The Relationality of Skin: An Introduction to the Essays of Summers, Lothstein, and Simha-Alpern

Abstract

This essay focuses on how thinking about skin contributes to relational theory and technique. Many contemporary psychoanalytic approaches, turning away from classical theory, deemphasize the body; although recently there has been a push to reintegrate the body, particularly in terms of sexuality, relatively little attention has been paid specifically to the skin. Skin issues offer an opportunity to understand the mind, development, and the analytic relationship in ways that can enrich current relational thinking. Simultaneously a container, boundary, and mediator, skin is also an apt metaphor for relational theory.

Keywords:

• development
• interpersonal/object relations
• relationality
• skin
• skin-ego.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Perlman

Karen Perlman, PhD, LP, is an associate editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives, on the editorial board of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, and a faculty member at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. She is in private practice in New York and Connecticut.