The secret scalpel: plastic surgery for wartime disguise

Bailey, Roderick

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61855-9

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Except for a brief piece by this author, little exists publicly to enrich the picture. 6 Historians have demonstrated how studying elective and facial surgery can advance understanding of modern societies on a range of fronts: from the role of military imperatives in promoting reconstructive surgery 7 to the phenomenon of 'passing' 8 -the sociological concept of a person's efforts and ability to be regarded as a member of a group different from their own-and related concepts of beauty and ugliness, links between physical appearance and mental health, and the influence and impact of consumerism. 9 Drawing chiefly on SOE's declassified records and the files of its American cousin, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), with which SOE occasionally shared details, what follows aims to show that exploring the use of surgery for wartime disguise can be similarly instructive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Special operations: a hidden chapter in the histories of facial surgery and human enhancement

Bailey

2020

Med Humanities

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During the Second World War, Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret service established to encourage resistance and carry out sabotage, employed various techniques of enhancing the ability of its personnel to operate undetected in enemy territory. One of these methods was surgery. Drawing on recently declassified records, this article illuminates SOE’s reasons for commissioning this procedure, the needs and wants of those who received it, and the surgeons employed to carry it out. It also aims to underline the role of context in shaping perceptions of facial surgery, and the potential for surgery for wartime disguise to resonate with current debates about human enhancement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6. Roderick Bailey (2014) , “Secret Scalpel: Plastic surgery for wartime disguise,” Lancet 384, (2014): 1421-2.…”

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confidence: 99%