Suggestibility, Psychic Pain, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptoms: the Mediating Role of Defense Mechanisms

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by an increased self-perception of one's own appearance and an intense aspiration for beauty, which may elevate the likelihood of being easily suggestible, cause mental suffering, and impair ego functions. This study investigated the direct and indirect impacts of suggestibility and psychic pain on symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) through the mediating role of defense mechanisms. The study encompassed 150 BDD patients chosen through purposive sampling in a cross-sectional design. The data were collected using the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale-Form C (SHSS-C), the Mental Pain Scale (MPS), the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40), and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale modified for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD-YBOCS). Suggestibility and psychic pain indicated significant direct effects on BDD. Analysis showed that suggestibility and psychic pain have significant positive indirect roles in BDD through the mediating role of defense mechanisms. Altogether, suggestibility, psychic pain, and defense mechanisms explained 78.2% variations of the variation in symptoms of BDD. The results showed a good conceptual model of the direct and indirect effects of suggestibility and psychic pain on BDD symptoms, mediated by defense mechanisms in this study. These findings have practical implications for the management of suggestibility, psychic pain, and immature and neurotic defensive mechanisms in patients with BDD using community-based programs and psychodynamic psychotherapies.