ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the functions of the skin and its meanings. The skin constitutes the surface of the person and contains and characterizes him, becoming a part of his identity. The skin, being the point of contact with and protection from the outside world, is extremely important in the first phases of development. Hence, it has been linked to the contiguous-autistic mental phase in which everything depends on contact with the outside world.
This chapter contains precious observations and experiences of dermatologists and psychoanalysts who have discovered the relationship between psychic characteristics and pathological manifestations of the skin.
The psychoanalysts who have dealt with infantile autism have contributed to the hypothesis of a correlation between the functions of the skin and psychological development. It is through these first experiences of contact that primordial feelings are formed: feelings of well-being or terror, of being in the presence or absence of another person, of the rhythmicity and sequence of the very first perceptions of time, of waiting and of hope.
