Frambösie

It begins at the surface. A small wound, skin contact — and then they grow: knobby, raspberry-like thickenings on the skin that spread, break open, weep. Frambösie is a tropical infectious disease, caused by a bacterium transmitted through skin contact. Medically very treatable — often resolved within a few days with antibiotics.

But why you? Why has your body opened the door to precisely this disease — one that disfigures your skin, alters your appearance, marks you visibly?

The psychosomatic perspective sees in Frambösie more than an infection. It sees a pattern that has inscribed itself into the body: a deep, fundamental rejection of one's own worth. Not as a passing bout of self-criticism, but as a basic stance that runs through the entire feeling of being alive — so quiet, so ordinary, that you may no longer even notice it.