Body contact

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Body contact refers to the active or passive touch of one's own or someone else's body . The intensity ranges from the gentle touch with the fingertips to the contact with lips or hands , etc. to the blow with the fist. Recent research has shown that people need sufficient and well-meaning body contact in order to regulate central body functions such as heat balance, the immune system and the cardiovascular system.

Body contact and child development

A young father with his first child

Constant physical contact with the toddler has an impact on development

In the first half of the 20th century, authors such as pediatrician L. Emmett Holt and psychologist John B. Watson popularized the idea that infants and children should have as little physical contact as possible. In Germany, the very progressive results of infant research from the 1920s ( Wilhelm Reich ) were turned into their opposite by an educational guide published by a woman named Haarer by the National Socialists. The avoidance of body and eye contact was expressly recommended in order to reduce the child's bond with the mother and in this way promote bond with the party and the leader. (Chamberlain et al.) The pediatrician Benjamin Spock, who was influenced by Sigmund Freud, successfully opposed such an upbringing with his bestseller infant and child care from 1946. Ashley Montague published the first studies in the 1950s on the health consequences of a lack of physical contact in orphans.

Today experts agree that intensive and regular physical contact has a positive influence on the development of the child and the parent-child bond . Carried children cry less and are usually more satisfied than children who do not enjoy so much physical closeness (Source: The Influence of Carrying on Baby's Crying Behavior by Dr. Urs A. Hunziker, Children's Hospital Zurich , according to a prospective study controlled study in two obstetric wards in Montreal, Canada of a total of 117 mothers).

A newborn child is placed on the mother's tummy shortly after the birth process , which quickly calms down. It still feels fused with the mother during the first year of life. Brisch u. a. were able to prove in their research that a successful bond with the mother, which expresses itself in a feeling of being fused between mother and child, is learned and depends crucially on the quality of the contact between the two. When breastfeeding one for which arises Developmental Psychology important the child's body contact with the mother . Only from the age of about three is the child able to perceive itself as a being that exists independently of the mother. The physical contact always gives the child the feeling of security and trust in the reliability and love of his caregivers. In this context, psychologists also speak of the development of basic trust .

The pedagogue and therapist Marion Esser writes about this in her 1995 book Bewegungs-Grund : “In order to be able to develop a unified body-ego after birth, the infant is dependent on intensive contact with the mother or a corresponding reference person. It requires a tonic body dialogue, a renewed merging with the body of an adult in alternation with motor and tactile experiences, satisfying and pleasurable physical relationships in order to be able to master the slow dissolution of direct body contact. It is replaced by symbolic substitutes: looks, gestures, voice and finally language as the most abstract form of communication ”(Esser 1995, p. 23).

See also : Attachment Parenting , Baby Sling, and Co-Sleeping

Communication tool

The interpersonal positive physical contact mainly serves to express sympathy (physical intimacy ). It is a means of non-verbal communication . In body psychotherapy, u. a. actively worked with the elements of holding, eye contact and reflecting movements to restore and expand restricted communication options for those affected. Desired physical contact for emotional reasons is often accompanied by eye contact . During body contact, the body odor or perfume as well as the pheromones of the other person are clearly perceived, which can be decisive for further communication. In traditional Chinese medicine, the body's own odor is also used as an indicator for the early detection of organ diseases.

With psychotonics, Glaser et al. Developed a concept of the use of touch in gerontology, among other things, which can have a positive effect on the health of those affected.

Greeting contact

Body contact often takes place during greetings . Here, by way of example shaking hands , the pats on the hug , kiss and Hongi to name. Body contact with strangers without a greeting character, which is perceived as unpleasant in western culture, takes place, for example, unintentionally or intentionally ( chikan ) in a crowd.

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Limit violations

Physical contact can also represent a crossing of boundaries, up to and including violence. The umbrella association for teachers in Switzerland (LCH) stated in its 2014 guidelines: “When teachers come into physical contact with children and young people, the following applies: As little as possible, as much as necessary. If, for example, physical contact is practiced in between in physical education classes, this takes place in the discussed settings, with appropriate rules and with the personal consent of the children and young people. Teachers do not take part in such exercises. "

See also : Sexualized violence  and sexual abuse

Disease transmission through physical contact

Between the early 16th and early 19th centuries, European medicine believed that disease was transmitted through touch. It was only with the European cholera epidemic of the early 1830s that this “contagion theory” (contagionism) was refuted and only replaced by the theory of infection towards the end of the century .

See also

• Fear of contact

For body contact in sports:

• Body check
• Martial arts

on physical contact in medicine

• Anaclise
• Proxemics (distance regulation)
• Body therapy , such as massages and manual therapies
• Body psychotherapy

literature

• Renate Berenike-Schmidt, Michael Schetsche (Ed.): Body contact. Interdisciplinary explorations . Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8379-2119-9 .
• Joachim Bauer: The body's memory . Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8218-6515-7 , p. 71 ff.
• Wolfgang Anders, Sabine Weddemar: Skin beautifully touched? Physical contact in development and upbringing. 2nd Edition. Modernes learning publishing house, ISBN 3-86145-212-X .
• Karl-Heinz Brisch: Attachment Disorders - From Attachment Theory to Therapy . Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-608-94532-6 .
• Sigrid Chamberlain: Adolf Hitler - The German mother and her first child . Giessen 1997, ISBN 3-930096-58-7 .
• Cuddling is more important than washing. In: BR Online - Topic Cuddling ( Memento from January 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• Marion Esser: Reasons for Movement - Psychomotor according to Bernard Aucouturier. 4th, revised edition. E. Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-497-02252-6 .
• Moia Grossmann-Schnyder: Touching - Guide to psychotonics in care and therapy . Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7773-1222-3 .
• Dean Juhan: Textbook of Body Work - The Soma-Psyche Connection . Munich 1997, ISBN 3-426-76004-5 , p. 146 ff.
• H. Legewie, W. Ehlers: Knaurs modern psychology . Munich / Zurich 1994, p. 157 ff.
• Ashley Montagu : Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin . 3rd edition, Harper & Row, New York 1986, ISBN 0-06-015535-3 .
• Christine Müller-Mettnau: Satisfied longing - strong children. Vehlefanz 2005, ISBN 3-00-013379-8 . (A book on haptonomy , prenatal and postnatal touching and carrying, etc.)
• Bernhard Schlage: The discovery of the (im) possible - personal change through body psychotherapy . 2008, ISBN 978-3-86805-224-4 , p. 71.
• Daniel Stern : mother and child. The first relationship . 5th edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-608-91685-0 (English: The first relationship. Infant and mother . Translated by Thomas M. Höpfner).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Dean Juhan: Textbook of Body Work (1997), Joachim Bauer: Das Gedächtnis des Körper (2007) and others.
2. ↑ L. Emmett Holt: The Care and Feeding of Children: A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses. 1894
3. ^ John Watson: Psychological Care of Infant and Child. 1928.
4. ↑ Respect and protect integrity. A guide for teachers, school administrators, other school professionals and school authorities. (PDF) Umbrella Association of Teachers Switzerland LCH, 2014, accessed on July 22, 2016 .  P. 24.
5. ↑ Michael Stolberg : Contagionism. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 776 f.