Skin-Ego

Didier Anzieu (1923-1999) was a French psychoanalyst and theorist whose work brought the body back to the centre of psychoanalytic enquiry. He was the author of numerous books and articles, on areas ranging from Freud's self-analysis, group psychology, and psychodrama to theories of creativity and thought; he also published short stories, literary criticism, a drama, a book of cartoons and a study of May 1968 written from the heart of Nanterre. His research was always conducted alongside his academic and clinical practice, both characterised by inclusivity, curiosity, a broad mind and a gentle manner. Naomi Segal is a professor of modern languages, specialising in comparative literary and cultural studies, gender, psychoanalysis and the body. In 2004 she created and directed the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London. She has published fifteen books, of which the most recent monographs are 'Consensuality: Didier Anzieu, Gender and the Sense of Touch' and 'Andre Gide: Pederasty and Pedagogy'. She is an Academic Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society, a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes academiques and a Member of the Academia Europaea.

'It is wonderful to see Didier Anzieu's The Skin-Ego reissued in English. The Skin-Ego is one of the most significant psychoanalytic texts of the last thirty years. It offers a radical revision of Freudian thinking, closely linked to major traditions in British psychoanalysis but also distinctively French in its philosophical and cultural reach. This sparkling and accessible new translation by Naomi Segal gives Anglophone readers an opportunity to appreciate the versatility of Anzieu's ideas on the skin and on psychical "wrapping", and to absorb his deeply scholarly, systematic and practical style. There is more to French psychoanalysis than Lacan - and this book is one of its most important contributions to the psychoanalytic literature.'- Stephen Frosh, Professor of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London'This new translation is brilliant, and makes the Skin-Ego theory very accessible; now that neuroscience and research on infants and parents have demonstrated how Anzieu was right in his ideas of an early influence on narcissistic disorders, this new translation will be very useful for young therapists who didn't have access to this kind of manual of psychoanalytic treatment of difficult patients. Naomi Segal, who knows so well Anzieu's developments on the origins of the capacity for thinking and its roots in early experiences, manages the task of the translator wonderfully, and captures the essence of this very original theory of containment and psychoanalytic technique.'- Christine Anzieu-Premmereur, MD, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Columbia University and Director of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center's Parent-Infant Program

• Series Editor’s Foreword , Translator’s Foreword , Introduction , Discovery , Epistemological preliminaries , Four sets of data , The notion of a Skin-ego , The Greek Myth of Marsyas , The psychogenesis of the Skin-ego , Structure, Functions, Overcoming , Two precursors of the theory of the Skin-ego: Freud and Federn , The functions of the Skin-ego , Disturbances of basic sensori-motor distinctions , Impairments of the structure of the Skin-ego in narcissistic personalities and borderline cases , The double taboo on touching, the condition for overcoming the Skin-ego , Principal Configurations , The wrapping of sound , The thermal wrapping , The olfactory wrapping , Confusion of qualities of taste , The second muscular skin , The wrapping of suffering , The film of dreams , Summaries and further observations , Chapter Eighteen from 1985 edition , Table of Case Studies