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.
Highlights
Amongst the approximately 250 body parts mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the skin has not received the same attention in the reception of this text as others such as the heart, head or hand
Amongst the diseases mentioned in the Hebrew Bible those of the skin occur the most
Skin diseases were likewise viewed differently from other health problems in Mesopotamia where many people with disabilities were incorporated in society, but those with skin diseases were ostracised, even in the netherworld (Walls 2007:15)
Summary
Amongst the approximately 250 body parts mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the skin has not received the same attention in the reception of this text as others such as the heart, head or hand. These skin appearances are dealt with in Leviticus 13–14 between the associated conditions of the two transitional processes of childbirth in chapter 12 and ( זָבone who has an issue, i.e. a genital discharge) in chapter 15, both to be privately controlled whereas scale diseases were a public and visible matter, dealt with only by professionals, the priests (Milgrom 1991:773), who themselves acted as ‘skin’ by mediating the inside and the outside of the social body: the priest had to leave the camp in Leviticus 14:3 and so opens himself up for ‘infection’ in the presence of the suspect.
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