Differences in the Psychic Representation of the Body in Bulimic and Anorexic Patients: A Study with the Body Grid

Abstract

Development and use of a new form of a body grid are reported in the present article by means of comparing body perception and its distortions of 32 anorectic patients with a group of 31 bulimic patients. The body grid allows the users to discriminate the degree of body acceptance and the level of integration and dissociation tendencies of single body parts. With the body grid we are able to identify important differences in body image and “body-experience profiles” of bulimic and anorectic patients. Furthermore, with the body grid some insights into the structure of the body image are depicted in the form of a readily accessible graphic figure, making them useful for therapeutic focusing, treatment, and experience, tasks that rarely have been achieved by conventional methods like questionnaires or so-called projective tests.