ABSTRACT
THE sense of reality is predicated on accurate perception of the body and its boundaries. When reality sense is impaired, self-perception is characterized by indefinite ego boundaries and distorted body imagery. The study of inaccurate body perception has a long and interesting history, much of which is summarized in good reviews by Fisher and Cleveland (1958, pp. 3-53) and Kolb (1959) . These papers and earlier important contributions by Schilder ( 1935) and Bychowski (1943) document the frequent clinical observation of disturbed body perceptions in schizophrenic persons. As these writers note, however, the description of phenomen~ related to impaired reality sense · originated with neurologists, and schizophrenic disturbances of body perception are similar to and difficult to distinguish from those that accompany neurological disease. Accordin.gly, the diffen~ntiation of schizophrenia from organic brain syndrome figures prominently in the interpretation of psychodiagnostic indicators of impaired reality sense.
