“Is it all just lip service?”: on Instagram and the normalisation of the cosmetic servicescape

Purpose To better understand the uptake of cosmetic procedures in the wake of Instagram, this study aims to unravel how the aesthetic labour of influencers acts as the packaging of the cosmetic servicescape. In doing so, the authors contribute to theorising of aesthetic and emotional labour within the services marketing literature, fleshing out the bodywork of influential others not as employees but endorsers, who act like the “walking billboards” (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) for the cosmetic service industry. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a dual qualitative approach to data collection, coupling netnographic material from Instagram posts with 16 in-depth interviews with female Instagram users who have undergone or hope to undergo cosmetic surgery. Using mediated discourse analysis, the authors weave their visual and discursive data together for a richer account of the commoditisation of cosmetic surgery. Findings Adopting a postfeminist neoliberal lens, where women are viewed as aesthetic entrepreneurs who are constantly working on the body and the self, the findings of the study reveal how influencers’ aesthetic and emotional labour help package, propagate and demystify the cosmetic servicescape. Through their visual storytelling, we see how influencers help endorse (local) cosmetic services; commoditise cosmetic procedures through the conspicuous display of their ongoing body projects whilst masking the labour and pain involved; and how face-filters that use augmented reality (AR) technology foster new forms of (digitised) body dysmorphia. Originality/value The authors shed light on the darker side of social media and body-enhancing technologies, where tales of body transformation trivialise cosmetic intervention and AR technology induces a digitised body dysmorphia.

“Its Hand around My Throat”. The Social Rendering of Borrelia

This paper builds on biomedical and anthropological discourses of microbial agency to explore the important opportunities this discourse offers medicine, politics, anthropology, and patients. “Borrelia burgdorferi”, often termed “the Great Imitator”, is an ideal candidate for this discussion as it reveals how difficult it is to speak about Lyme disease without engaging with microbial agency. Based on 12-months research with Lyme disease patients and clinicians in Scotland, this paper offers a social rendering of the bacteria that reveals epistemologies of illness not available in medical accounts: the impact of social and psychological symptoms such as body dysmorphia, depression, shame, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide-related deaths on patients’ illness narratives. Divorcing agency from the bacteria silences these important patient narratives with the consequence of a limited medical and social understanding of the signification of Lyme disease and the holistic methods needed for treatment. This paper furthermore argues that the inclusion of patient worldings of Borrelia acting in the medical renderings offers a democratic determination of what the illness is. Finally, building on Giraldo Herrera and Cadena, I argue for a decolonization of Borrelia, exploring how the pluriverse both takes the epistemologies of patients seriously and reveals medical equivocation.

The Development of Preliminary HiTOP Internalizing Spectrum Scales

As part of a broader project to create a comprehensive self-report measure for the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology consortium, we developed preliminary scales to assess internalizing symptoms. The item pool was created in four steps: (a) clarifying the range of content to be assessed, (b) identifying target constructs to guide item writing, (c) developing formal definitions for each construct, and (d) writing multiple items for each construct. This yielded 430 items assessing 57 target constructs. Responses from a heterogeneous scale development sample ( N = 1,870) were subjected to item-level factor analyses based on polychoric correlations. This resulted in 39 scales representing a total of 213 items. The psychometric properties of these scales replicated well across the development sample and an independent validation sample ( N = 496 adults). Internal consistency analyses established that most scales assess relatively narrow forms of psychopathology. Structural analyses demonstrated the presence of a strong general factor. Additional analyses of the 35 nonsexual dysfunction scales revealed a replicable four-factor structure with dimensions we labeled Distress, Fear, Body Dysmorphia, and Mania. A final set of analyses established that the internalizing scales varied widely—and consistently—in the strength of their associations with neuroticism and extraversion.

The Roko Syndrome: A Mirror of Koro Syndrome

It is well established that 1 in 50 individuals receives a diagnosis of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Within body image disorders, there is genital retraction syndrome also known as Koro. A unique syndrome in which there is a heightened belief that one’s genitals will diminish in size, retract into the abdomen and ultimately lead to death. However, we have recently discovered a separate form of BDD that is directly opposite of Koro, in which the patient presents a strong belief that his penis will enlarge and extend out of their body. We present a unique case report of a counter-Koro syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by the delusion that one’s penis is growing larger and that it will result in its extreme protrusion from the abdomen and a consequent fear of recurring and visible erections. Given its mirror-like presentation and uniqueness to occurring only in males, we refer to it as Roko Syndrome. To our knowledge, this syndrome has not yet been reported in the literature and requires further study to understand whether it fits as a separate syndrome or falls along the spectrum of body dysmorphia. Thus, assessments used to identify body image disorders can be broadened to include items representing the behavior and presentation of Roko that we delineate in comparison of Koro. The new syndrome is also easily distinguishable from a priapism which is a urological emergency.

Post-bariatric body contouring surgery: analysis of complications in 180 consecutive patients

ABSTRACT Introduction: bariatric surgery is the main treatment for cases of severe obesity and body contour surgery to correct body dysmorphia resulting from weight loss. However, these procedures are associated with a significant number of postoperative complications. Objective: this study aims to analyze complications in post-bariatric patients undergoing body contour surgeries and correlating them with the age and BMI of these patients. Methods: the current study is a retrospective study evaluating 180 consecutive patients undergoing body contour surgery after bariatric surgery within a period of three years (2014-2016). Data such as age, gender, Body Mass Index before bariatric and plastic surgeries, type of surgery performed and complications were collected, and correlated the age as well as the BMI of the patients in the pre-bariatric (PB) and pre-plastic (PP) periods with the complications presented. Results: of the 180 patients evaluated, 91.7% were females (n = 165), and the mean age was 46.3 ± 1.7 years. The most performed surgery was abdominoplasty (48.9%), followed by mammaplasty (21.1%). Some complications occurred in 26.1% of the patients with partial dehiscence (40.4%) and seroma (14.9%) being the most frequent. Patients who presented complications had a higher mean age (50.8 years) than those who presented with no complications, and major complications accounted for 2.7% of the sample. Conclusions: a statistically significant number of surgeries progressed without complications and, when they occurred, there were minor complications in most of the sample. Complications were more frequent in older patients with some of them having a BMI over 30 Kg/m2.

MEDICAL STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE AND SENSITIVITY TO DYSMORPHIC FEATURES OF A CHILD WITH CRANIOFACIAL MICROSOMIA (CFM)

The aim of the study was to examine the level of knowledge and sensitivity to dysmorphic features in a child with facial and body dysmorphia on the part of students of medicine and dentistry. We tested 70 students of medicine and 70 students of dentistry. A photograph of a child with craniofacial microsomia (CFM)was shown to all the tested students. Their task was to detect and name those facial deformities and describe the child in terms of selected features not related to the child’s health condition. As a tool was used the Overgeneralization Effect Scale and a questionnaire designed by the author relating to facial deformities. Significant differences were observed in the level of knowledge and sensitivity to dysmorphic features between students of medicine and dentistry. Future dentists detected more dysmorphic features in the face of the photographed child when compared to students of medicine. Interestingly, this sensitivity to abnormalities was found to noticeably increase with each subsequent year of study for dentistry students, while the opposite was observed for the stu dents of medicine. Importantly, a relationship was observed be tween the sensitivity to dysmorphic features and the general evaluation of the child in terms of non-medical aspects by the group of dentistry students. With the increase in the students’ skills to recognize dysmorphic features, the overall evaluation of the child tended to decrease. The results obtained indicate that the skills related to recognizing dysmorphic features are better in students of dentistry than in students of medicine. The sensitivity to abnormalities evidently increase with each subsequent year of study for dentistry students, while the opposite was observed for medical students.