Distorted body representations in anorexia nervosa

•Evidence of distorted body representations in anorexia nervosa patients is reviewed.•A new framework for how spatial content on the body is represented is proposed.•This framework is applied to understanding the reviewed evidence.

In this paper, I discuss empirical evidence regarding anorexic patients' distorted body representations. I fit this evidence into a broader framework for understanding how the spatial content of the body is tracked and represented. This framework is motivated by O'Shaughnessy's (1980) long-term body image hypothesis. This hypothesis posits a representation that tracks changes in the spatial content of the body and supplies this content to other body representations. I argue that a similar kind of body representation might exist and, in the case of anorexia, be distorted. Finally, I suggest that this body representation might become distorted through influence by affect.