Körper . Wahrnehmung . Störung

This paper investigates the relation between media landscapes and body dysmorphic disorder. Alongside a reading of Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barres's Livealbum (1999), it argues that modern subjects are always already inextricably intertwined with media landscapes that shape the (mis)conceptions of self.The bodies of said selves are constituted as dysmorphophobic.In a second section this paper undertakes a discourse analysis of the origin of this pathology by investigating the psychological understanding of BDD, starting with Enrico Morselli's Sulla Dismofofobia e sulla Tafefobia due forme non per anco descritte di Pazzia con idee fisse from 1891.The article concludes with an exploration of the potential that the intercultural concept of contact zones (M.L. Pratt) holds for the medical humanities, opting for an intensified dialog between psychology and literary studies, especially with regard to the discourse of body dysmorphic disorder.