Anorexia nervosa: distorted body image.

Anorexia nervosa is a psychosomatic disorder in which the patient— usually a young middle class female—relentlessly pursues her “ideal”; body image. Body image is the mental picture we have of ourselves, and the anorexic has a distorted perception of that image—the thinner she becomes, the fatter she perceives herself to be. A profile of anorexic patients and their families, the relationship between anorexia and body image, and ways of managing the anorexic patient are explored.