Within the patient's skin

Abstract

This paper explores, through phenomenology and existential philosophy, the experience of the body as mediator between consciousness and world. Drawing on thinkers such as Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, and Heidegger, it examines how pain and illness reveal the body not only as an anatomical object but also as an intimate lived experience and a language of existence. The text distinguishes between corporeity (the body as condition of possibility for consciousness) and corporality (the lived and anatomical body), showing how suffering forces the subject to objectify their own body and recognize its facticity. Moreover, it highlights the role of the Other—particularly the physician—in interpreting and caring for the sick body, framing illness as both alienation and reintegration through human relations. Ultimately, the work proposes a reflection on the body as a site of encounter between philosophy, medicine, and humanity, where pain becomes a pathway to self-knowledge and openness to the world.