Psychic Wrapping: Repairing the Skin-Ego of a Schizoid Patient

This article depicts the case of a young woman whose presentation, exhibitionistic and featuring her physicality, initially drew attention away from the vulnerabilities most in need of clinical attention. Having been referred to treatment with the identification of borderline personality disorder, object relations notions of the schizoid condition offer a shift in diagnostic perspective, one that highlights her interpersonal sensitivity and porousness, and views her demeanor as protective casing. An embodied representation of containment, Didier Anzieu's skin ego, then informs a process of analytic repair that prioritizes psychic fortification before insight.