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Psychosomatic Medicine 30:51-61 (1968)
© 1968 American Psychosomatic Society

Body Image and Medical Illness

JOHN J. SCHWAB M.D.1 and JAMES D. HARMELING M.A.1

1 Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.

Body-image scores, based on medical inpatients' attitudes toward bodily parts and functions, were found to be comparable to those reported for psychiatric patients, and lower than those obtained with healthy populations. As expected, the medical patients express the most dissatisfaction with those parts of the body affected by illness, but 20% had very low body-image scores because they were dissatisfied with many bodily parts and functions. This extension of negative feelings toward the body as a whole correlated with indices of emotional distress, and was especially prevalent among those patients who had abnormal mental status examinations and those who were referred for psychiatric consultations. Striking body-image differences were revealed between the sexes; the females were much more dissatisfied with their bodies and their negative attitudes were closely tied to conditions of illness and psychological well-being. In contrast, males' more negative body images correlated with advancing age and higher socioeconomic status.

Submitted on February 20, 1967




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