Denis Diderot and Jean Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert: "Chirurgie," in:<br>[http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/ Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers]<br>1772'''<br><br>'''
Denis Diderot and Jean Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert: "Chirurgie," in:<br>[http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/ Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers]<br>1772'''<br>'''<br>
The listing of the three areas—medicine, culture, and beauty—in the subtitle of my Living Book on cosmetic surgery is not coincidental. The practice of cosmetic surgery—a surgical intervention into the body for merely aesthetic and not medical reasons—is a medical discipline, dating back to the times of the Hindu doctor [http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijps/vol4n2/sushruta.xml Sushruta], who practiced rhinoplasty c. 500 BCE. The promise on which this medical discipline operates is, however, not only that of ‘health,’ but also that of ‘beauty,’ be it a restorative beauty that seeks to ‘repair’ what has been lost (due to age, accident, or illness)—hence ''reconstructive ''surgery—or a beauty that is yet to be born, or ‘carved out,’ with the help of an aesthetic surgeon's scalpel and with reference to the grounding pillars of beauty: symmetry and proportion. In both cases, the desire for such beauty can be defined as a cultural phenomenon: in the sense that it affects the way we humans look, what we want, and the way we define our appearance and correlate it to our inner qualities and characteristics. <br><br> To repeat after [http://www.bergpublishers.com/?tabid=2476 Meredith Jones], one of the authors included in this Living Book, cosmetic surgery is the quintessential expression of today's makeover discourse, a discourse whose primary dictum is ''bodily improvement''—both moral and aesthetic. The concept of ‘makeover’ can be found in endless examples of today's western culture and its language: words and concepts such as rebirth, restart, new start, change, self realization, or new beauty are all indicators of what sociologist [http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo5891282.html Anthony Elliott] calls the ‘new individualism of instant change’. He holds the following factors responsible for this state of events: a) the importance of celebrity culture (on which we model our appearance), b) consumerism (the fact that we can buy makeover in different forms and fashions freely on the market), and c) the electronic economy of looking good (the fact that we can change appearances with computerized manipulation). This culture, which seeks improvement and progress on the macro- as well as on the micro-level of the individual experience, wants to achieve a state of being that another one of my Living Book authors, [http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ellio023/ Carl Elliott], describes as ‘better than well.’ This is a state that the true authentic self had to work hard for, or at least search for (even on the internet), a self that was supposedly always meant to be, but had to be ‘discovered’ with the help of technologies such as liposuction or Prozac. Ultimately, these enhancement technologies give birth to a ‘new better self.’ As Jones points out, such a birth often takes place on the screen (see the format of the reality television makeover show)—where all of the above-mentioned sociological factors find themselves united: celebrity, consumerism, and electronic media. ([http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cosmetic_surgery/Introduction more])<br>
The listing of the three areas—medicine, culture, and beauty—in the subtitle of my Living Book on cosmetic surgery is not coincidental. The practice of cosmetic surgery—a surgical intervention into the body for merely aesthetic and not medical reasons—is a medical discipline, dating back to the times of the Hindu doctor [http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijps/vol4n2/sushruta.xml Sushruta], who practiced rhinoplasty c. 500 BCE. The promise on which this medical discipline operates is, however, not only that of ‘health,’ but also that of ‘beauty,’ be it a restorative beauty that seeks to ‘repair’ what has been lost (due to age, accident, or illness)—hence ''reconstructive ''surgery—or a beauty that is yet to be born, or ‘carved out,’ with the help of an aesthetic surgeon's scalpel and with reference to the grounding pillars of beauty: symmetry and proportion. In both cases, the desire for such beauty can be defined as a cultural phenomenon: in the sense that it affects the way we humans look, what we want, and the way we define our appearance and correlate it to our inner qualities and characteristics. ([http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cosmetic_surgery/Introduction more])<br>
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Gaspare Tagliacozzi: Plastic Surgery of the Nose<br>[http://www.archive.org/details/decurtorumchirur02tagl De Curtorum Chirurgia], 1597
Gaspare Tagliacozzi: Plastic Surgery of the Nose<br>[http://www.archive.org/details/decurtorumchirur02tagl De Curtorum Chirurgia], 1597
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== Breast Reconstruction — Medical Discourse and Illustration ==
== Breast Reconstruction — Medical Discourse and Illustration ==
Charles M Balch, MD, and Lisa K Jacobs, MD<br>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2749168/?tool=pmcetrez Mastectomies on the Rise for Breast Cancer: "The Tide is Changing"]
Charles M Balch, MD, and Lisa K Jacobs, MD<br>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2749168/?tool=pmcetrez Mastectomies on the Rise for Breast Cancer: "The Tide is Changing"]
Michael A Martin, Ramona Meyricke, Terry O'Neill, and Steven Roberts<br>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1459180/?tool=pmcentrez Mastectomy or Breast Conserving Surgery? Factors affecting Type of Surgical Treatment for Breast Cancer — a Classification Tree Approach]
Michael A Martin, Ramona Meyricke, Terry O'Neill, and Steven Roberts<br>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1459180/?tool=pmcentrez Mastectomy or Breast Conserving Surgery? Factors affecting Type of Surgical Treatment for Breast Cancer — a Classification Tree Approach]
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The famous come-back video Spiegel by the all-female German Hip Hop group Tic Tac Toe came out in 2005.<br>It deals with female body image disorder, and the resulting desire to change everything about oneself, when looking into the Spiegel (mirror).<br>It is told through the voices of three participants of a group therapy session who come out rapping their self-hatred.
The famous come-back video Spiegel by the all-female German Hip Hop group Tic Tac Toe came out in 2005.<br>It deals with female body image disorder, and the resulting desire to change everything about oneself, when looking into the Spiegel (mirror).<br>It is told through the voices of three participants of a group therapy session who come out rapping their self-hatred.
Plastic Reconstruction of Face, Red Cross Worker, Paris 1918 (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD) In this Parisian lab, facial parts are being plastered and put on a badly disfigured man (most likley a world war one veteran).
The listing of the three areas—medicine, culture, and beauty—in the subtitle of my Living Book on cosmetic surgery is not coincidental. The practice of cosmetic surgery—a surgical intervention into the body for merely aesthetic and not medical reasons—is a medical discipline, dating back to the times of the Hindu doctor Sushruta, who practiced rhinoplasty c. 500 BCE. The promise on which this medical discipline operates is, however, not only that of ‘health,’ but also that of ‘beauty,’ be it a restorative beauty that seeks to ‘repair’ what has been lost (due to age, accident, or illness)—hence reconstructive surgery—or a beauty that is yet to be born, or ‘carved out,’ with the help of an aesthetic surgeon's scalpel and with reference to the grounding pillars of beauty: symmetry and proportion. In both cases, the desire for such beauty can be defined as a cultural phenomenon: in the sense that it affects the way we humans look, what we want, and the way we define our appearance and correlate it to our inner qualities and characteristics. (more)
Roberta J. Honigman, MSW; Alun C. Jackson, PhD; and Nicki A. Dowling, PhD The PreFACE: A Preoperative Psychosocial Screen for Elective Facial Cosmetic Surgery and Cosmetic Dentistry Patients
The famous come-back video Spiegel by the all-female German Hip Hop group Tic Tac Toe came out in 2005. It deals with female body image disorder, and the resulting desire to change everything about oneself, when looking into the Spiegel (mirror). It is told through the voices of three participants of a group therapy session who come out rapping their self-hatred.
