The Familiar Touch

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In Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses she opens the chapter of Touch by giving a brief description of what touch is. In this description, Ackerman includes how sometimes we stop noticing the touch of our everyday routine. "A constant consistent pressure registers at first, activating the touch receptors; then the receptors stop working" (80) once the body has become completely aware of the familiar, yet foreign object. For me, things like the necklace my mother gave me for high school graduation and my class ring are objects that have become so familiar to me that I only register them when they are missing. This extension of the body to non-human possessions ties in this quotation that our body is able to feel the touch of something and not even register it because it is so familiar. On the other hand, foreign touch such as the hand of a stranger is immediately recognized by the body and is registered as a threat. When we feel a touch that is foreign or not expected, the hairs on our body stand up and our heart rate increases. There is this primitive reaction of wanting control over your own being and almost immediately viewing a foreign touch as a bad one. This basic form of self preservation has kept humans alive as we are able to decipher what touch is familiar and what is foreign in a matter of milliseconds.
Throughout our day, there are millions of touches and so few that we actually register as either good or bad. When I am wearing a shirt, my body is not constantly reminding me that I am clothed and I rarely even think about it. It has become routine and natural to me to feel the need to be clothed when I am ready to start my day.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausMay 11, 2018 at 7:17 AM

    Yes, it's probably a good thing that a "deadening effect" follows initial touches. What would it e like to constantly feel the touch of our clothes? Or maybe the point of touch is really to cue us to changes in sensation, in temperature, in pressure, from neutral to pain or pleasure. It reminds me a little of what we were saying about how we experience time. We measure it by movement, that is, changes in space. Change, in sensation or location, allows us to sense "before, after, and during."

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