Touch must be our first sensation. Young children want to touch other people and everything else as well. "Look but don't touch" is deeply unsatisfying to them. Touch is a primary need that puts us in contact with the world, situating us in relation to others. Babies that are not touched and allowed to touch do not develop normally. Human beings can exist without their other senses, but we could not exist without touch: unless we are touched and can touch, we have no way of knowing that we even do exist — where, for instance, I begin and end, what is me and not-me.
— Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians