Silicone vs. Saline -- Which Side Are YOU On?

Breast Implants: Everything You Need to Know

by: Nancy Bruning

Amazon Price: (as of 12/03/2009)
List Price: $12.95

Since the recent furor about breast implants, there has been a greater demand for information on this subject than ever before. Unfortunately, as Bruning points out, the research has been patchy at best. Her excellent book answers all the questions for which we have answers at this time in a straightforward style that will be easy for lay readers to understand. She describes the types of implants that have been used, the problems that have been discovered to date, and the risks involved in removal vs. leaving them in. For a woman contemplating implants, she describes current implant and transplantation technology.

Silicone Spills: Breast Implants on Trial

by: Mary White Stewart

Amazon Price: $38.95 (as of 12/03/2009)
List Price: $38.95

Arguing that pseudoscientific theories of race from the 19th and early 20th centuries still impact our current standards of beauty and "unhappiness" with our own bodies, prolific critic Gilman explores plastic surgery as an extension of psychotherapy. He traces the history of aesthetic surgery from its initial function of hiding disease to its later incarnation as a means of erasing ethnic identity and creating a more "normal" appearance.

Freud and other analysts were instrumental in establishing theories of aesthetic surgery and, Gilman argues, "provided a label for what it cured: inferiority." Several of Gilman's chapters are devoted to tracing this intersection between theories of race, aesthetics and psychology in the works of early psychoanalysts. Although his overarching argument is compelling, Gilman's work relies heavily on technical language. This work will be most useful to the surgeons and therapists who counsel people seeking plastic surgery and to cultural critics interested in tracing mutations in concepts of health, happiness and beauty.

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