Headline Dec18,2012/To The Body Beautiful!

"TO THE BODY BEAUTIFUL"

The human anxiety about looks and body is more commonplace than is usually thought. Latest research shows that the Doctors are increasingly concerned that many people become morbidly preoccupied with their looks and body image.

This preoccupation has now been recognised as a medical disorder and given a name. Dysmorphobia describes extreme cases of Imagined Ugliness Syndrome, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD milder ones.


Sufferers may look attractive but be full of self-loathing. A study of 30 patients, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry not so very long ago, found that the ''hair'' was the most common imagined defect, by the nose, skin, eyes, and the shape size of the face and the head. More than half the subjects of study were male. The worst cases described themselves as ''obsessed'', ''tormented'' and ''devastated'' and spent hour after hour thinking about their bodies.


Specialists say that the best candidates for any kind of cosmetic surgery are those who are aesthetically aware, interested in their looks and not experiencing any sort of crises: they definitely know that they want a physical rather than a personality change. But to what extent should medicine pander to the vanity of humans, or say a man, seeking to change the shape of his chest?


In the 90s .Dr David Sharpe -one of the leading consultant cosmetic surgeons in UK had the following to advise, ''There's nothing wrong with having plastic surgery, even if you don't need it. It's like buying a Porsche. You don't need one. It just makes you feel better.'' Wise medical men used to argue that the best treatment of ageing was philosophical acceptance of the inevitable.

Yet cosmetic surgery has encouraged a very different view. More and more humans are are now refusing to surrender to the inevitable. Instead, they are resorting to surgical practice to conform to the prevailing ''natural'' image of what passes for young and beautiful.

My worry about cosmetic surgery is that it's often seen as an antidote to a psycho-social problem. It certainly has a complimentary role, but improving self-esteem may achieve far far more.


Many thanks to !WOW! Good Night and God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless