Abstract for my Inquiry Project

Lauren Fusco has been researching and studying body dysmorphic disorder, also known as BDD, for the last couple of months and feels that awareness of this disorder is necessary. Body dysmorphic disorder is a fresh subject when it comes to psychological analysis, and also it is the answer to why people make irrational and dramatic decisions when it comes to their appearance. This disorder makes people obsess over their looks, and distracts them so badly from everyday life that they sometimes cannot concentrate on anything. In her essay she takes general questions people have about body dysmorphic disorder. Lauren answers these questions by analyzing psychology journals, websites, and also blogs that sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder wrote. Lauren’s research concludes that body dysmorphic disorder is very serious, and the affects of it are long lasting. She brings attention those who may feel they have this disorder or may think they know someone who shows the symptoms of BDD. After reading this essay you will definitely start to examine yourself and those around you more carefully when it comes to obsession over your appearance.

My Inquiry Project Proposal

My Inquiry Proposal is, What are the relationships between BDD & plastic surgery addiction? Since I have researched these two topics for most of this semester, I feel that I can make a great Inquiry Project. In my project I would like interview people and hopefully professionals on experiences and knowledge of BDD and plastic surgery addiction. Some ideas that I have include: making videos of interviews, surveys, and also some basic writing on both subjects to help support my project. I am still debating whether i want to just have my project in text form or actually do videos, but luckily I have enough time to figure it all out.

Applying Countering To My Article Review.

With this article review I am going to be using the countering technique of arguing. My subject is plastic surgery addiction and BDD, so when it came to trying to argue with the author of the article, it was hard and i had to find an article that gave the pros to cosmetic surgeries rather than the cons. I found a website that was for a plastic surgery group called, Plastic Surgery Plus. The doctor that was the head of this facility's name was Dr. A.K. Battacharya. This website just talked about the pluses of plastic surgery and how it is becoming more common in women. For reasons such as, the procedures being cheap enough for the common folk, rather than the rich and famous. This website obviously supported plastic surgery since it was for a plastic surgery group. Dr. A.K. Battacharya stated,"My goal is to help women like you achieve confidence in their appearance, whether you want breast enhancement, body contouring, facial plastic surgery, or non-surgical cosmetic laser treatments." I'm not arguing with Dr. A.K. Battacharya about whether or not he is able to do some great cosmetic surgeries, but i am going to argue about how he "helps women achieve confidence in their appearance." Cosmetic surgeries aren't always the answer to boost ones confidence, you have to be okay with yourself mentally and spiritually before you can have a cosmetic surgery and think that the surgery will change your feelings about yourself. I found this article at www.plasticsurgeryplus.net

Reasons For Plastic Surgery Addiction

In this blog I am going to be using authorization forwarding as well as illustrating forwarding.

People.com has an article that deals with why exactly people are addicted to plastic surgery, and the psychological reasons as well. This article is titled, Obsessed with plastic surgery, and can be found at, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20062412,00.html.This article has doctors as the expertise and also has stories of people who are obviously addicted to plastic surgery. "It's not an official diagnosis," says Dr. Katharine Phillips, a psychiatrist at Rhode Island's Butler Hospital body image program. "But certainly patients can feel very driven to get cosmetic procedures; that it is their only hope." Dr. Katharine Phillips gives her two sense by saying that there is not an official term and fully developed research done on plastic surgery addiction, but there definitely are patients that seem to be addicted. A story this article also featured was, "There's nothing in the Beverly Hills city charter that says residents have to have cosmetic surgery, but tell that to a beauty school grad from rural Pennsylvania who found himself working in an upscale salon there. Twenty years ago, when Steve Erhardt took a job with celebrity stylist José Eber, "I saw the [cosmetic] work up close in my chair," he recalls. "Everyone was so beautiful. I wanted to be beautiful too." Getting a client's recommendation for a surgeon, he began with a nose job—making it narrower with a shorter tip—and had a cleft put into his chin. Pleased with the results, he returned to the same doctor within a few years for an eye lift. The surgeon, Erhardt says, "told me to go away and come back in 10 years." He found a more willing surgeon in Dr. Nikolas Chugay, a Beverly Hills-based osteopath certified in cosmetic surgery. In the last dozen years, says Chugay, who has sometimes imposed a waiting period on Erhardt but never turned him away for any of his 30 surgeries, "we've done just about everything on him. He's very smart about giving himself time to heal." Still, even strangers approach Erhardt to implore him to stop having plastic surgery. His family, says Erhardt, who has run his own salon in Hollywood since 1999, "doesn't want to talk about it. Maybe I'm a little obsessed, but I'm just trying to look presentable." Go below the surface, however, and Erhardt admits that he tends to get work done when he's lost someone. "When my grandmother and stepsister died in a plane crash, I had a face lift. My mother just died, and I think I'll get a cheek lift. The world just cannot see me this down. I don't want to look sad and old." This story illustrates a person with plastic surgery addiction, and how their mindset is, always wanted something bigger and better or more younger and fresh looking.

Fourth Article Review

For my fourth article review I found an article titled, Plastic Surgery: The New Addiction. This article Times online, and was written by Sarah Kate, Templeton. This article discussed the growing number of plastic surgeries, and the study focused on Britain. Adam Searle whom is the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. Searle wants to pass on the word to other surgeons that are a large number of people who simply cannot be happy with them, and it is dangerous to work with this people. Searle calls it the “ugly syndrome” where people think everything about themselves is ugly, this term is also known as body dysmorphic disorder or BDD. The number of plastic surgeries in Britain keeps growing and BDD is proving to be a huge factor with these numbers. Searle wants to pass on this word to fellow surgeons so patients can benefit. Since the number of cosmetic surgeries is rising, the plastic surgeons love it, but realistically most of these procedures are completely unnecessary. Searle describes patients with BDD by saying, “These people feel a sense of psychological wellbeing after one procedure and this fuels the notion that they would feel even better if they had another.” (Templeton, 1) Searle also is telling other surgeons that even though a lot of money is coming in because of the amount of people with this disorder, performing the surgery could be potentially harming to their career. Searle says that the patient could possibly hate the work done or not be satisfied and then blame the surgeon, and criticize their work, which can be harmful to the rest of their career. In this article Searle talks about Botox injections, which is another type of cosmetic surgery, and is becoming more popular by the minute. This procedure is definitely a quick fix. Patients get Botox injections to reduce wrinkles and to make their face look firmer and younger. Searle talks about how ignored Botox is when compared with the typical plastic surgery procedures, and those who get Botox will most likely keep having Botox injections through out their life. This article was a great source for my research, and had a professional doctor, which made this a credible source.

Going Inside Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

For my third article review I went to CSUC’s library research station and found an article from the Citation Station. The title of this article is, Diagnosing Culture: Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Cosmetic Surgery. This title automatically let me know that this article was completely relevant to my topic. This article discussed many examples and stories of people, mostly women, who have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Basically, BDD is a disorder where one is always unsatisfied with them, and can find something wrong about every part of their body. The reason why plastic surgery is connected with BDD is, it is the quick fix. Plastic surgery is the solution to the problems people with BDD constantly face. The author of this article, Cressida J. Heyes, uses Foucault’s’ genealogy work to help describe why exactly people have BDD. Those who have BDD tend to sway toward plastic surgery, but not always, it just makes it easier for one to become addicted to it. By looking at Foucault’s’ genealogy work, people have came to the conclusion that BDD is a serious psychiatric issue.

The author is trying explaining BDD and why plastic surgery is the wrong chose for those who have this disorder because of psychiatric problems. The author’s position on this issue is very informative and not bias, which is great for this issue because cosmetic surgery is not to blame, most people who have a cosmetic surgery do not have body dysmorphic disorder, but for those who have BDD, plastic surgery is a very dangerous choice. Some of the key terms that were used in this article were, BDD, Foucault, and psychiatric diagnosis. The problems that the author addressed was, people put BDD in a light category, when it is actually a big issue that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The part of the text that stood out to me the most was, all the stories that were shared about people with BDD. The stories would talk about women who would basically hate everything about them. They would look in the mirror and be able to pick apart themselves and find something wrong with every part of their body, like their nose, teeth, and even cheeks. There was also another story about a lady who would be so distracted with a flaw she thought was much worse than it was, would be late for work, and even not go places because she thought everyone would notice, when really she was just making it a bigger issue than it was. From this article I learned that BDD is a serious issue and many people who have BDD and can’t control their judgments on themselves.

Link To This Article: http://bod.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/4/73

Article Review: Video on Body Dysmorphic Disorder

I decided to watch a YouTube video on my inquiry topic, plastic surgery addiction. I realized that my research is based around body dysmorphic disorder, because people who are addicted to plastic surgery as well as just changing their appearance constantly have body dysmorphic disorder. I searched, “plastic surgery addicts” into the YouTube search engine and saw a couple good candidates. The video I chose was a clip from CNN’s Larry King Live. At first I wasn’t sure if this was a credible source, but Larry King had a licensed CHMN Psychologist from Scripps Memorial Hospital, located in La Jolla, Ca. I decided to use this video clip as a credible source to help me research the psychology of plastic surgery addiction and body dysmorphic disorder. On this episode of Larry King Live, a lady named Jenny Lee was introduced as a lady that has had over 30 plastic surgeries and has spent around $80,000 on her addiction. This video gave a great description of what exactly body dysmorphic disorder is, and why someone would have this disorder. I liked this video because the psychologist was not putting down the lady who has had over 30 plastic surgeries, but trying to relate to her as well as not pressuring her and throwing it all in her face. Body Dysmorhpic disorder was the main key words that were mentioned in this video, and also verbal abuse. Verbal abuse is said to be a leading cause for body dysmorphic disorder. Dr. George Pratt was listing reasons why the lady may have body dysmorphic disorder, but he also stated that there are many reasons why a person has this disorder. This video made me realize that this topic is very broad, which is great for me because I will be able to share many details and reasons why so many people are addicted to plastic surgery. Dr. Pratt used verbal abuse as the main reason for, Jenny Lee’s addiction to plastic surgery. This makes a lot of sense because verbal abuse leaves the victim with the state of mind that they are not good enough, and altering their appearance is an easy fix, although very expensive. Plastic surgery addiction is just one way some victims of verbal abuse practice their body dysmorphic disorder, it can be a lot of things. This video was really easy for me to watch, and I liked it more than reading a long text. I would rather watch a television clip than read an article, and it just so happened I found a scholarly video that had credible information from a professional psychologist.

Link to the “Addicted to Plastic Surgery clip from Larry King Live”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPCDWKxWwzQ