ABSTRACT
As other patients with a sudden and permanent deficiency, brain-injured patients suffer from a narcissistic injury. In addition, depending on their lesion’s location, some patients may present with specific psychic troubles. This implies that in brain-injured patients not all body image disorders are due to neurological body schema disorders and that a clinical researcher must consider both the neurological and psychological aspects of body image disorders. Based on this principle, we have analysed 308 self-portraits of (1) normal, (2) right and (3) left brain-injured patients, and (4) patients with bone or spinal lesions. These self-portraits were obtained using non-directive or semi-directive interviews. A descriptive analysis of all drawings permitted us to separate (a) normal self-portraits – drawn by normal subjects and patients without body schema disorders; (b) portraits lacking a mouth and/or both hands – mostly drawn by patients with left brain lesions, and (c) portraits lacking one hand and/or leg – drawn by patients with right brain lesions and body schema disorders.
