Many patients who are unable to express pain verbally tell their stories through their bodies. Psychoanalysts caught in the Cartesian duality, privileging the mind over the body, have falsely mistaken body talk for baby talk; they have failed to listen. This paper argues for the body's sophistication as a creative, communicative medium. In a dramatic monologue, Sarah, a young woman whose fingers
... [Show full abstract] and toes have become numb from severe Reynaud Disease, tells her story. While claiming she has nothing to say and that her life is “perfect,” she inadvertently reveals the metaphor that is her illness. “I bet you didn't know you can stay warm in ice houses,” she says offhandedly. It is the fortuitous blend of subjectivities between analyst and patient that allows the analyst to hear the metaphor and to begin the process of retranslating the body's language into verbal expression. The reader is invited to follow the metaphor as it weaves through Sarah's narrative, elegantly connecting time and text, emotion and intellect, psyche and soma.