This paper analyses how the body is conceptualized in a corpus of Italian texts drawn from psychiatric manuals, psychoanalysis manuals and poetry. By drawing on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; 1999) and Context-Limited Simulation Theory (Ritchie 2003; 200; 2008) the authors propose a categorization of the metaphors identified in their data. The analysis suggests that in the psychiatric manuals the body is represented in terms of the body-container category. In psychoanalysis manuals the body is portrayed by "sexual-sensual sentences" or by abstract "notions". Finally, in the Italian poetry the focus lies on the organs and specific body parts.