed for all that long and whether there were swaddling clothes lovers in the past might be an interesting thing to ponder.

The biggest problem is communication and record - an AB/DL a century ago would be far less likely than we to ever encounter anyone else with similar predilections so the chances of finding literature, organisation or community relating to this stuff would be low. I'm sure a love of the childish and infantile has existed in people for as long as civilisation has but the actual identity, definition or subculture as we know it is probably relativity new on any meaningful scale.

All in all, I would guess that the human psychology and environment hasn't changed all that much to make this completely new but there is less repression and more communication these days while evidence of activity in times past would be hard to come by.

[ricky]

I would have to agree with Jaiden on this. The chances of someone a hundred years ago ever finding another into the same thing would be astronomical. And if anyone had ever been caught back then practicing infantilism, I'm sure they were either punished severely or put into a mental institute, thus making any record of it hard to find, if not impossible.
I know that I kept it hidden until I was 44 or 45 years old. I'm not sure exactly when I found out about it on the internet, but that's the only reason I've come forward with it. Otherwise, I would still be keeping it a deep dark secret.
I think that only someone that's experienced it can truly understand it, making it difficult to find records. People don't just go out and put an add in the newspaper asking if anybody wants to try, or has tried, wearing diapers, and did they enjoy it.

[Lilannakiya]

You know, I agree with everyone here so far. I think that a hundred years ago it would have been very difficult if not impossible for someone to find another AB/DL just by chance. Many people even today don't realize that there is a community of people out there that have these desires and interests, and therefore continue to keep it a secret. So just imagine a hundred years ago.
I do think that people most likely have had AB/DL desires for much farther back than even a hundred years, I think it's something that people probably would have fantasized about. The feelings we get are usually very strong. They probably just thought they were crazy and like Ricky said afraid of being sent to an asylum.

[Darkfinn]

I have seen AB/DL publications dating back to the 50's... black & white photos of women in big cloth diapers and rubber pants. Judging from some of the "older" AB/DLs around I would imagine the fetish dates back to at least the 1940's... however I don't know of anyone older that's still alive to ask.

[wetatnight]

it's possible that ab/dl goes back a 100 years or more but it would have been considerd rare. and it may have been called some thing other then ab/dl
and people who did have infintial desires or acted infintial would have been punished or put in a mental instatution. because this behavior wouldn't have been considerd normal and may have been thought of as a curable mental illness.
so I'm sure people back then would have to have kept their desires well hidden
muck like people who were gay used to have to do.
so I'm sure their have always been some people who never completely out grew their desires to be babies or toddlers again. but it wasn't as well known or was considered a source of shame.

[ade]

you may find that the instance of regressive desire parallels the, relatively new, invention of childhood and the Twentieth Century advances in social healthcare which allowed weaker siblings to survive traumatic infancy.

[teddy564339]

When I was in college, I actually found a copy of this book in our libarary.

Amazon.com: Patterns of Psychosexual Infantilism: Wilhelm Stekel: Books


While it wasn't particularly enjoyable to read (it kind of made all infantilists seem like crazy people, even though that makes sense, since it was published in 1952), it does prove what people have already said in this thread...infantilism certainly goes back 60 years ago or so. Besides, I think there are a few cartoons made back in the 30's that show characters wearing cloth diapers and bonnets and stuff...so I wouldn't be surprised if it were around at least 100 years ago.

However, like people have said...finding records of it would be extremely difficult. I mean, I felt like I was a freak until I found out there were others...I can't imagine going my entire life like that. But I'm sure that's what some people had to do.


My guess is...the whole idea of being an infantilist has probably always been around. But, it probably hasn't always been quite as prevalent since what diapers are has changed over the years. Also, people probably used to suppress the idea a lot more since they probably felt it was something wrong with them...and they therefore would want to push it out of their minds.


However, I do think it's really neat that *B/DLism is multi-cultural. I mean, there are *B/DL's from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia...even South Africa. And those are just from English speaking countries (since these are the people I've seen on English speaking forums). At this point, I'm sure that there are *B/DL's in all developed/developing countries, and quite possibly to some degree in other places. It's really quite interesting, I think.