Many people suffer from chronic skin disorders, and from the consequences of these disorders for their self-assurance and well-being.
The skin is our largest organ and our relationship organ. The skin is the mirror of our soul – not only the individual soul but also, it is said, the ailing soul of our whole society.
To put it another way, we are sick because our society is sick.
Skin diseases are the result of a multi-factor genesis in which genetic factors, of course, play a part. A particularly influential part, however, is played by psychosocial, societal, environmental medicine and psychosomatic patterns.
Our skin, as the relationship and demarcation organ between us and our environment, often provides a direct indication of all of our emotional states; it does this by reddening, turning pale, sweating or in the form of sensory disesthesias.
Skin disorders severely restrict our tactile and visual communicative capacity.
More than any other bodily organ, the skin is reflected strongly in the language as an expressive organ of the life of the soul. We speak of having “a thin skin today”, being “thick-skinned”, “tearing at one’s hair” or “going under the skin”.
The skin is our relationship organ; when we are babies it is the first organ to play a part in our relationships with our mothers.
In the first six months of its life, a baby has an early symbiotic relationship with its mother; indeed there is almost a fusion between the ego and the non-ego which makes all of the boundaries of experience, the outer body surface in the experience of the baby, become blurred. This is also where we find the psychoanalytical causes of the so-called primary narcissism.
The skin conveys warmth and contact.
The tactile communication of the child via the mucous membrane of the lips and the mouth turns feelings of reluctance into feelings of satisfaction.
Traditional Chinese medicine dealt with skin diseases at a very early stage and is capable of healing a host of acute and chronic skin disorders.
The inclusion of naturopathic procedures and psychotherapeutic relaxation techniques in a traditional Chinese treatment method, in combination with modern discoveries in nutritional medicine, is often capable of soothing and healing skin disorders.