Investigates the psychocultural crisis confronting our increasingly appearance-oriented, shame-driven society.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Oedipal Shame and the Origins of Appearance Anxiety Appearance Anxiety as a Cultural Phenomenon Appearance Anxiety, Observation, and Perception Seeing, Knowing, Image, and Appearance Oedipus, Shame, and the Void of Avoidance 1. The Contempt of the Queen's Dwarf Psychic Size and Self-Regard Asclepius, the Tall Man, and Little People Brobdingnag and Lilliput Large or Small We Are Only By Comparison Literary Littleness and Miniaturization Amplification and Defenses Against Diminishment Size Symbolism and Fantasized Measurement Size Anxiety and Oedipal Shame: Clinical Variants The Shape of Experience and Fantasies of Size 2. Fantasy, Anguish, and Misconstrual Pirandello and The Unrecognizable Shame and Oedipal Defeat in the Analysis of Sam The Heartbreaking Curiosity of the Blind 3. A Hole in a Paper Sky: Deceit and Remedies by Still More Deceit Shame and Aidos Shame and the Sneeze: The Analysis of Mark Deception, Outrage, and Remedy by Even More Deceit The Vain Invention of the Onlooker 4. What Do You See Me to Be? Invisibility and Performance Exposure and Invisibility: Adam Spy Glass Hill and the "Rage of Personality:" Adam, Graham Greene, and Kim Philby Oedipal Shame, Spies and Fantasy Recognizing Choice in the Unseen Of Oedipal Blindness and Oedipal Shame: Loss, Disappearance, and Rage The Hunger Artist Shame and Performance Anxiety: A Shamed Violinist Plays to a Lion Shame and Creativity 5. I Can't See; I'm Invisible When I Don't See You I Can Invent You Better: The Anaylsis of Susan Do You Want Me To Be Someone Else? Peek-a-boo, Disappearance, and the Game of the Bobbin I Am Invisible; I Can't See Myself Seeing, Being Seen, and Matters of Privacy 6. What the Camera Sees: The Tragedy of Modern Heroes and "The Rules of the Game" Free Association and Open Form Of Disguises, Mechanisms, and Music Boxes Everyone Has His Reasons Deceit, Denial, Honor, and the Rules of the Game 7. Satan, Shame, and the Fragility of the Self Sin's Out and Out's Sin Shame and Sin: The Garden of Eden Shame and Innocence Kierkegaard, Dread, and the Self So Easily Lost Shame, Deception, and Despair He Who Sheds Shame Sheds Himself 8. Narcissus and Lady Godiva: Lethal Looks and Oedipal Shame Looking, Narcissus, and Narcissism Freud, Looking, and Psychoanalytic Theories of Narcissism Narcissistic Pain, Looking, and Mirrors Looking and Dreams: Freud's Self-Portrait Dreams of Two Patients: A Painter and a Stripper Looking and the Transference 9. Of Fig Leaves, Real and Imagined Fashioning Looks, Shaping Shame Freud and Exhibitionism How Conscious is Fashion-consciousness? Plastic Surgery and Con-Formity Clothe the Naked 10. These Weeping Eyes, Those Seeing Tears: Trauma, Mourning, and Oedipal Shame Regression, Shame, and Trauma: Ferenczi and Freud Uncontrollable Ears and the Social-Political Context of Oedipal Shame Appearance and Connivances A Burdenous Drone: Samson Agonistes Shame, Disappearance, and Trauma And a Tear Shall Lead the Blind Man Notes References Index