The Nearness of Others: Searching for Tact and Contact in the Age of HIV

Tact and Intimation

Tact 305 TactandIntimation When Guibert describes various physical interactions between patient and health care professionals, both in his film and in his books, he touches on the question of pleasure. I say “touches” because intimacy remains mostly intimated here. Tactile interactions provide Hervé with a degree of relief and well-­ being, and the erotic intimation brings an opportunity to critique the dominant notions of intimacy. Indeed, the concept of intimacy has long been used to produce the modern self as deep, enclosed, privatized, and, as such, the object of “intimate knowledge”—­ a form of policing. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the medical context. The intimation of pleasure, however, is outward bound and all exteriority. It thus allows Hervé to turn the doctor–­ patient interaction into something like a real relation by keeping it all on the surface. If intimacy is depth, intimation is nearness. ...