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Doctors newspaper online, 12.10.2019
Healing hands
The stepchild of sense research: Although the sense of touch is our most important sense, only a few researchers are exploring it. An insight into how doctors approach anorexia with the diving suit.
By Susanne Werner
© Ina Schott
It is only a few millimeters thick and covers an area of almost two square meters, the skin. It is considered the "mirror of our soul", offers us protection and is part of our most important purpose. Without skin contact and touch we could not survive. While the sense of sight develops after birth, we come into the world with a fully trained sense of touch. Already in the uterus, the embryo has scanned itself, explored his body in the security of the amniotic fluid and sucked his thumb, without having previously seen this movement.
That we can not survive without touch can be prematurely classified as truism. Since the terrible images of the Romanian orphans went around the world, living completely neglected and isolated in the homes, we believe we know. Nevertheless, the interest to use the soothing touch also for health and healing, surprisingly low. The sense of touch is considered the stepchild of sense research. Only about 100 scientists work on it worldwide.
Neoprene Suit for Anorexics
One of the few pioneers is Martin Grunwald. In his laboratory in Leipzig, he is looking for ways in which tactile and haptic perceptions can be used for healing purposes. While the tactile presupposes an external stimulus – such as a massage – the haptic stands for the self-reference of the touch, ie every active action, grasping and shaping. Even before the first cry of life, hand and head work together constantly. Each gripping leaves traces in the brain.
The fetus has already developed a neural concept of its physicality through its movements and the feeling of its environment. "The trained body schema enables us to know, even with our eyes closed, about the dimensions of our body, what is up, down, behind or in front of it," says Grunwald
The psychologist has found that fidgety children are reassured by overstretched sand vests. They experience the pressure like a permanent embrace, thereby find peace and relax. For women suffering from anorexia, Grunwald has made tight fitting neoprene suits. By doing so, they learn to perceive their own bodies to their true proportions and to correct their internalized wrong body schema of an overweight body.
Breathing again thanks to touch
Together with neonatology at the University of Leipzig (UKL), Grunwald is currently researching how to prevent the natural respiratory failure of premature babies or, if they do occur, the quickest to stop. Until now, human touch has been required – a highly labor-intensive procedure for a highly-sterile hospital ward. As soon as a monitor sounds an alarm, a caregiver must stop working, disinfect their hands, and deliberately touch the preemie to allow the breathing to resume.
"This creates a lot of stress among the nursing staff, who have to react with lightning speed and at the same time pay attention to hygiene," says Professor Ulrich Thome, Head of the Department of Neonatology at the UKL. Grunwald's haptics laboratory is now testing a cuff that automatically stimulates the sole of the foot during apnea phases, thereby stimulating breathing. "We already know that breathing is triggered by touching the soles of the feet or the back," says Thome. The next step is to measure the necessary pressure of a human touch – such as that of an experienced pediatric nurse – and equip the cuff accordingly.
Haptic sensory perceptions are part of our everyday life without us being aware of it. Researchers have counted, for example, that we touch each other's faces up to 800 times a day: We stroke our cheeks with our hands, touch our noses, rub our chin, run across our foreheads and cover our mouths. The touch of the face is a spontaneous action that does not require triggers such as itching or tingling.
The number of self-encounters increases dramatically when we experience stress, pass exams or act out conflicts with others. "The self-touching serves to bring our psychic activation level back into balance after irritation," writes Martin Grunwald in his latest book Homo Hapticus.
Haptic Sense for Therapy
Haptics are about much more than just skin. "The haptic sense encompasses the sense of skin, sensitivity to depth and balance and is the fundamental relationship with the world and with ourselves," says Heinz Deuser, formerly Professor of Art Therapy in Nürtingen. Deuser has been researching since the 1970s how the haptic sense can be used in therapeutic and pedagogical frameworks and developed the work on the sound field. A simple, clay-filled wooden frame is the focus of the work. Clients are invited to work on, immerse, knead, mold – timid or energetic, tense or powerful. The way they do this points to their attachment to themselves and the world.
Tonfeld Companions, trained over three years, support the event, encouraging children, adolescents or even adults to find their own expression with the sound. The design of the material makes it possible to gain new experiences in accessing the world, to make up for lost developmental stages and to balance behavioral problems. "This haptic dialogue is a sensorimotor language in which we receive and catch up with ourselves and our world. The method takes up the human endeavor to fit into this world and find and build its place, "says Deuser. So far, tonal field work has mostly been used in day-care centers, schools and psychiatric institutions.
Touch instead of communication
For the Leipzig haptic researcher Grunwald, there is no question that the knowledge of haptic and tactile perceptions should be used much more intensively in the future. In his book, he lists in the end a whole series of worthwhile research projects: According writeysers of body-oriented treatments could benefit as well as people with chronic diseases, with anorexia, with obesity or mental discomfort.
Especially in the treatment of depression, so Grunwald, the behavioral approach – to look at the patients dominate: "One puts emphasis on being able to achieve everything with words and overlooks the importance of access to one's body for human development. "
Please also read the interview:
"In Touching We Are Experiencing Encounter"
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