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Facial disfigurement: Problems and management of social interaction and implications for mental health

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Abstract

The concern of this article is with the impact of facial disfigurement on social interaction during brief encounters, the ramifications of which have the potetial for psychological and social destruction. Largely ignored by those interested in the social and psychological problems and rehabilitation of the functionally impaired, such as the blind, the deaf, the amputee, the intent here is to point up the major problems associated with facial disfigurement and to explore some of the ways of dealing with them. The data on which this article is based were collected over many years and are no longer new, but this attempt to synthesize them for a particular purpose is.

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Support for the research on which this article is based was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, United States Public Health Service, the Milbank Memorial Fund, the Society for the Rehabilitation of the Facially Disfigured, and the Social Rehabilitation Service, United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

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Cooke Macgregor, F. Facial disfigurement: Problems and management of social interaction and implications for mental health. Aesth. Plast. Surg. 14, 249–257 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01578358

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