ABSTRACT
The four sets of data have outlined—from ethology, group theory, projective testing, and dermatology—have led to the hypothesis of the Skin-ego, first formulated in an article of 1974 in the Nouvelle Revue de Psychanalyse. Before returning to this hypothesis and expanding on it, it will be helpful to revisit the notion of the oral stage. While it is being breastfed and during daily care, the baby has a third, concomitant experience: that of being held in its mother’s arms, pressed to her body, sensing its warmth, smell, and movements, and being carried, rocked, rubbed, washed, and caressed, while at the same time being bathed in her murmuring and humming. Every figure presupposes a ground against which it appears: this elementary truth is easily ignored because our attention is normally drawn to the emerging figure, not the background from which it stands out.
