Abstract
With a close examination of the formation of the body image in psychoanalytic theory, I
hope to gain insight into how the image in the mirror comes to be distorted in body
dysmorphic disorder and to propose some suggestions on what may have caused this
distortion. With this aim, I will be exploring unconscious processes as the reason for
distortion; Freud’s symptoms and Lacan’s Sinthome; the Mirror stage as formative of
body image and the role of the Other in body image formation. Author keywords: Body image, distortion, mirror, ego, ideal-ego, super-ego
