Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic

Drawing on studies of surface topography, image editing, and diagnostic and surgical experience, Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic addresses the notion of truth in what are considered to be right and wrong faces, whether in clinical cosmetic procedures or in specific sociocultural contexts outside the clinic. With attention to the manner in which the human face - and often the individual herself or himself as a consequence - is physically defined, conceptually judged, numerically measured and clinically analysed, this book reveals that on closer inspection, supposedly objective and evidential truths are in fact subjective and prescriptive. Adopting a Foucauldian analysis of the ways in which normalising technologies and techniques ultimately preserve and expand upon an increasing array of abnormal facial configurations, Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic shows that when determining right and wrong faces, what happens inside the clinic is inextricably linked to what happens outside the clinic - and vice versa. As such, it will be of interest to scholars and students of social, cultural and political theory, contemporary philosophy and the social scientific study of science, health and technology.