Skin to Skin: A Brief Cultural History of Touch

Touch is essential for survival. A touch can provide a sense of security; it can offer comfort or protection; it can electrify and arouse. The sense of touch is the first sense an embryo develops, long before it can see, hear, or smell. A person who is not touched withers away—socially and physically. Yet touch can also cause pain, disgust, injury, and fear. This is the dilemma of touch: Everyone longs for it, yet fears it at the same time.