Book review: False Bodies, True Selves

4 stars

Body image remains of deep concern to nurses, whether they work in trauma, cancer care or deal with chronic illnesses as the ways in which patients’ experience the body is important.

Altered body image is a recurring concern within mental illness too. Since the 1990s, nurses have developed their own explanations of altered body image.

So the question arises, do nurses need a further text, one written by a psychotherapist? At an operational level, the answer is no.

This text was never conceived of as a handbook for nurses. It is a book of theories and insights. The skin is a ‘canvas for self-expression’.

Even before injury or disease individuals are actively engaged in judging the body. People use the body to mediate ideas about self and self-worth, and they use it as currency within social interaction.