Creating Beauty To Cure the Soul

Race and Psychology in the Shaping of Aesthetic Surgery

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by Sander L. Gilman

Duke University Press

Due/Published November 1998, 176 pages, cloth

ISBN 0822321114

Book 451 from Sander Gilman. Creating Beauty to Cure the Soul is a cultural history of the connections between beauty of body and happiness of mind. At the same time, it explores the parallels between the origins and popularity of aesthetic surgery and those of psychoanalysis. Following these themes through an wide range of historical moments and players, Gilman traces how aesthetic alterations of the body have been used to "cure" dissatisfied states of mind.

Gilman entertains a number of philosophical and psychological questions that underlie the more practical decisions rountinely made by doctors and potential patients considering these types of surgery. While surveying and incorporating the relevant theories of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Karl Menninger, Paul Schilder, contemporary feminist critics, and others, Gilman considers the highly unstable nature of cultural notions of health, happiness, and beauty. He reveals how ideas of race and gender structured early understandings of aesthetic surgery in discussions of both the "abnormality" of the Jewish nose and the historical requirement that healthy and virtuous females look "normal," thereby enabling them to achieve invisibility. Reflecting upon historically widespread prejudices, Gilman describes the persecutions, harrassment, attacks, and even murders that continue to result from bodily difference and he encourages readers to question the cultural assumptions that underlie the increasing acceptability of this surgical form of psychotherapy.

 "Sander Gilman's undisputed mastery in explaining and analyzing human stereotypes receives a new and fascinating dimension through the role which aesthetic surgery plays in connecting ideas of physical change and human happiness."--George L. Mosse, author of The Image of Man and The Crisis of German Ideology

Review

Aesthetic surgery which began in the nineteenth century has always been viewed as something a bit beyond medicine. Not necessary for the purposes of the patient's health, many have seen it as frivolous when compared to necessary reconstructive surgery, while others claim its important psychological effects -- if one looks good than one feels good. Sander Gilman's new work examines the cultural history of aesthetic surgery, its connections to psychotherapy and issues of race, gender and definitions of normal. Gilman also notes how the Western preoccupation with deviant forms, i.e. the "Jewish nose" reveals the racial underpinnings about discussions of aesthetic surgery and the prejudice against body types that are not perceived as "normal." In the historical treatment of these issues, Gilman's extraordinary work points to the highly unstable notions of beauty, health and happiness. He also views these changes through the works of such thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Karl Menninger, Enrico Morselli, and others. In a review of the book George Mosse writes, "Sander Gilman's undisputed mastery in explaining and analyzing human stereotypes receives a new and fascinating dimension through the role which aesthetic surgery plays in connecting ideas of physical change and human happiness."

Review Seminary Co-op

Aesthetic surgery which began in the nineteenth century has always been viewed as something a bit beyond medicine. Not necessary for the purposes of the patient's health, many have seen it as frivolous when compared to necessary reconstructive surgery, while others claim its important psychological effects -- if one looks good than one feels good. Sander Gilman's new work examines the cultural history of aesthetic surgery, its connections to psychotherapy and issues of race, gender and definitions of normal. Gilman also notes how the Western preoccupation with deviant forms, i.e. the "Jewish nose" reveals the racial underpinnings about discussions of aesthetic surgery and the prejudice against body types that are not perceived as "normal." In the historical treatment of these issues, Gilman's extraordinary work points to the highly unstable notions of beauty, health and happiness. He also views these changes through the works of such thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Karl Menninger, Enrico Morselli, and others. In a review of the book George Mosse writes, "Sander Gilman's undisputed mastery in explaining and analyzing human stereotypes receives a new and fascinating dimension through the role which aesthetic surgery plays in connecting ideas of physical change and human happiness."