Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:39:31.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Body Image and Self-Concept in Schizophrenia

An Experimental Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

T. E. Weckowicz  and
R. Sommer
T. E. Weckowicz
Affiliation:
University Hospital, Saskatoon, Sask
R. Sommer
Affiliation:
University Hospital, Saskatoon, Sask
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Disturbances of ego, self-concept and body-image have always been regarded as central in the psychopathology of schizophrenia. The passivity phenomena, automatisme superieur of the French authors, are indeed very common in this disease. There is a disturbance of the self which is shown in depersonalization and in feelings of influence and passivity. The boundaries of the self become loose or blurred and the patient may feel, for example, that parts of his body do not belong to him or that he is part of the plants, animals, clouds, other people or of the whole world and that they are part of him. He may feel at one with the whole of mankind. Self-concept is closely related to what has been termed “body image” or “perceived body”. Head (29, 30) has shown that what he called “body schema” is very important for motor co-ordination and performance of purposeful movements and also for orientation in space. Schilder (53) in his monograph has analysed the problem of body-image in great detail. He has found in the idea of the body image the basis for the body or physical ego. He follows Head in stating that the body image consists of the proprioceptions of the whole body and that it changes with the body's varying postures. Yet neither Head's body schema nor Schilder's body image are identical with the body ego. The body schema represents the constant mental knowledge of one's body; the body image is the changing presentation of the body in one's mind. Throughout the changes of the body image there is an awareness of continuity of one's body, a sense of basic identity and oneness. This constitutes the bodily or physical ego. The body ego in its turn is the basis of a wider “self” which can be called self-concept or selfhood. This self-concept or selfhood contains, in addition to the awareness of the continuity and the identity of one's own body in spite of its constant change, the awareness of the continuity of one's self as a person in spite of constantly changing relationship with the external world, and in spite of the playing and taking different “roles” in social interactions. According to Mead (38) and Coutu (16), selfhood is a social phenomenon and emerges only through interaction with other people, through “taking their roles” and viewing oneself from their point of view.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 106 , Issue 442 , January 1960 , pp. 17 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Abely, P., “Etat schizophrénique et tendence homosexuelle”, Ann. Méd.-Psychol., 1927, (Part I), 251–257.Google Scholar
2. Idem , “Le signe du miroir dans les psychoses et plus spécialement dans la démence précoce”, Ann. Méd.-Psychol., 88 (Part I), 28–36, 1930.Google Scholar
3. Angyal, A., “The experience of the body-self in schizophrenia”, A.M.A. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1936, 35, 1029–1053.Google Scholar
4. Idem , “The perceptual basis of somatic delusions in a case of schizophrenia”, A.M.A. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1934, 34, 270–279.Google Scholar
5. Bain, R., “The self-and-other words of a child”, Amer. J. Sociol., 1936, 41, 767–775.Google Scholar
6. Balint, M., in Bellak, L. (ed.), Dementia Praecox, 1948, p. 145. Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
7. Bender, L., and Keeler, W. R., “The body image of schizophrenic children following electro-shock treatment”, Amer. J. Orthopsych., 1952, 22, 335–355.Google Scholar
8. Bleuler, E., Dementia Praecox, or, The Group of Schizophrenias (English translation, 1950), p. 100. New York: Intern. Univ. Press.Google Scholar
9. Bruner, J. S., and Goodman, C. C., “Value and need as organizing factors in perception”, J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol., 1947, 42, 33–44.Google Scholar
10. Bugental, F., and Zelen, S. L., “Investigations into the ‘self-concept’, the W.A.Y. technique”, J. Pers., 1950, 18, 483–498.Google Scholar
11. Cameron, N., The Psychology of Behaviour Disorders—A Biosocial Interpretation, 1947. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.Google Scholar
12. Idem , “The paranoid pseudo-community”, Amer. J. Soc., 1943, 49, 32–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, 1902. New York: Schribner.Google Scholar
14. Critchley, M., The Parietal Lobes, 1953. London: Edward Arnold & Co.Google Scholar
15. Crookes, T. G., “Size constancy and literalness in Rorschach Test”, Brit. J. Med. Psych., 1957, 30, 99.Google Scholar
16. Coutu, W., Emergent Human Nature, 1949. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
17. Delmas, M. F., “Le signe du miroir dans la démence précoce”, Ann. Méd.-Psychol., 1929, Part I, 227–233.Google Scholar
18. Eickhoff, , Louise, , “Aetiology of schizophrenia in childhood”, J. Ment. Sci., 1952, 98, 411.Google Scholar
19. Federn, P., Ego Psychology and the Psychoses, 1952. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
20. Fisher, M. S., Language Patterns of Preschool Children, 1934. New York: Columbia University, Teachers' College, Bur. Publications.Google Scholar
21. Fisher, S., and Cleveland, S., Body Image and Personality, 1958. New York: Van Nostrand Co., Inc.Google Scholar
22. Freeman, G. L., The Energetics of Human Behaviour, 1948, Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
23. Freud, S., Collected Papers, 1949. London: Hogarth Press Ltd. Google Scholar
24. Galant, J. S., “Uber selten vorkommende Phaenomena bei Dementia-praecox-Kranken. Uber das Spiegelzeichen”, Psychiat.-Neur. Woch., 1935, 37, 211–212.Google Scholar
25. Gesell, A., Ilg, F. L., and Bullis, G. E., Vision, Its Development in Infant and Child, 1949, Hoeber.Google Scholar
26. Iidem, Infant and Child in the Culture of Today, 1943. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
27. Gerstmann, J., “Syndrome of finger agnosia, disorientation for right and left, agraphia and acalculia”, Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1940, 44, 398–408.Google Scholar
28. Idem , “Psychological and phenomenological aspects of disorders of the body image”, J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 1958, 126, 6.Google Scholar
29. Head, H., Studies in Neurology, Vol. 2, 1920. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
30. Idem, Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of Speech, 1926. London: Cambridge Press.Google Scholar
31. Hoffer, A. Personal communication.Google Scholar
32. Husserl, E. G., Logische Untersuchungen, 1900, cited in Boring's, E. G. A History of Experimental Psychology, 1950. New York: Appleton Century Crofts Inc.Google Scholar
33. James, W., Essays in Radical Empiricism, 1912. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.Google Scholar
34. Koffka, K., Principles of Gestalt Psychology, 1935. New York: Harcourt, Brace Inc.Google Scholar
35. Knoos, , Helga, , “The mirror sign”, Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica, 1937, 12, 155–171.Google Scholar
36. Lotze, R. H., Medicinische Psychologie oder Physiologie der Seele, 1852. Göttingen.Google Scholar
37. Mach, E., Die Analyse der Empfindungen und das Verhältnis des Psychischen zum Physischen, 1886, Vienna.Google Scholar
38. Mead, G. H., Mind, Self and Society, 1934. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
39. Minkowski, E., La Schizophrénie, 1927. Paris.Google Scholar
40. Moore, K. C., “The mental development of a child”, Psychol. Rev. Monogr. Suppl., 1896, No. 3.Google Scholar
41. Ostancow, P., “Le signe du miroir dans la démence précoce”, Ann. Méd.-Psychol., 1934, 92, Part 2, 787–790.Google Scholar
42. Parsons, T., and Bales, R. F., Family Socialization and Interaction Process, 1955. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.Google Scholar
43. Piaget, J., The Language and Thought of the Child, 1926. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
44. Idem, The Construction of Reality in the Child, 1954. New York: Basic Books, Inc.Google Scholar
45. Idem , and Inhelder, , Bärbel, , The Child's Conception of Space, 1956. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
46. Preyer, W., The Mind of the Child, Part 2: The Development of the Intellect, 1890. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
47. Raush, H. L., “Object constancy in schizophrenia: the enhancement of symbolic objects and conceptual stability”, J. Abnor. Soc. Psychol., 1956, 53, 2, 231–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48. Rosenzweig, S., and Shakow, D., “Mirror behaviour in schizophrenic and normal individuals”, J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 1937, 86, 166–174.Google Scholar
49. Russell, B., The Analysis of Mind, 1921. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
50. Salzinger, K., “Shift in judgment of weight as a function of anchoring stimuli and instructions in early schizophrenics and normals”, J. Abnorm. and Soc. Psychol., 1957, 55, 1.Google Scholar
51. Savage, C., “Variation in ego feeling induced by D-lysergic acid diethylamide (L.S.D.-25)”, Psychoan. Rev., 1955, 42, 1–16.Google Scholar
52. Sherif, M., and Cantril, H., The Psychology of Ego-Involvements, 1947. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
53. Schilder, P., The Image and Appearance of the Human Body, 1950. New York: International Universities Press, Inc.Google Scholar
54. Idem , “Localization of the body image (postural model of the body). Localization of function in the cerebral cortex”, Res. Publ. Ass. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 1934, 13, 466–585.Google Scholar
55. Shinn, M. W., Notes on the Development of a Child, Vol. 1, 1898; Vol. 2, 1907. Berkeley University Press.Google Scholar
56. Sullivan, H. S., Clinical Studies in Psychiatry, 1956. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
57. Von Uexküll, J., “A stroll through the worlds of animals and men”, in Clair Schiller, (ed.), Instinctive Behavior, 1957. Int. Univ. Press.Google Scholar
58. Weckowicz, T. E., “Size constancy in schizophrenic patients”, J. Ment. Sci., 1957, 103, 432.Google Scholar
59. Idem , Sommer, R., and Hall, R., “Distance constancy in schizophrenic patients”, J. Ment. Sci., 1958, 104, 436.Google Scholar
60. Idem, and Hall, R., Distance Constancy in Schizophrenic Patients—Further study (in publication).Google Scholar
61. Idem, and Blewett, D. B., Size Constancy and Abstract Thinking in Schizophrenic Patients (in publication).Google Scholar
62. Weinberg, S. K., “A sociological analysis of a schizophrenic type”, in Rose, A. (ed.), Mental Health and Mental Disorders, 1955. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
63. Werner, H., and Wapner, S., “Toward a general theory of perception”, Psychol. Rev., 1952, 59, 324–338.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.