For the first time, the controversial issue of physical contact in the consulting room is explored by distinguished psychoanalysts and psychotherapists representing a diverse range of psychoanalytic viewpoints.

Foreword -- Introduction -- Winnicott's experiments with physical contact: creative innovation or chaotic impingement? -- Touching and affective closeness -- Symbolic understanding of tactile communication in psychotherapy -- No touch please—we’re British psychodynamic practitioners -- Can touching be relevant to understanding some patients in psychoanalysis? -- Bearing witness to an abused patient’s physical injuries -- Between touches -- The presence of the body in psychotherapy -- The issue of physical contact in psychoanalytic work with children and adolescents -- Strong adaptive perspectives on patient–therapist physical contact -- A body psychotherapist’s approach to touch -- Something dangerous: touch in forensic practice