Body Dysmorphic Disorder is defined by the DSM-IV-TR as a preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance, in a normal-appearing person. It can also be excessive concern over a slight physical defect. Over the last few years, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) has become the focus of increasing media attention particularly in relation to being cited as one of the main reasons why people seek out cosmetic surgery, as well as being implicated in a wide variety of diverse medical or psychiatric conditions including people with eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, muscle dysmorphia, social anxiety disorder,...etc. This is also highly provoked by a dangerously contemporary social phenomenon the “selfie”.
Historical review of diagnosis …show more content…
Concern with appearance is not just an aberration of Modern Western culture. Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the ideal physical attributes. In the 19th Century being beautiful meant wearing a corset – causing breathing and digestive problems. Now we try to diet and exercise ourselves into the fashionable shape – often with even more serious consequences. Advances in technology and in particular the rise of the mass media have caused normal concerns about how we look to become obsessions. The next major historical reference to “dysmorphophobia” was by the French psychiatrist Pierre Janet, who described a woman who was housebound for 5 years. He considered the diagnosis to be part of an obsessive compulsive neurosis which he described as “l’obsession de la honte du corps” (“obsessions of shame of the body”). Also Freud and subsequently Brunswick described the most famous case of BDD known as the “Wolf Man” who was preoccupied by imagined defects of his nose. Dysmorphophobia was also first described in the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of DSM III in 1980 as an example of an “atypical somatoform disorder” without any diagnostic
Historical review of diagnosis …show more content…
Concern with appearance is not just an aberration of Modern Western culture. Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the ideal physical attributes. In the 19th Century being beautiful meant wearing a corset – causing breathing and digestive problems. Now we try to diet and exercise ourselves into the fashionable shape – often with even more serious consequences. Advances in technology and in particular the rise of the mass media have caused normal concerns about how we look to become obsessions. The next major historical reference to “dysmorphophobia” was by the French psychiatrist Pierre Janet, who described a woman who was housebound for 5 years. He considered the diagnosis to be part of an obsessive compulsive neurosis which he described as “l’obsession de la honte du corps” (“obsessions of shame of the body”). Also Freud and subsequently Brunswick described the most famous case of BDD known as the “Wolf Man” who was preoccupied by imagined defects of his nose. Dysmorphophobia was also first described in the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of DSM III in 1980 as an example of an “atypical somatoform disorder” without any diagnostic