ABSTRACT
Masks assist both patient and therapist in reaching disowned or unconscious aspects of the personality and crippling misidentifications. The skin, which acts as both bridge and boundary, is a way of describing the essential protective mask for communication between self and other. The metaphors of acquiring Masks and of “growing” a “second” or “psychic skin” as ways of describing essential defences of the personality gain a fresh perspective from the celebrated actor of Samuel Beckett’s works, Billie Whitelaw. Whitelaw testifies to an awesome reversal of this process of masking, both in performance and in her own life. In order to become loosened from the grip of such an “infant”, the patient needs to develop a free mask. D. W. Winnicott pictures a fortress self, guarded by defences that, far from being merely accretions, are integral to the personality, where the breaching of such defences would be unimaginably appalling.
