separation and communion
Wherever life occurs borders, boundaries, membranes and “skins” are present. From outer skins (epidermis) to boundaries between organs (endodermis) to cell “walls” to membranes differentiating organelles within cells. Even inanimate objects like water can form a skin through internal cohesion (belonging) and surface tension and “geographical” borders are plentiful on planets and within solar systems and galaxies. What are the functions of these boundaries? Could life processes work in an un-differentiated cosmic broth? Crucially, all biological borders have “gates”, border crossings, where vital exchanges happen with other boundaried entities and with the environment. Many of these crossings are selective, both in what can enter and what can leave. The result is ever expanding diversity.
As it is, boundaries separate what would otherwise blend (by diffusion, if nothing else). Separation then can be seen as life enabling - and, curiously separation occurs in birth also. It feels to me that there is a time for separation and a time for communion (paraphrased from Ecclesiastes 3). Context and outcomes are crucial: where separation brings new life let’s separate, where it brings stagnation or death let’s trespass!
Skin ego
In the 1960s the psychoanalyst Didier Anzieux coined the term “moi peau”, which is normally rendered as “skin ego” in English, although, perhaps “ego skin” would be another, somewhat different notion. This “psychic container”, we are told, is necessary for the healthy development of a growing person. It is said to be “thicker” in narcissistic individuals than in others.
How much skin ego is necessary for healthy interaction between people? What circumstances does it depend on? Where is “trespassing” these boundaries life-enabling and where is it catastrophic (or inconsequential)?
Stephan Helfer