Big Picture: Self as a walking nose
The photomontage is by Steve Caplin (author of How to Cheat in Photoshop) and David Veale, who is a director of a national specialist service in BDD at the Maudsley and Royal Bethlem Hospitals.
02 November 2012
‘This photomontage illustrates how a man with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) described his experience of being excessively self-consciousness about the size of his nose. This is described in our model as the “self as an aesthetic object”, whereby he experiences his self as a distorted image in appearance-based (objectified) terms viewed from an observer perspective. Thus he feels as if he looks like a “walking nose” and this defines his identity. Such images are often associated with aversive memories, such as being teased or bullied during childhood. Cognitive behaviour therapy uses imagery rescripting for such memories and to help refocus an individual’s attention away from the self.’
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