She became interested in the curious phenomenon of mirror-touch synaesthesia: a condition in which the patient, faced with another human body (or even an inanimate object) that is being touched, feels this touch in the same spot on his or her body. This opens up, as they say, a world of hurt. In the presence of real violence mirror-touch synaesthetes may feel themselves slapped, punched or stabbed, and experience similar shocks when watching television or a film. Strangely, they will only feel, or fully feel, such sensations as they have already experienced: if they’ve never been passionately kissed, or kicked in the groin, the synaesthetic response recalls instead the closest analogue.
