[Dysperception of body image and dysmorphophobias in mental anorexia. Apropos of 115 cases involving both sexes. I. Altered mechanisms of perception in mental anorexia].

We noted frequency of body-image disturbance (BID) and dismorphophobias (DPP) in 97 girls and 8 boys among 107 girls and 8 boys with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), seen since 1973 and coming up semiologic criterions of Laboucarie and Dally & Sargant. 91,5% of the girls and 7 out of 8 boys presented a BID at one time of their evolution. The other ones did not form a characteristic group. BID prevailed in no-perception of emaciation. No-perception of overweight was exceptional. That of variations of weight was frequent, explaining to need objective elements to measure real volume. BID seems to result from an incapacity to integrate well individually perceived details into a coherent image. Its apparition signals starting of AN, and it is a fundamental criterion of evolutivity. It's not frequent it's extended to body-image disperception of the close people, but it is often associated to an increase of mental representation of ingested feed volume.