Body Dysmorphic Disorder. A Male Concern (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Psychology - Miscellaneous, ( Atlantic International University ), language: English, abstract: Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is 'a psychiatric illness in which patients become obsessively preoccupied with perceived flaws in their appearance' (Luciano 2002: p175). Martin & Costello (2008) view it is a severe dislike and concern about some slight or imagined aspect of their appearance, that causes them significant emotional distress and difficulties. Cash (2008) maintains that sufferers have 'a grossly distorted view of what they look like' and Phillips (2005) coins BDD as 'the disorder of imagined ugliness' (p5).

Body Dysmorphic Disorder is classified as a somatoform disorder because the primary focus is a psychological preoccupation with a somatic issue. (Barlow & Durand: 2005) Thompson (2000) explains that the term that preceded Body Dysmorphic Disorder was 'dysmorphophobia' which was used by Morselli in 1886 (Morselli, 1886) which literally meant a 'fear of ugliness'. In 1903, Janet's description referred to an 'obsession with shame of the body'; for decades BDD was thought to represent a 'psychotic delusional state' (Barlow & Durand: 2005, p183). The first English language paper on dysmorphophobia was not published until 1970 (Hay: 1970) focusing on the fear of other people's reactions to the imagined flaw in appearance. BDD gained official status in 1987 when it was first published in the DSM-III-R

Jim was convinced that everyone, even his good friends, was staring at a part of his body that he himself found absolutely grotesque. He reported that strangers would never mention his deformity and his friends felt too sorry for him to mention it. Jim thought his head was square! Jim could not imagine people getting past the fact that his head was square. To hide his condition as well as he could, Jim wore soft floppy hats and was most comfortable in winter, when he could all but completely cover his head with a large stocking cap. To us, Jim looked perfectly normal. (Barlow & Durand: 2005)

In the article 'Body Dysmorphic Disorder in men, psychiatric treatments are usually effective', Katharine Phillips notes that BDD is an underrecognised yet relatively common and severe psychiatric disorder. Many doctors...do not recognize the condition as yet and simply see it as low self-esteem' (Paterson: 2008, p51) Claiborn & Pedrick (2002) focus their attention on the two predominant features of BDD; the preoccupation with the [imagined] defect and the actions taken to reduce the feelings of distress.

How do I know if I have Body Dysmorphic Disorder?...