The Mystery of Imaginary Ugliness

To a person handicapped by a genuine congenital defect,
or suffering from 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 plastic surgeon and demand a "face lift" to
cure a purely imaginary ugliness. There are the 35- or 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 movie queen. There are men who believe that
their ears are too big or their noses too long. No ethical
plastic surgeon would even consider operating upon these
people, but unfortunately the quacks, or so-called
"beauty doctors" whom no medical association will admit
to membership, have no such qualms.