'A Petty Form of Suffering': A Brief Cultural Study of Itching. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Segal, Naomi
• Other Names: Lafrance Marc guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Body & society. Volume 24:Number 1/2(2018)
• Page Start: 88
• Page End: 102
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: abjection -- Anzieu -- ego -- itching -- skin; Human body -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 306.4613
• DOI: 10.1177/1357034X18760176
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1357-034X

Abstract

'Itching is a petty form of suffering, ' wrote André Gide in 1931. Itching may be occasional or obsessive; it positions a person inside a body that exists in familial and social contexts; it can be evoked in debates about righteousness and justice. This article begins with discussion of the work of Didier Anzieu, psychoanalyst author of The Skin-ego : among the nine 'functions' of the skin-ego that Anzieu describes, the last is 'toxicity', the skin turned against itself in a gesture of self-destruction. In my discussion of three other texts, I connect Gide's diary entry to his sexuality; Lorette Nobécourt's novel to the social world; the book of Job to the metaphysics of virtue; and to these I append two semi-comic moments from Jean-Paul Sartre and Sarah Winman, and discussions of 'leprosy' and psoriasis, two versions of feeling (in both senses) that one has a skin.