The concern for the annihilating power of the gaze is not
part of the Freudian discourse, but represents one of the most valuable
contributions of phenomenology to psychoanalysis. When clear boundaries between
the self and the others are not yet established, the gaze is experienced as a
disembodied force that radiates from the eyes and can dangerously penetrate
into the mind. In this regard, the body or parts of it can be used as a
shelter. If the external body is not sufficiently cathected, its sheltering function
is also decreased, to the point that the body is experienced as transparent,
and the most intimate feelings and thoughts become dangerously available to the
others. In primitive societies this situation is experienced as the danger of
losing the soul. The unconscious fantasy of obstructing the sight can be used
to neutralize the annihilating power of the gaze by introducing an artificial
barrier between the minds. In dreams and in other expressions of the
unconscious, the black color might hint at such an artificial barrier. What is
then blackened are moments of the meeting of the mind that cannot be introspected. Blind spots in the perception of the mind of the other as well as
in the perception of the self are a specific consequence of this kind of
defense.
