Mirrors, body image and self

This article describes the mirror interview in which subjects are interviewed whilst standing and watching themselves in front of a full-length mirror. The comparison of two groups of adolescents, one a control group and one a group of adolescents with personality disorder revealed interesting differences in attitudes to body image and self. Adolescents with personality disorder had difficulty in affect regulation and tended to express alienation towards their body image, in some instances, not being able to recognize their body image. These observations are discussed in the light of attachment theory and Bollas' theory of self states. This sense of alienation is thought to reflect difficulty in co-coordinating a sense of self as seen with a sense of self as felt and thus with the status of the body as both subject and object.