The Corporeal Identity by Elena Faccio

Author:Elena Faccio
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

5.3 The Game of “What If…”

After various attempts to lift the lid on the complex subject socialised construction of human consciousness, we now approach the neck of the funnel, namely those theoretical convergences that have given form to the dysmorphophobia construct and its implications for clinical practice.

To be specific, the misperception of an individual body schema, or the (more or less) “defective” representations of the body’s space-object, self-assessed and kinaesthetic perceptions by organs of the body, is defined as “dysmorphoaestesia”. “Dysmorphophobia”, on the other hand, is a “defective” representation of our body image in the way this appears (in body object terms) and is accomplished (in body subject terms) by the individual (Schilder 1950).

Yet further distinctions are made in the literature between body image affect (Garner and Garfinkel 1981), body shape disparage (Slade 1988) – meant as the ensemble of feelings and emotions relative to body image—and body image attitude (Garner and Garfinkel 1981) or body size (Slade 1988)—namely the cognitive representation of body image, conditioned by ideal and guidelines of evaluation of our own body’s dimensions or of some parts of it. *

As is the case for other psychological realities, in this also neuro—physiological research anticipates and channels research in the clinical sphere, so that the “black box” of body image and its various declinations has not yet been opened. In fact, there exists no universally accepted definition of “dysmorphophobia”, unless you include DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), that proposes to classify it as a dysmorphic disorder, and places it inside the larger category of Somatoform Disorders, on axis I.

Diagnostic Criteria for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (a)Preoccupation for a supposed defect in appearance. If a minor anomaly is present, the importance a person gives it is somewhat excessive.

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