Title: The skin ego /
Authors: Anzieu, Didier.
Publisher: Yale University Press,
Year: 1989
Subjects: Ego; Psychoanalytic Theory; Skin; Ego (Psychology); Skin Psychological aspects.; Mind and body.; Psychoanalysis.; Psychophysiology; Touch
Abstract: 'Didier Anzieu (1985) theorized on the skin-ego, the first narcissistic envelope on which the feeling of well-being is based', suggesting for example that 'narcissistic personalities...possess an unusually thick skin ego; in contrast, masochistic and borderline personalities show remarkably thin skin ego'. Anzieu would extend the concept to a broader notion of "psychic envelope", exploring for example the idea of 'the dream envelope. This is the name Didier Anzieu gives to the visual dream-film, the fine, ephemeral membrane which he thinks of as replacing the tactile envelope of the ego's vulnerable skin'.