The skin is of interest to psychoanalysis because it is anaclitically related to narcissism, because it is an erotogenic zone, and because it is the object of particular kinds of assaults. Manifestly, the skin is a potential vector for the main instincts (attachment, libido, destructive impulses).
At the end of the first essay of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905d), in connection with his notion of polymorphous component instincts, Freud treated the skin as an erotogenic zone specifically excitable by the sadism/masochism "pair of opposites," in contrast with the eyes, which he conceived of as the bodily seat of the voyeurism/exhibitionism antithesis. Later, in his paper " 'A Child Is Being Beaten'" (1919e), he described and analyzed the basic scene in masochism: an active adult beats a passive child, while another child bears silent witness to the event.
The skin has a particular place in the evolution of living beings: while the husk characterizes the vegetable realm and the membrane the animal realm, the skin is peculiar to vertebrates. In the development of the embryo in vertebrates, the ectoderm gives rise to both the skin and the cortex, so that the skin is in a sense the surface of the brain. The structure of the skin is complex in that it is a sense organ that contains the other sense organs. It comprises several interlocked layers of greatly varied structures. The skin and the sense organs that it envelops constitute an interface ensuring the individual's contact with the outside world. Like most outer coverings or membranes, the skin has a twofold nature: it is a protective shield and it facilitates the communication of meanings. Freud mentioned this nature in his discussion of the "mystic writing pad" (1925a [1924]), on which traces and signs are inscribed. The skin helps give the body its form and coherence. The human body can more readily assume a vertical posture because the skin protects and holds in the skeleton and musculature. The unity of the individual thus depends on the skin.
Certain areas of the skin (mucous membranes, erectile tissue, hair on the head, pubic hair, hollows) are especially sensitive to sexual arousal (in comparison with overall presexual skin-to-skin contact). Didier Anzieu has advanced the hypothesis of a fantasy of a skin common to mother and child, and on that basis he developed the idea of a skin ego—an idea that converges with Esther Bick's notion of a psychic skin and Wilfred R. Bion's concept of container/contained. For Anzieu, this fantasy of a common skin contributes both to the narcissistic foundation of the individual and to the anaclitic reinforcement of the sexual instinct.
In sadism and masochism, humans experience a mixture of pleasure and pain. Here the fantasy of a common skin is replaced by the fantasy of its being ripped off, which is necessary if the individual is to progress toward autonomy but also is a source of guilt feelings. Mother's and child's joint cathexis of the newborn's skin is immediate and is sometimes a source of sexual pleasure. Indeed, if the mother does not spontaneously cathect this first contact, any of a large number of pathologies, ranging from asthma to autism, may result.
Psychodermatology has shown a correlation between flaws in the ego and skin disorders. The greater the impairment of the ego, the more seriously the skin seems to be affected.
Bibliography
Anzieu, Didier. (1990). Formal signifiers and the ego-skin. In Didier Anzieu et al. (Eds.), Psychic envelopes (Daphne Briggs, Trans.). London: Karnac Books. (Originally published 1987) ——. (1989). The skin ego (Chris Turner, Trans.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (Originally published 1985) ——. (1994). Le penser: du moi-peau au moi-pensant. Paris: Dunod.
Freud, Sigmund. (1905d). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243.
——. (1919e). "A child is being beaten": a contribution to the study of the origin of sexual perversions. SE, 17: 175-204.
——. (1925a [1924]). A note upon the "mystic writing pad." SE, 19: 225-232.
—DIDIER ANZIEU
