Abstract:
‘Psychoanalysing’ the different forms of ‘scale disease’ dealt with in Leviticus 13–14 can shed
some light on the way the skin can be interpreted in this context. The eight psychic functions
of the skin identified by Anzieu reveal how individuals meet collective anxieties on the surface
of the skin where unconscious conflicts about identity boundaries are projected and inscribed.
INTRADISCIPLINARY AND/OR INTERDISCIPLINARY IMPLICATIONS : Traditionally there has been a tension
between psychology and religion, due to the Freudian critique of religion. This research
intends to show that a deeper understanding of religion leading hopefully to an even deeper
religiosity can be achieved by studying bodily features portrayed in a (religious) text from a
psychoanalytic perspective.
Description:
This article forms part of a post-doctoral programme enabled by the National Research Fund for which the author is extremely
grateful. It was initially presented as a paper at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Buenos Aires on 21 July
2015, but thereafter extended in Leipzig from 01 August 2015 until 31 January 2016 with the support of an Erasmus Mundus scholarship
for which the author is most thankful.
