Chickenpox

First the fever, then the blisters. Small red spots that transform into water-filled vesicles and cover the whole body — torso, face, arms, legs. The skin itches as if burning from within. Don't scratch, say the adults. But the child cannot help it. It is restless, exhausted, irritable. Its body is covered in something that feels like a rash of overwhelm.

Medically, chickenpox is a highly contagious viral infection — the varicella-zoster virus spreads via droplets; sometimes mere proximity to an infected child is enough. Almost everyone gets it, usually in childhood. The psychosomatic perspective asks an additional question: Why now? Why this child? And what is showing itself in this rash that covers the entire surface of the body — the boundary between inside and outside?

Chickenpox is more than a childhood illness. It is a making-visible of what is simmering beneath the skin.