How the Mind Creates the Body and What Can Go Wrong: Case Studies of Misperceptions of the Body
Erich Kasten, Jill Julia Eilers
Healthcare July 27, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare11152144 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 5 |
| Key findings | The authors argue that distortions of body experience arise from several distinct sources, including mental disorders such as psychosis, drug effects on body perception, and neurological causes, and they illustrate these with case examples grouped into sexually toned body-perception changes, out-of-body experiences, and near-death experiences. Because body image disorders are so varied, the review offers only a selective sample of cases. |
Abstract
The review brings together a wealth of case studies, both from the authors' patients and from the literature, about people whose bodies do not feel as they really should. Body parts suddenly become longer or shorter, heavier or lighter and there may be a loss of body control to the point where individuals feel as if they no longer have a body at all. The article differentiates by type of causes: mental disorders (e.g., psychosis), the influence of drugs on body perception and neurological causes. Depending on the type of body change, examples are given from the categories of sexually toned changes in body perception, out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences. Since there are countless types of body image disorders, the article is limited to a selective selection of the most interesting and sometimes obscure deviations.
Citations in the library
Cites 3
- Out‐of‐body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin Brain January 15, 2004
- The bodily self and its disorders: neurological, psychological and social aspects. Current Opinion in Neurology December 1, 2014
- How do you feel--now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nature reviews. Neuroscience 2009