Implications of Congenital Blindness in Body Image: An Integrative Review/Implicacoes da Cegueira Congenita na Imagem Corporal: Uma Revisao Integrativa

This study aimed to investigate, through an integrative review, the main implications of congenital blindness on body image. An article search process, without publication date limit, with the descriptors "congenital blindness" and "congenitally blind", in the Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science and PubMed databases was performed. Among the 3,612 publications found, 20 were analyzed. The implications of blindness were discussed in five distinct areas: eating disorders, self-representation, body dissatisfaction, body experience and neural representation of self-concept. It was concluded that it is essential to value a complex series of psychosocial factors in the development of people with congenital blindness, which could impact positively or negatively the body image formation. KEYWORDS: visually disabled, mental representation, body image Este estudo objetiva investigar, por meio de uma revisao integrativa, as principais implicacoes da cegueira congenita na imagem corporal. Um processo de buscas de artigos, sem limite de data de publicacao, com os descritores "congenital blindness" e "congenitally blind", nas bases SCOPUS, PsycINFO, Web of Science e PubMed, foi utilizado. Dentre as 3.612 publicacoes identificadas, 20 foram analisadas. Discutiu-se as implicacoes da cegueira em cinco areas distintas: transtorno alimentar, representacao do self, insatisfacao corporal, experiencia corporal e representacao neural de autoconceito. Concluiu-se ser fundamental valorizar um complexo conjunto de fatores psicossociais no desenvolvimento da pessoa com cegueira congenita, que poderia impactar de modo positivo ou negativo a formacao da imagem corporal. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: deficiencia visual, representacao mental, imagem corporal