%0 Journal Article
%T ¡°The Skin is the Cradle of the Soul¡±: Didier Anzieu on the Skin
%A Andrzej Werbart
%J Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
%@ 1941-2460
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0003065119829701
%X Didier Anzieu¡¯s notion of the skin-ego builds on a long psychoanalytic tradition that began with Freud¡¯s idea that the ego is first and foremost a body ego, a projection in the psyche of the surface of the body, or, in other words, the idea that psychic phenomena are always embodied. An interface, a container for the ego, but also its origin: thus did Anzieu conceptualize the skin¡¯s psychic function. The baby¡¯s fantasy of having a common skin with the mother is the concrete starting point for a development that, through the prohibition on touching, leads to the experience of being a separate and individual person. Psychoanalytic work with severe mental disorders makes it necessary to investigate deficiencies in the skin-ego¡¯s containing function before the patient¡¯s psychic contents can be explored. In the psychoanalytic situation, the analyst¡¯s words replace tactile contact and thereby contribute to healing injuries to the skin-ego. The clinical implications of Anzieu¡¯s theoretical model are illustrated by examples from psychoanalyses of children and adults. The close connection between touch, psychic envelopes, and thinking opens a wider perspective on the necessity of setting limits to violence, against both nature and human beings
%K skin-ego
%K psychic envelopes
%K borderline conditions
%K narcissistic personalities
%K taboo on touching
%K thinking ego
%K limit-setting
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003065119829701