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Thinking about the psyche-soma relations means integrating this dualism in the philosophical soul/body dualism that Freud both inherits and diverges from. The notion of ? the life of the soul ?, used by Freud as something akin to psyche, suggests the union between the soul and life and therefore the bodily nature of the psyche. This bodily nature is revealed both in development and in psychic functioning, in the fundamental experiences of satisfaction and pain and in the nature of the drive. It is based on the initial unity between child and mother, which precedes any notion of a separate object. On that basis, it is possible to consider the difference between soma and body and the transition to the erotised body, and to examine some articulations between psyche and body (dreams, affect, acting out) or alternatively the expressions of one by the other.