This article attempts to illustrate the transformation of the concrete, operational mode of relating in John, a patient suffering from ulcerative colitis. The analytic process seems to facilitate the passage from the concrete to the symbolic converting the body-logic into the psycho-logic. The concrete and overt presence of the body in varied forms is understood as a form of communication, and the physical signs as a means of announcing to the patient that he was alive. The patient discussed in this article conveys how a psychosomatic illness serves to counteract the threat of psychic death, affirming that the patient is alive as a body in space.