Page 46 - Life In Naples Magazine December 2014 Edition
P. 46
THE
HUMAN
TOUCH
–Peter Andersen
Ph.D. trained at Florida State University
by Allen Weiss, MD, MBA, FACP, FACR
President and CEO, NCH Healthcare System
“T here is a primal reassurance in being touched, in
is important for good mental and physical health. The laying
on of the hands is the physical act of helping the ill and infirm.
knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants
to be touching you,” writes best-selling author Jim Touch is therapeutic and for centuries was as effective as most
Butcher. “There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a every other therapy.
human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, Non-verbal communication and emotions are inexorably
that someone cares.” intertwined. With more and more of our time spent at a
“Skin hunger” is the name for a new concept in our digital keyboard and on the internet (as I am doing now as I draft this
and disconnected world. For eons we lived in family units and message), we become separated and distant. We all get removed
larger tribes, all of which had plentiful physical contact. Hunter- from face to face, eye to eye, and skin to skin contact which has
gatherers and farmers lived in close proximity and depended on been so necessary for survival.
each other in order to thrive. Contact is so important that one major way of punishment
Non-verbal communication and trust developed robustly is to remove a person from interaction, which is essentially what
as successful families and tribes grew in numbers. Those who a “time out” is for a toddler or solitary confinement is for a
could not or did not communicate and were not adaptable were prisoner. Being isolated is uncomfortable for most social beings.
culled out of the herd and didn’t survive to reproduce. Evolution Think of the many organizations we all belong to at various
favored intimacy. Touch is the key ingredient of intimacy (and times of our lives—teams centered on sports; clubs focused on
the opposite of “skin hunger”). crafts while in K-thru-12th grade; sororities and fraternities in
Our society has grown away from physical intimacy, which college; chambers and professional organizations in our working
46 Life in Naples | December 2014
HUMAN
TOUCH
–Peter Andersen
Ph.D. trained at Florida State University
by Allen Weiss, MD, MBA, FACP, FACR
President and CEO, NCH Healthcare System
“T here is a primal reassurance in being touched, in
is important for good mental and physical health. The laying
on of the hands is the physical act of helping the ill and infirm.
knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants
to be touching you,” writes best-selling author Jim Touch is therapeutic and for centuries was as effective as most
Butcher. “There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a every other therapy.
human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, Non-verbal communication and emotions are inexorably
that someone cares.” intertwined. With more and more of our time spent at a
“Skin hunger” is the name for a new concept in our digital keyboard and on the internet (as I am doing now as I draft this
and disconnected world. For eons we lived in family units and message), we become separated and distant. We all get removed
larger tribes, all of which had plentiful physical contact. Hunter- from face to face, eye to eye, and skin to skin contact which has
gatherers and farmers lived in close proximity and depended on been so necessary for survival.
each other in order to thrive. Contact is so important that one major way of punishment
Non-verbal communication and trust developed robustly is to remove a person from interaction, which is essentially what
as successful families and tribes grew in numbers. Those who a “time out” is for a toddler or solitary confinement is for a
could not or did not communicate and were not adaptable were prisoner. Being isolated is uncomfortable for most social beings.
culled out of the herd and didn’t survive to reproduce. Evolution Think of the many organizations we all belong to at various
favored intimacy. Touch is the key ingredient of intimacy (and times of our lives—teams centered on sports; clubs focused on
the opposite of “skin hunger”). crafts while in K-thru-12th grade; sororities and fraternities in
Our society has grown away from physical intimacy, which college; chambers and professional organizations in our working
46 Life in Naples | December 2014
