Summary:

This article is a finding, when recovering a little traveled text by Ignacio Martín-Baró, his essay "Psychology of the caress", from 1970. The fairness of the choice of the term by Martin-Baró is raised. It is not a phenomenology or an ethic, but the psychological representation prior to the investigation of the structure of the phenomenon and its practical consequences. It is therefore recommended to attend to its accuracy, since establishing the basic categories of its exhibition will then allow us to move on to other fields and then, in a return movement, return to the original exhibition with an enriched understanding.

Key words: Martín-Baró | Psychology of the caress | language | expression | communication