Self portraits and eating disorders

Women who suffer from anorexia and bulimia draw themselves differently from other women. Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel studied 76 women. 36 had been diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia, 20 had no eating disorders but were overweight and 20 were normal weight. The women with eating disorders drew themselves either with a lager neck, a disconnected neck or no neck at all, they emphasized the mouth more and drew themselves with wider thighs. They also drew themselves either without feet or with disconnected feet. Compared to the women with bulimia the women with anorexia tended to omit breasts from their drawings, draw less defined body lines and draw smaller figures relative to the size of the page.