Cosmetic Surgery
The Cutting Edge of Commercial Medicine in America
Cosmetic surgery is big business. With demand rising, this commercial medical practice has become a modern body custom. To explain the emergence and growth of this demand, Deborah A. Sullivan looks beyond the cultural imperatives of appearance and examines the market dynamics inherent in the business and politics of cosmetic surgery. In so doing, she also considers the effect of commercialization on the medical profession.
After reviewing prevailing beauty ideals, Sullivan looks at the social, psychological, and economic rewards and penalties resulting from the way we look. Following a historical overview of the technological advances that made cosmetic surgery possible, she explores the relationship between improved surgical techniques and the resulting increased demand; she also examines the ensuing conflict within the profession over recognition of commercial cosmetic surgery as a specialty. Among the topics covered are sensitive areas such as physician advertising, unregulated practice, and ambulatory surgery, and the consequences of commercialism on medical judgment. Finally, she reveals how physicians and their professional organizations have shaped the ways in which cosmetic surgery is presented in advertisements and women’s magazines that would promote patient demand.
Deborah Sullivan's compelling book Cosmetic Surgery: The Cutting Edge of Commercial Medicine in America, makes the case that was once the fringe of American medicine has come to define its new center. The very definition of the relationship between doctor and patient we now use and praise is that of the cosmetic surgeon and her client. Sullivan makes one think very hard about the path we are all treading.
An incisive look at the medicalization of beauty, this sociological inquiry into the origins, expansion and commercialization of cosmetic surgery brings entirely new insights to the subject.
Introduction
1. Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty
2. Pretty Pleases: Social, Psychological, and Economic Consequences of Appearances
3. Technological Imperialism: The Emergence of Cosmetic Surgery
4. Medical Entrepreneurs: Market Forces, Regulatory Changes, and Growth of Cosmetic Surgery
5. Sibling Rivalry: The Intraprofessional "Turf War" over Cosmetic Surgery
6. Caveat Emptor: Selling Surgery
7. Managing the Media Message: Cosmetic Surgery in Women's Magazines
8. Pandora's Box: Commercialism in the Medical Profession
Bibliography
Index
