Touch, a sense with multiple avatars

The sense of touch is related to a complex sensorial system which links it to kinesthesia, sight, and hearing, and then confronts it with memory and representations on an ongoing basis. Touch, which is vital at the dawn of life, plays a fundamental role in the elaboration of the envelope of the ego: the skin-ego. It is a valuable tool in discovering the outer world, and assists learning. Nevertheless, touch can cause anxiety: it runs up against taboos and codes which structure it within intimate and social relationships. To be embodied, touch must be re-allied with tact.