Cosmetic Surgery, GUEST POST

This Guest Post comes courtesy of Ryan Biggerstaff. If you would like to see a clearer photo of Dr. Phil, click here.

I watch very little television, but I recently decided to go channel surfing in time to catch an episode of the Dr. Phil talk show that featured guests who want or had plastic surgery to change their ethnic features.  (See http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/934 for a slideshow.) 

This episode of Dr. Phil could spark (to put it lightly) multiple conversations framed within the context of physiognomy, but I did not start watching until about the middle of the show, so this article focuses on the last segment titled “A Nose Only a Mother Could Love?”  The man featured in this segment, Brad, is rather unhappy with his face because he thinks his nose is too big and his chin is too small:  “The actual operation I’m having done is basic rhinoplasty to make my nose a little smaller, and a chin augmentation.” Exactly what is going to be done to his nose was not mentioned, and the slideshows on the Dr. Phil web site, from my experience, do not seem to be word-for-word transcripts of episodes so they might exclude certain details.  However, Rose’s book, Wrinkles Are God’s Makeup,  lists some very specific consequences of cosmetic surgery that could apply to this situation. 

The pictures of Brad’s face in the slideshow are quite good, so the viewer can easily see that he has a long nose with an arch and a very in-angled chin.  Wrinkles, page 226,  says that straightening a nose arch can result in the replacement of one’s “gift for creative work” with being more procedure-oriented and that changing a long nose to a short one can result in a loss of originality in in the workplace.  Page 227 says that making an in-angled chin more out-angled can result in “[exchanging] genuine humility for pushiness,” and that while you might perceive yourself as having more self-confidence, other people may have less favorable interpretations of your new behavior such as “selfishness.”  I certainly understand why Brad is unhappy with his face, but his nose and chin contain features that rate high on a scale of 1 to 10 for significance, and my concern is that his surgery will result in key soul traits such as creativity and passion being altered to his detriment, possibly so much that his surgery will fail.  I also perceive him as an empath and a very caring and loving person who might have trouble adjusting to the changes of a more out-angled chin. 

Blog-Buddies–Ryan and Rose want to know, what do you think?