Psycho Cybernetics (a video book) – 3 chapter 1 – psychology and plastic surgery
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Well, it does make total sense that psychology and plastic surgery would go hand in hand. It’s that ‘self image‘ thing!
Here is the written format for what was read today:
How a Plastic Surgeon Became Interested in
Self-Image Psychology: My StoryOffhand, there would seem to be little or no connection between surgery and psychology. Yet, it was the work of the plastic surgeon that first hinted at the existence of the self-image and raised certain questions that led to important psychological knowledge.
When I first began the practice of plastic surgery many years ago,
I was amazed by the dramatic and sudden changes in character and personality that often resulted when a facial defect was corrected.Changing the physical image in many instances appeared to create an entirely new person. In case after case, the scalpel that I held in my hand became a magic wand that transformed not only patients’ appearance, but their whole life. The shy and retiring became bold and courageous.
A “stupid” boy changed into an alert, bright youngster who went on to become an executive with a prominent firm. A salesman who had lost his touch and his faith in himself became a model of selfcofidence. And perhaps the most startling of all was the habitual ”hardened” criminal who changed almost overnight from an incorrigible- who had never showed any desire to change-into a model prisoner, who won a parole and went on to assume a responsible role in society.
Some sixty years ago I reported many such case histories in my book New Faces-New Futures, written more for my peers than the public. Following its publication, and similar articles in leading magazines, I was besieged with questions by criminologists, psychologists, sociologists” and psychiatrists. They asked questions that I could not answer, but they did start me on a search. Strangely enough, I learned as much from my failures as from my successes, if not more.
It was easy to explain the successes. The boy with the too-big ears, who had been told that he looked like a taxi cab with both doors open, had been ridiculed all his life-often cruelly. Association with others meant humiliation and pain. Why shouldn’t he avoid social contacts? Why shouldn’t he become afraid of people and retire into himself? Terribly afraid to express himself in any way, he became known as “stupid.” When his ears were corrected, it would seem only natural that since the cause of his embarrassment and humiliation had been removed, he should assume a normal rol~ in life, which he did.
Or consider the salesman who suffered a facial disfigurement as the result of an automobile accident. Each morning when he shaved he could see the horrible disfiguring scar on hi~ cheek and the grotesque twist to his mouth. For the ‘ first time in his life he became painfully self-conscious. He was ashamed of himself and felt that his appearance must be repulsive to others. The scar became an obsession with him. He was “different” from other people. He began to wonder wharothers were thinking of him. Soon his self-image was even more mutilated than his face. He began to lose confidence in himself. He became bitter and hostile. Soon almost all his attention was directed toward himself, and his primary goal became the protection of his ego and the avoidance of situations that might bring humiliation. It is easy to understand how the correction of his facial disfigurement and the restoration of a “normal” face would overnight change this man’s entire attitude and outlook, his feelings about himself, resulting in greater success in his work.
The mystery inspired me: if the scalpel was magic, why did some people who acquired new faces go right on wearing their old personalities?
What about the exceptions, those who didn’t change? What about the Duchess who all her life had been terribly shy and self-conscious because of a tremendous hump in her nose? Although surgery gave her a classic nose and a face that was truly beautiful, she continued to act the part of the ugly duckling, the unwanted sister who could never bring herself to look another human being in the eye. If the scalpel itself was magic, why did it not work on the Duchess?
Or what about all the others who acquired new faces but went right on wearing the same old personality? How to explain the reaction of people who insist that the surgery has made no difference whatever in their appearance? Every plastic surgeon has had this experience and has probably been as baffled by it as I was. No matter how drastic the change in appearance may be, certain patients will insist that “I look just the same as before-you didn’t do a thing.” Friends, even family, may scarcely recognize them, may become enthusiastic over their newly acquired “beauty,” yet the patients themselves insist that they can see only slight or no iq1provement, or in fact deny that any change at all has been made. Comparison of before and after photographs does little good, and may even arouse hostility. By some strange mental alchemy the patient will rationalize: “Of course, I can see that the hump is no longer in my nose-but my nose still/oaks just the same.” Or, “The scar may not show any more, but it’s still there.”
Scars That Bring Pride Instead of Shame
Still another clue in search of the elusive self-image is the fact that not all scars or disfigurements bring shame and humiliation. When I was a young medical student in Germany, I saw many a student proudly wearing his “saber scar,” much as an American might wear the Medal of Honor. The duelists were the elite of college society and a facial scar was the badge that proved you a member in good standing. To these boys, the acquisition of a horrible scar on the cheek had the same psychologic effect as the eradication of the scar from the cheek of my salesman patient. I began to see that a knife itself held no magical powers. It could be used on one person to inflict a scar and on another to erase a scar with the same psychological results.
The Mystery of Imaginary Ugliness
To a person handicapped by a genuine congenital defect, or suffering an actual facial disfigurement as a result of an accident, plastic surgery can indeed seemingly perform magic. From such cases it would be easy to theorize that the cure-all for all neuroses, unhappiness, failure, fear, anxiety, and lack of self-confidence would be wholesale plastic surgery to remove all bodily defects. However, according to this theory, persons with normal or acceptable faces should be singularly free from all psychological handicaps. They should be cheerful, happy, self-confident, free from anxiety and worry. We know only too well this is not true.
Nor can such a theory explain the people who visit the office of a cosmetic surgeon and demand a face lift to cure a purely imaginary ugliness. There are, for example, the 35- to 45-year-old women who are convinced that they look “old” even though their appearance is perfectly normal and in many cases Unusually attractive.
There are the young girls who are convinced that they are ugly merely because their mouth, nose, or bust measurement does not exactly match that of the currently reigning Hollywood celebrity, teen pop star, or the most popular girl in their school. There are men who believe that their ears are too big or their noses too long.
Such imagined ugliness is not at all uncommon. Surveys of everyone from teenagers and college students to mature men and women consistently show high numbers-70%, 80%, even 90%-dissatisfied in some way with their appearance. If the words “normal” or “average” mean anything at all, it is obvious that 90% of our population cannot be “abnormal” or “different” or “defective” in appearance. Yet surveys have shown that approximately the same percentage of our general population find some reason to be ashamed of their body image.
Of course, in some cases, this becomes constructive dissatisfaction that motivates healthy weight loss and exercise. Many other times, though, it either stimulates attempts at weight loss or fitness doomed to failure (because of strong self-image-based restrictions) or simply cause people profound unhappiness.
These people react just as if they suffered an actual disfigurement. I They feel the same shame. They develop the same fears and anxieties. Their capacity to really “live” fully is blocked and ‘choked by the same sort of psychologic roadblocks, Their “scars,” though mental and emotional rather than physical, are just as debilitating.
Why Are the Rich and Powerful Unhappy?
Why do the popular, successful, wealthy “beautiful people” of
Hollywood, athletes awarded megamillion-dollar contracts and set for life, and enormously influential and powerful business or political leaders engage in amazingly unhappy and self-sabotaging acts of alcohol or drug abuse and addiction, or in all manner of publicly humiliating and destructive behavior? You see it reported everyday.Valley house. And they still wake up in the morning and say “I don’t feel good about myself.” That’s a quote from Dr. Stephen Goldbart, a psychologist treating many dot. com and tech industry millionaires in Silicon Valley for what is charatcterized as “undeserved wealth syndrome.”
Wealth, success, power, and celebrity are no more guarantees of happiness and peace of mind than surgical improvement of some personal appearance flaw.
The Self-Image~ The Real Secret
Discovery of the self-image explains all the apparent discrepancies we have been discussing. It is the common denominator-the determining factor in all our case histories, the failures as well as the successes. The secret is this: To really live, that is to find life reasonably satisfying, you must have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can live with. You must find your self acceptable to you. You must have a wholesome self-esteem. You must have a self that you can trust and believe in. You must have a self that you are not ashamed to be, and one that you can feel free to express creatively, rather than hide or cover up. You must know yourself-both your strengths and ‘your weaknesses-and be honest with yourself concerning both. Your selfimage must be a reasonable approximation of “you,” being neither more nor less than you are.
When this self-image is intact and secure, you feel good. When it is threatened, you feel anxious and insecure. When it is adequate and one that you can be wholesomely proud of, you feel self-confident. You feel free to be yourself and to express yourself. You function at your optimum. When the self-image is an object of shame, you attempt to hide it rather than express it. Creative expression is blocked. You become hostile and hard to get along with.
If a scar on the face enhances the self-image (as in the case of the
German duelist), self-esteem and self-confidence are increased. If a scar on the face detracts from the self-image (as in the case of the salesman), loss of self-esteem and self-confidence result.
When a facial disfigurement is corrected by plastic surgery, dramatic psychologic changes result only if there is a corresponding correction of the mutilated self-image. Sometimes the image of a disfigured self persists even after successful surgery, much the same as the “phantom limb” may continue to feel pain years after the physical arm or leg has been amputated.I Begin a New Career
These observations led me into a new career. In 1945 or so, I became definitively convinced that many of the people who consult a plastic surgeon need more than surgery and that some do not need surgery at all. If I were to treat these people as patients, as a whole person rather than as merely a nose, ear, mouth, arm or leg, I needed to be in a position to give them something more. I needed to be able to show them how to obtain a psychological, emotional, and spiritual face lift, how to remove emotional scars, how to channel their attitudes and thoughts as well as modify their physical appearance.
This determination launched me on a continuing process of pointed observation, documenting my own case histories, lecturing both to peers .and to the public, then writing this book, first published in 1960. This book caught the public’s imagination in a special way. It was excerpted in popular magazines including Reader’s Digest and Cosmopolitan, purchased by the thousands by corporations for their salespeople and other employees, adopted by top athletes, coaches and teams, including the Vince Lombardi-coached Green Bay Packers. Its success led quickly to many speaking engagements, seminar tours, radio and television interviews, even my own radio program.
Invitations to speak about my discoveries came from churches, colleges, and corporations. Ultimately, I also wrote sev~ral other books, extensions of this one, including The Magic Power of Self-Image. Late in my life, three decades after its first publication, I was gratified that Psycho-Cybernetics continues to sell tens of thousands of copies each year, almost entirely thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations, and is inspiring new interpretations.
With each passing year, as I accumulated more experience teaching the power of self-image, counseling, and monitoring the results people achieved with . this information, I became more convinced than ever that what each of us really wants, deep down, is more life-something I termed aliveness, the experience of living a life unrestricted by self-image-imposed, artificial limits.
Happiness, success, peace of mind-whatever your own conception of supreme good may be-is experienced in its essence as more life. When we experience expansive emotions of happiness, self-confidence, and success, we enjoy more life. And to the degree that we inhibit our abilities, frustrate our Godgiven talents, and allow ourselves to suffer anxiety, fear, self-condemnation and self-hate, we literally choke off the life force available to us and turn our back on the gift that our Creator has made. To the degree that we deny the gift of life, we embrace death.
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Tomorrow we continue with liberated living…
And, always keep smiling with love and light,
Work With Prosperity Team – Your Opportunity
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