Body image and body image disorders. Theoretical approach towards psychopathological features
Katarzyna Nitsch, Elżbieta Prajs, Jacek Kurpisz, Ernest Tyburski

The article presents a review of the literature about body image disorders in selected mental disorders, i.e. eating disorders, obesity, autodestructive behaviours and body dysmorphic disorder. The author defines the term of the body image, as referred to the terms: body schema and bodily self. She emphasizes the correlation between early childhood traumas and development of cognitive and emotional deformations related to the body, referring also to possibilities and limitations of therapeutic work. The first part introduces the way the body image present in literature is perceived, along with theoretical considerations on its nature, components and disorders resulting from its disturbances. Then she proc eeds to describe the characteristics and types of the body image deformities in eating disorders and obesity, emphasizing the conclusion drawn from the research, about the correlation between the body image distortion and the self-image distortion. Further on, the term bodily self is discussed, which highlights the significance of specific developmental disturbances for integration and arrangement of body-related experiences. The author emphasizes the contribution of early childhood traumas to the development of one’s pathological attitude to the body, including autodestructive behaviours. Another discussed subject is dissociative defence disorder underlying the states of bodily alienation and perhaps also autodestruction (as observed in eating disorders and borderline personality). The last part presents characteristics of body dysmorphic disorder, its clinical aspects and consequences. With the final conclusion the author closes her considerations about the correlation between the body image disorders and structural aspects of personality which are subjected to psychotherapy.