The sense of body-ego boundary is experienced on a continuum. The stronger the boundary, the stronger, more impermeable, and more stable the sense of self. This state, if taken to an extreme, gives us dogmatic fanatics and paranoid individuals. The opposite extreme yields dependency, confusion, chronic anxiety, out-of-body experiences, and ultimately schizophrenia. As both a bodily structure and a psychological experience, the definiteness of body boundary can be affected by emotional states, drugs, hypnosis, sensory isolation, and many others both positive and negative (Fisher, 1970). The body boundary may be weakened by birth defect, emotional or physical trauma especially sexual abuse or facial disfigurement, and by psychiatric disorders such as paranoia and schizophrenia. The loss of body boundary is a form of depersonalization in which a person becomes estranged from his or her own body (see Simeon & Abugel, 2006).
Over-Bounded
The over-bounded is exemplified in the pattern of the “rigid structure” as found in Keleman (1985) and Smith (1985). It is often a response to trauma which most likely was experienced in early childhood about the age five or six. The body appears stiff with contracted musculature as if it were tensed to resist an oncoming impact. Chest and pelvic area are heavily armored. He or she makes their bodies seem larger so as to make others seem smaller. Personality patterns are based on aggression and domination. The hypertonicity of the body and the ramrod straightness of the posture indicate suppressed sensations and feelings.
Excessive bodybuilding is one form of inflating and rigidifying the body. It is done in two ways. The first is a psychic overcompensation caused by an irrational delusion that one’s body isn’t big enough and the other is a reaction-formation defense on the part of gay men to appear more masculine. Whereas women want to be thinner men want to be bigger and compensate by building muscle mass. If taken to an extreme this can lead to muscle dysmorphia (MD)—the so-called “bigorexia”—which is a pathological preoccupation that one’s body is not muscular enough or too small. There are no accurate measures of the prevalence of this condition, but educated guesses say it affects 6.9 percent of the male population and 10-12 percent of professional bodybuilders. Muscle dysmorphia is marked by an obsessively relentless pursuit of a hyper-muscular appearance. There are a variety of symptoms associated with this condition:
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- A fixated belief that one’s body is not large enough.
- Compulsive exercising interferes with interpersonal, employment, and social obligations and relationships.
- Avoidance of situations where one’s body may be displayed as this causes extreme anxiety and so much so that they may become house-bound.
- Continued exercising or use of performance-enhancing substances or extreme diet regimentation despite the known fact that these are have seriously negative impacts on the person’s physical and mental well-being.
- Excessive body checking; often up to 13 times per day (four times more frequently than non-MD subjects).
Persons suffering with MD are prone to steroid and substance abuse, anxiety disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, suicide, and eating disorders.
Sexual minority men are under unusual pressures regarding their body form as opposed to their heterosexual peers. They are under greater pressure to conform to a body type, body shape, and/or size desired by the gay community. Then, on the other hand, they have to fit into mainstream society by appearing masculine. The typical solution resolving this stress is by compulsive exercise, disordered dieting, and anabolic-androgenic steroid use (Brewster et al., 2017; Duncan, 2007). Gay men experience a much higher Drive for Muscularity than do heterosexual men or women (Yelland & Tiggemann, 2003). Similarly, heterosexual men who are insecure about their masculinity are also vulnerable to muscle dysmorphia (Murray et al., 2013; Nonahal et al., 2014).
Inflated-Obese
Emotional neglect, physical abuse, witnessing domestic violence, and sexual abuse are examples of childhood trauma which can affect body boundaries to varying degrees depending on it being direct versus indirect traumatization. People either harden their bodies to as a defense mechanism to cope with the effects of trauma and to protect against future incidents or they can soften and weaken their body boundary as a coping strategy. They can also hyper-inflate their bodies with enormous amounts of fat which acts like soft armoring which results in obesity. The association between childhood maltreatment and obesity later in life has recently been confirmed in a large-scale metanalysis of 41 studies (Danese & Tan, 2014). The causal linkages between the two are as yet unknown. Many persons with obesity and binge eating disorders have a history of these trauma. A study of 340 morbidly obese patients awaiting bariatric surgery revealed that 80 percent had at least one adverse psychological event in childhood while patients with binge eating disorder reported higher traumatic incidents in childhood (Talmon & Ginzburg, 2018).
This body pattern is what Keleman (1985) calls the “swollen structure.” It is enlarged by an immense amount of fat which serves to insulate a person from his or her own internal sensations and feelings. It is a structure under intense internal pressures. Eating becomes unconsciously substituted need for emotional sustenance and healing. Self-inflation not only protects the self via fatty armoring, but also acts to keep others at a distance.
Adult obesity has been strongly linked to childhood abuse and trauma (Danese & Tan, 2014) which often results in binge eating (Escandón-Nagel, et al., 2018). Emotional eating is a particularly difficult problem as it differs from regular hunger. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly and has to be satisfied immediately. Eating continues on long after physical satiation. It is always triggered by some kind of emotional upset. Emotional eating is engaged in to overcome anxiety and distressing emotions. It does not solve any of these problems. Emotional eating is strongly related to depression (Doğan, Göçet-Tekina, & Katrancğlu; Gould, 2007; Roth, 2003; Konttinen et al., 2010).
Under-Bounded
This body pattern is best seen in the “oral” or “collapsed structure” as found in Keleman (1985) and Smith (1985). The body appears weak, falling down, with poor posture. These people have low energy and are often depressed. They may try to conceal their bodies under loose clothing. Their own body experience is highly disconnected and unawareness can border on dissociation and depersonalization. They are blocked from expressing aggression and have deep fears of abandonment. They often are driven by conflicted feelings about emotional and physical intimacy.
While these patterns appear different in kind, they share the same purpose: to compensate for a disruption of personal power that threatens identity. The question now becomes how to modify one’s body boundary for healthier functioning, power, and control? This problem is taken up in the next and last part of this blog-lecture: “Embodiment and Empowerment Part 3: Strengthening the Body Boundary.”
Part 1 and Part 3 available here…
- Embodiment and Empowerment Part 1: Body-Ego Boundary and Locus of Control
- Embodiment and Empowerment Part 3: Modifying the Body Boundary
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
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References
Brewster, M., Sandil, R., Breslow, A., Eklund, A., & DeBlaere, C. (2017). “Do you even lift, bro?” Objectification, minority stress, and body image concerns for sexual minority men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity 18(2), p. 87-98.
Cunningham, M., Griffiths, S., Mitchison, D., Mond, J., Castle, D., & Murray, S. (2017). Muscle dysmorphia: An overview of clinical features and treatment options. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy 31(4), p. 255-271.
Danese, A. & Tan, M. (2014). Childhood maltreatment and obesity: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Molecular Psychiatry 19, p. 544-554.
Doğan, T., Göçet-Tekina, E., & Katrancğlu, A. (2011). Feeding your feelings: A self-report measure of emotional eating. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15, p. 2074-2077.
Duncan, D. (2007). Out of the closet and into the gym: Gay men and body image in Melbourne, Australia. The Journal of Men’s Studies 15(3), p. 331-346.
Escandón-Nagel, N., Peró, M., Grau, A., Soriano, J., & Feixas, G. (2018). Emotional eating and cognitive predictors of binge eating disorder in patients with obesity. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology 18, p. 52-59.
Gould, R. (2007). Shrink Yourself: Break Free from Emotional Eating Forever. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Willey & Sons.
Keleman, S. (1985). Emotional Anatomy: The Structure of Experience. Berkeley, CA: Center Press.
Konttinen, H., Silventoinen, K., Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, S., Männistö, S., & Haukkala, A. (2010). Emotional eating and physical activity selfefficacy as pathways in the association between depressive symptoms and adiposity indicators. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 92(5), p. 1031-1039.
Murray, S., Rieger, E., Karlov, L., & Touyz, S. (2013). Masculinity and femininity in the divergence of male body image concerns. Journal of Eating Disorders 1(11), p. 1-8.
Nonahal, S., Pourshahbaz, A., Dolatshahi, B., & Omidian, M. (2014). The role of the media, perfectionism, and difficulties in emotion regulation in prediction of muscle dysmorphia symptoms. Practice in Clinical Psychology 2(3), p. 161-165.
Roth, G. (2003). Breaking Free from Emotional Eating. London, UK: Penguin Group.
Simeon, D. & Abugel, J. (2006). Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Talmon, A. & Ginzburg, K. (2018). “Body self” in the shadow of childhood sexual abuse: The long-term implications of sexual abuse for male and female adult survivors. Child Abuse & Neglect 76, p. 416-425.
Yelland, C. & Tiggemann, M. (2003). Muscularity and the gay ideal: Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in homosexual men. Eating Behaviors 4, p. 107-116.