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.

Cosmetic surgery is big business in America. With demand rising this 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 commercializaton on the medical profession.

Sullivan looks at prevailing beauty ideals and the social, psychological, and economic rewards and penalties we reap for the way we look. She also gives a historical overview of the technological advances that made cosmetic surgery possible and explores the interrelationship of improved surgical techniques and increased demand. She reveals how physicians and their professional organizations have shaped the image of cosmetic surgery through advertisements, particularly in women's magazines, and provides cogent observations on problems cosmetic surgery has created in medicine. Among the topics covered are interspecialty turf battles, physician advertising, unregulated practice and ambulatory surgery, and the consequences of commercialism on medical judgment and patient outcomes.

Sander L. Gilman

...Sullivan makes one think very hard about the path we are all treading.

Deborah A. Sullivan teaches sociology at Arizona State University. She is the coauthor of Labor Pains: Modern Midwives and Home Birth.