The Permeable Self

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Barbara Newman explores the enduring myth of the separable heart in the Middle Ages, examining its implications from lovers exchanging hearts to mystics connecting with Jesus. She questions the unique traits that allowed saints and demoniacs to read minds and why mothers dying in childbirth were buried in unconsecrated ground. These diverse phenomena reveal a medieval conception of personhood that contrasts sharply with modern individuality. Newman posits that the medieval self was more permeable, allowing for spiritual and interpersonal penetration. She introduces the concept of coinherence, expressed in the intimate formula "I in you and you in me," and analyzes self-exchange in five relational contexts: charismatic teachers and students, mind-reading saints and penitents, lovers, pregnant mothers, and those experiencing demonic obsession. Her conclusion discusses the broader implications of this personhood, drawing on cultural history, literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, and ethics. The Permeable Self provides medievalists with fresh insights into the dynamics of pedagogy, the influence of courtly romance on hagiography, and the positive associations of pregnancy. Newman connects the medieval idea of coinherence to contemporary phenomena such as telepathy, heart transplant relationships, psychoanalytic transference, and the links between demonic possession and obsessive-compulsive disorder, affirming her status as