This essay focuses on how thinking about skin contributes to relational theory and technique. Many contemporary psychoanalytic approaches, turning away from classical theory, deemphasize the body; although recently there has been a push to reintegrate the body, particularly in terms of sexuality, relatively little attention has been paid specifically to the skin. Skin issues offer an opportunity to understand the mind, development, and the analytic relationship in ways that can enrich current relational thinking. Simultaneously a container, boundary, and mediator, skin is also an apt metaphor for relational theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]