https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.1995.991
Cosmetic plastic surgery and the cult of beauty in contemporary society
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After underlining the ethical.questions regarding reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery (CPS), the author presents the thesis according to which the obsession for beauty originates from emotional uncase connected to a violent and artificial culture of the eros, which leads the individuai to alter his appearance because he is afraid of authentic communications beyond the exchange of images. The study, which was carried out in the field of ethical-social and psychological research, points out the universality of the myth of beauty in the human culture and the arrival of CPS. This is analysed from the point of view of its social and technical-scientific impact, with particular attention payed to the specialist-patient relationship. After mentioning the specific legal-medicai questions and illustrating today's vision of bodiliness, which is strongly based on the ideal of health and eros, the author deals with the ethical discussion on the lawfulness and the limits of CPS. According to the artide, CPS atones for a crisis in emotional values, particularly within the couple, and is a crisis that has promoted the idolatry of the body, to the point of becoming an obsession and the conditio sine qua non in order to be loved. Plastic surgecy operations for sex changes, to after the features of the face of people who are wanted by the police, or to alter typical somatic features of a race are defined as ethically illicit. The article concludes by confirming the need to recuperate the unitotality of being a person in relationship to bodiliness and to the concept of beauty.
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