Mémoire gravée dans la peau face à l’oubli de soi : le parchemin de l’identité dans Sciences de la vie de Joy Sorman
Memory Engraved in the Skin Faced with Selflessness: The Parchment of Identity in Sciences de la vie by Joy Sorman

Summary/Abstract: The novel Sciences de la vie (Life Sciences, 2017) by Joy Sorman presents several spheres of memory that intertwine with each other. It will be a memory within the life of the individual (and his identity search), medicine, which, despite its rational nature, often lacks answers, and a society on the edge of which the lives of women from the book's protagonist family, Ninon Moses. All women, without exception, suffer from diseases that are as inexplicable as they are remarkable, so they are often recorded in medical archives, which gives them the character of a certain unreal and ancient story. Ninon herself suffers from a rare neurological pathology: dynamic tactile allodynia, hypersensitivity to the slightest touch. Every touch is accompanied by unbearable pain, which leads her to gradually move away from others and the world in general. Our article focuses on the development of Nina's disease first against the background of limiting family memory. Furthermore, its development, diagnosis and treatment, in which the various "sciences of life" gradually fail, because all bodily pain inevitably affects the psyche and way of life of the sufferer. Joy Sorman's novel develops on the basis of psychoanalytic and philosophical theories. Explicitly mentioned is the popular concept of "The Skin-Ego" by psychoanalyst Didier Anzieu, who works with the fact that the skin is a permeable layer, which reflects not only the state of the psyche, but also relationships with others and the environment. In addition to Anzieu, we also use the theories of Sigumund Freud and Jacques Lacan to help clarify the symbolic meaning of the disease.

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