[Body symbolics of anorectic women].

AIM

Body image and its disorder is an important issue in anorexia nervosa. The aim of the present paper is to approach this issue by a symbol test and to demonstrate the image what anorectic women create about their own body through several symbols.

METHOD

29, 13-35 year old anorectic and 29 15-35 year old healthy women were tested with Jacqueline Royer's Metamorphosis Test. The test is based on the Jungian and Bourdonian psychology, and examines the dynamic, altering part of the personality through the motivation and identification system.

RESULTS

Among anorectic women--opposed to healthy women--similar answers, symbols appeared, which differ from the vulger answers of the test, and show a plain or deep analogy with the physical and psychical symptoms of anorexia nervosa. 15.7% of the answers given to the Figure question by anorectic women have a symbolic reference to "deformed" quality. In the category of Material, 6.2% of their answers show the symbolics of "fire" and "burning". 21.0% of their answers given to the category of Landscape symbolise "withering" and "dying" parts of nature.

CONCLUSIONS

The imaginative expression of the similar symbols given by anorectic women help us to conceive the psychodynamical background and the subjective somatic-psychical meaning of the disease in a more complex way.