1st Edition

Skin in Psychoanalysis

By Jorge Ulnik Copyright 2008
    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    Skin in Psychoanalysis is an important theoretical contribution, revising several authors starting with Freud in whose writing we can now discover multiple direct or indirect references to the skin. It adopts a decidedly complex point of view regarding the skin here: the skin as source, the skin as object, the skin as protection and as a way of entrance, as contact and as contagion, the skin 'for two' within the relationship with the mother, the skin as envelope and as support, as a shell presented as 'second skin', as demarcation of individuality, as a place of inscription of non-verbal memories, toxic envelops and so on. Also, being the result of more than fifteen years of work with dermatologists and patients with skin diseases, psoriasis in particular, the book can be seen as a serious proposal for interdisciplinary work between dermatologists and psychoanalysts.'The hospital is a place where both tragedies and miracles occur, where many people go to heal but many others go in search for punishment.

    Preface -- Introduction -- The skin in the work of Freud -- Didier Anzieu's Ego-skin -- Contributions by other psychoanalysts and psychiatrists to the subject of skin and psychoanalysis -- The skin and the levels of symbolisation: from the Ego-skin to the thinking-Ego -- “It works for me”: symbolic efficacy and the placebo effect -- Reflections on attachment -- The case of Mr Quirón -- Body image and the psychosomatic patterns of childhood. Medical publicity regarding the skin -- Pathomimias: self-inflicted lesions on the skin -- Franz Kafka's In the Penal Colony: Superego and the skin -- The relationship between what the psychoanalyst hears and what the dermatologist sees -- Psoriasis: Father, don't you see I'm burning? (The skin and the gaze)

    Biography

    Ulnik, Jorge