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(2010) The emergence of somatic psychology and bodymind therapy, Dordrecht, Springer.
The issue of boundaries, and the question what constitutes a boundary, is essential to the entire discipline of psychology — although this centrality is not often acknowledged (cf., Akhtar, 2006; Lifton, 1976), Every inquiry within the human sciences explores and utilizes ideas about boundaries, even if it is not explicitly recognized that such notions are foundationally operative (cf., Wilson, 2004). In this chapter, some aspects of this notion are briefly reviewed, with a critique of unexamined "boundary-talk." This is followed by a discussion of the way in which the boundaries of our body are defined including a commentary on the question where our embodied experience begins and ends. Finally, the boundary between the therapist and the patient is investigated, in terms of its ethical connectivity, and the controversial issue of the use of touch and other physical interventions for psychotherapeutic purposes will be explored.
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Full citation:
Barratt, B. B. (2010). Bodies and boundaries, in The emergence of somatic psychology and bodymind therapy, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 131-144.
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