ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some connections between Tustin's contributions on the role of sensations and the self-sensation and Ferrari's hypothesis about the eclipse of the body. Tustin, even though she focuses her research on the sensory levels, nonetheless remains in part concerned about the role of separateness and the external object, together with the defensive function of a second skin. Tustin underscored the fact that children with psychogenic autism have no sense of self-identity, and she favored a working through based on their need for primary self-definition. Tustin later extended her discoveries to adult patients with autistic characteristics who feel unreal and perceive life as a sort of dream. Tustin sensed how central recognition of the body is to helping these patients define an identity of their own. Tustin has described the primitive anxieties connected with the first bodily experiences, such as falling, spilling, and dissolving. Tustin underlines beautifully the revolutionary step of differentiating "inside" and "outside".
