"Body Image" Disturbances in Psychiatric Disorders

¹ Consultant Psychiatrist, Holywell Hospital, Antrim, Northern Ireland

The definition of the Body Image was given and the pertinent literature on the Body Image and its disturbances was briefly reviewed. The principles involved in the classification of the Body Image disturbances were mentioned, and a new type of phenomenological classification was introduced. A short clinical description was given of various Body Image disturbances met with in 50 patients drawn from 200 unselected admissions to a psychiatric hospital. The treatment of these disturbances was restricted to the treatment of the psychiatric disorder alone, and in all cases this treatment resulted in the disappearance of the Body Image disturbance. The conclusion drawn was that in psychiatric patients most Body Image disturbances occur as a part of their basic psychiatric disorder. The relationship between various Body Image disturbances and the various types of psychological disorder was discussed and represented statistically. Age, sex, social class, education and civil state were reviewed in relation to the incidence and to the type of Body Image disturbance.

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