Inside and outside the self. Virtual reality and repertory grids in the spatial analysis of anorexic patients’ meanings

Allocentric Lock Theory (ALT) suggests that body image disturbance in anorexia nervosa may be caused by deficits in spatial reference frames processing. The general aim of this study was to investigate the presence of deficits in the egocentric and allocentric reference frame processing in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN). We adopted a well-validated virtual reality-based procedure in sample composed by 12 AN patients and 12 healthy controls. The AN patients showed deficits in the spatial ability to recover and update a long term stored representation with perceptual-driven inputs. Our findings suggest the existence of impairments in the processing of spatial reference frames in anorexia nervosa that could be related to a distorted body representation. Furthermore, it is possible to argue that the assumption of a not updated allocentric state in the interpretation of interpersonal experience is in relation to the rigid, extreme and unvarying way of construing Self and others heightened in anorexia nervosa within a personal construct psychology perspective. This kind of exploration may be conducted by using repertory grids.