"Corporal Identity - Body Language", Skin Deep: Cosmetic Surgery as Art
"Beauty will save the World
", Dostoyevsky said. It is not easy to discuss something which is not
possible to define, like beauty, love, happiness. Even Socrates admitted to
knowing what is beautiful, but not what is beauty itself. We could use the
metaphysical definition of the German poet Friedrich Hebbel: "Beauty is the
Depth of the Surface." Aryan's sentence is not a definition but a statement:
"Beauty is just skin deep, but ugliness goes to the bone."
Among animals, the male
specimen is more beautiful than the female (lion, deer, rooster...). Beauty
in animals indicates strength and determines leadership. The poet would say:
"Even among flowers there is no justice." William Hogarth admits, however,
that the human female body is more beautiful than the male because of her
sinuous silhouette (Clepsydra-figure).
There is an example of the
mystical harmony of Nefertiti of ancient Egypt. The bust of pharaoh's wife
with its divine shaped lips and nose has lost nothing of its magnetic
attractiveness even 34 centuries after it was made.
Mystical harmony of Nefertiti with her divine shaped lips and nose is 34
centuries old
Our occidental civilisation
is still defined by the three supreme principles of Plato: the ideas of
GOODNESS - TRUTH - BEAUTY.
Our collective
consciousness makes these three categories identical to each other, which is
often completely wrong. One year ago a pretty blonde German woman, 25 years
of age, killed her female rival. The victim was burned, the head separated
with a saw from her body and buried 20 kilometres away. The mass circulation
newspaper "BILD" wrote in its headline: "HOW COULD SUCH A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN BE
SO CRUEL". That means only ugly people could be cruel and goodlooking people
are automatically good?!?
Pretty
Carpet - imaging Julia Roberts
Bernd Guggenberger has
written a book "Simply beautiful" with the remarkable subtitle: "Beauty as
social power". He writes that good-looking students receive better grades
for equal performances than the less attractive ones, and handsome criminals
get less punishment for the same offences than ugly prisoners. Our outward
appearance is a social phenomenon and not only a selfimage. It is the image
that others make of us and we are influenced by their reaction toward
ourselves. To look good is a psychological, physiological and instinctive
need of human beings. "Beauty promises happiness" - says Stendhal. Our
pleasant appearance is not a purpose in itself, but it is an instrument to
offer more chances in social and professional competition. According to
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, beauty is also the principle
of sexual choice.
Religious values and family
importance are diminishing - our body becomes the last refuge. That is why
fitness-centres, the cosmetic industry, beauty spas and cosmetic surgery are
booming. We live in the age of body-cult, not only of new
body-consciousness. Plastic surgeons are not the trend-setters, but very
careful observers.
Rosener:
"The plastic surgeon is a psychiatrist with a scalpel". Plutchik's emotional
index (psychogramm)
The human being is an
emotional sculpture which cries and smiles. Physical disorders, defects or
imperfections could be surgically improved on condition that our emotional
costume is not damaged. Hardly anyone will opt for an operation merely
because he has too much time or money. It is psychological suffering that
brings people to ask a plastic surgeon for help. Michelangelo said. "See the
shape within the marble and release it!" Plastic surgery can release the
patient from his/her complex. Hinderer says: "Aesthetic surgery is surgical
psychotherapy." Today we can rectify Sigmund Freud who stated: "Anatomy is
destiny". We are now able to influence destiny positively.
W. Blankenburg has found 8
different relationships to one's own body, lying between two poles: "to have
body" and "to be body":
1. Condition of
psychopathological existence
2. Point zero of
psychological orientationtoward the subject
3. Source of spontaneity
i.e. experiencedas "I can"
4. Instrument of
observation
5. Place of suffering and
evil
6. Organ of expression
7. Place of articulation
between ego andthe world
8. Body as an equal partner
Face-Styling: facelift, forehead lift, correction of lower eyelids, chemical
peel
Aesthetic plastic surgery
(cosmetic surgery) strives to achieve the highest possible harmony between
different parts of the body and the whole body, between face and body, also
between anatomy and psychology, between body and soul. Harmonia - Suprema
lex. About half of all operations are performed on the face and the other
half on the body. Any surgeon performing aesthetic (cosmetic) operations has
to possess psychological knowledge, empathy, a high level of ethic
integrity, but also the forming talent of an artist. Aesthetic surgery rests
on five pillars: science, psychology, handicraft, art and business. The
plastic surgeon should be able to identify the wishes of the patient, to
define his/her problem and to realize the wishes of the patient in the
operating theatre and not his own ideas of anthropometric perfections. The
typical patient in cosmetic surgery is extraverted, socially active,
emotionally sensitive, very critical, very self-critical, and she/he is a
perfectionist. There are only 5% of such persons in the average population.
Correction of slight submental asymmetry by liposuction. This lady was Miss
World 1989 - Nobody can get enough of beauty.
Cosmetic surgery treats
those body areas which are visible to everybody. That is the reason why
laymen judge not only the result of our treatment but also the indications:
should something be operated or not. We are thus obliged to enter dialogue
with public opinion. The most common surgical procedures could be
demonstrated, such as: Facial Rejuvenation, Face-Styling, Eyelid-surgery,
Nose Corrections, Corrections of Protruding Ears, Breast Corrections
(Augmentation, Enlargement, Reduction, Lifting or Symmetrizing),
Contour-Surgery with Liposuction, Skin-tightening of Stomach and Limbs,
genital plastic surgery (Penis Enlargement and Vaginal Reduction). A new
phenomenon of sexual aesthetics is arising nowadays: a flood of publicly
expressed superficial erotic signals is diminishing the deep sexual identity
and biological instincts. Impotence, homosexuality, transsexuality are the
result of this development.
High-Grade Breast Asymmetry
There are examples of
positive surgical transformations, like Cindy Jackson from Great Britain,
but there are some examples of surgical nightmares, like Mrs. Jocelyne
Wildenstein (Swiss "Cat-Lady"), Michael Jackson, etc. These are examples of
Body Dysmorphic Disorders (Polysurgical Additioning), or some less dramatic
cases of "Thersites Complex". These patients are able to accept the advise
not to be operated. Carolle Schneeman and Miray Orlan use their bodies in
performing art to be both image maker and image itself. Marina Abramovic and
her partner Ulay force the visitors of their "Imponderabilia" to body-touch
and to chose the male or female principle at the entrance. Sabine Runde
describes the "body as a temple."
Plastic Surgeons learn
their operating technique from their surgical teachers, but we learn the
rules of anthropometric harmony from sculptors - from Phidias, Praxiteles,
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Rodin, Dalí. Leonardo writes, for instance, in his "Trattato
Della Pittura" that thumb, nose and ears are of the same length.
Obvious
deformity on a beautiful face is an ideal indication for a nose correction
There is a fundamental
difference between an artist and a plastic surgeon. The artist (painter,
sculptor, installator) has only to think of himself and to follow his inner
voice without compromising with public taste. The plastic surgeon - on the
other hand - has to forget himself, always aiming to satisfy the patient,
not necessarily the criticism of his colleagues. Somebody said that plastic
surgeons, like opera singers, do not only suffer from vanity - they consist
of it.
Transconjunctival Lower Eyelid Correction and Classic Upper Eyelid
Correction
High-tech achievements make
the success of our treatment more and more probable, reduce the recovery
time and the rate of complications. Worth mentioning are: endoscopy,
radio-frequency-surgery, lasers, ultrasound assisted liposuction, tissue
glue etc. Most operations nowadays are performed under
"twilight-anaesthesia" on an out-patient basis. But there is a problem:
technical development is faster than our ability to work out ethical
consequences. Many things are possible, but the question arises: can it be
morally justified?
Is the virtual world
running into cyberage without pause for thought? Is the creature trying to
become his own creator? The Homo ipsifaber of Christoph Zellweger? Dr
Christian Barnard transplanted - for the first time in history - a heart
into Dr. Washansky who lived only 9 days after that. Is it the terror of
humanity when 28 neurosurgeons try to separate two Siamese twins, Ladeh and
Lalah Bidjani, in front of running cameras - without success. Or are they
just initial "victims of progress"? There is the ethical question raised by
"Body Worlds" - a travelling exhibition of cadaveric preparations made of
solid plastic by Gunther von Hagens. Is he the "Plastoid of Joseph Beuys"
and his "art" some sort of anatomical necrophilia? Too many questions, not
many answers.
The very wise Hungarian
philosopher of the 20th century, Bela Hamvas, defined the progression of
mankind from primitivism to humanism and onto bestialism. Hamvas and Erwin
Chargaff - who invented the genome - are the most pessimistic authors.
Chargaff is afraid that the genome could become more dangerous for us than
the atomic bomb - cloning as a "molecular Auschwitz"? Aiming at this
cyber-future, we are in danger of losing our human identity. We offer to
ourselves an uncertain perspective: to buy our organs, our body-parts in a
gene-store, to order our children in such a boutique? We would no longer
have to make those funny movements - there is no need for sex any more. Lec
could be right with his statement: "Technology is on the way to acquiring
such perfection that man will be able to survive even without himself".
We also
can change the fate positively
The lexicon "SEXUALIA"
published by Clifford Bishop and Xenia Osthelder is the history of art and
the body, as the subtitle says: "From Prehistory to Cyberspace". They
included two of my patients (breast lifting and penile augmentation),
showing pictures "before" and "after". It is a compliment for the whole
profession of plastic surgeons to be quoted among works of Dürer, Boticelli,
Ingres...
These
two cases from my book "Cosmetic Surgery Today" have been published in "Sexualia"-Lexicon
among works of Tizian, Dürer, Ingres…
In the same way, it is a
great pleasure and privilege for me and my profession to have the
opportunity to discuss the basic principles of aesthetic-plastic (cosmetic)
surgery at the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main on July 27,
2003 or at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York, on April 22, 2004 with
other artists, curators, journalists. I am deeply thankful for this
opportunity to upgrade my profession to the level of other arts, for the
privilege of being allowed to enter your "temples", for being accepted into
the extended family together with other artists.
Operating Theatre becomes Studio: "Atelier for Aesthetics & Plastic"
The title of your
"Gemini-exhibition" - CORPORAL IDENTITY - has inspired me to identify it
with HUMAN INTEGRITY. I appreciate being involved in this "lively and
provocative interchange among American and German artists". For me, the
human being is still the greatest wonder of this world. Let me end with a
quotation by Anton Pawlowitch Chekhov: "Everything concerning the human
being should be beautiful - not only the face and clothes, but also one's
thoughts and actions."
Miss
World 1989
Dimitrije E. Panfilov, M.D.
Privatklinik Nofretete
Koblenzer Str. 63
D-53173 Bonn, Germany
info@nofretete-privatklinik.de
www.nofretete-privatklinik.de
