The History of Facial Disfigurement: Stigma, Discrimination and Health

This essay provides an overview of the history of facial disfigurement, defining it as a state of persistent medical harm due to disease, birth defects, or wounds. It discusses how societal attitudes towards disfigurement have varied across cultures and time, with some societies viewing it in a medical or scientific context, while others associate it with stigma and discrimination. The essay highlights the overlap between the history of disfigurement and disability, particularly concerning the experience of stigma arising from physical differences. It also touches on occupational health-related injuries, such as phossy jaw, and emphasizes the importance of addressing the stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with facial disfigurement. The essay concludes by referencing the impact of facial injuries and the societal challenges historically associated with them.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Disfigurement is defined as state which show ones’ appearance deeply and provide the
persistent that harmed medically such as disease, birth defect and wound (Abou-Abdou and et.
al., 2019). The general societal attitude to the disfigurement have greatly across toward culture
and over the time. In this, there are number of societies that have regarded some form of
disfigurement in medical, scientific context where someone where someone having ill will show
against that show disfigured in viewed as anathema. In this poster, the history of facial
disfigurement is well discussed (Alberti, and Hoyle, 2021).
MAIN BODY
Overview of disfigurement
Disfigurement is defined as state of having one of appearance deeply and persistent harmed
medically as they form of disease, birth defect and show the appearance of wound. It is also
defined that about each year 20,000 and more people are used to suffer injuries to the face which
may cause the issue of some form of disfigurement. In addition, of these 2,000 are from burn and
also show that 18000 are from dealing with scarring and fracture (Habib, Saddul, and Kamran,
2021).
History of disfigurement
The disfigurement history overlap with histories of disability that make sense where both
deal with the experience of stigma that provide outcome from physical difference but people
faces issue when that are associated with facial deformation which have different to those with
other as physical impairment on the past and treated inconsistently (Marno, 2021). The history
which is well related with occupational health and disability which has mirrored that tendency,
paying less attention to appearance related injuries include phossy jaw in which experience by
those who is working in factories especially in Victorian match factories. These are some history
which is related with facial disfigurement where stigma is usually created and show the context
of discrimination who is facing the issue of facial disfigurement due to any kind of injury
(Shaheen, 2019).
1

CONCLUSION
As per the above discussion, injuries on face cause various complication that is related with
facial disfigurement where in past time, people or population is used to suffer from stigma that
may happen due change in facial fraction due to injury.
2

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abou-Abdou and et. al., 2019. Factors Affecting Communication Skills among Patients with
Facial Disfigurement.
Alberti, F.B. and Hoyle, V., 2021. Face transplants: an international history. Journal of the
history of medicine and allied sciences, 76(3), pp.319-345.
Habib, Z., Saddul, R. and Kamran, F., 2021. Perceptions and experiences of female burn
survivors with facial disfigurement. Chinese Journal of Traumatology, 24(01), pp.53-56.
Marno, A., 2021. Facially disfigured veterans of World War I in present-day art: An art historical
analysis against the background of medical history. In Disability and Art History from
Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century (pp. 157-171). Routledge.
Shaheen, A., 2019. Patricia Skinner and Emily Cock, eds. Approaching Facial Difference: Past
and Present.
3

4