Psychosocial Aspects of Craniofacial Surgery

Abstract

One of the many factors operating against the facially deformed is the high social importance of physical appeal. This has been so in all human societies of which we have record. Aesthetic values vary in different cultures but always the appearance is important and above all the appearance of the face. In the European cultural world an ideal of facial beauty is derived at many removes from the art of classical Greece, and the importance of this ideal is constantly underlined and vulgarised by the mass media of western societies. Good looks are needed for marriage and sex, for jobs, for success, even for friendship. There is an obsession to preserve youthful appearance long after youth has passed, a social disdain for those who let themselves acquire facial blemishes, lose their hair, or become fat. Physical attractiveness is regarded not only as an important ingredient of success but as a saleable commodity. All these views are constantly impressed on us by television, radio, films, and magazines. The cultural worlds of Asia and Africa have their own very different aesthetic values, but these are often no less intolerant of the individual deviate. It is eyident today that there is a strong trend towards an interracial ideal of commercially acceptable beauty.