Summary
“ Attitude of Others” is a chapter of “ Facial deformities and plastic surgery”, a psychosocial study, done by Frances Cooke Macgregor, M.A., Theodora M. ABEL, Ph. D., Albert Bryt, M.D., Edith Lauer, Serena Weissmann, M.S., published in1953. It emphasized how important of the behavior of other people toward the patients who was born with deformity. A few mothers moaned to authors that the “curious, remarks and ridicule never stopped” from their nationhood. However, the authors restated that the neighbors will turn to very nice later, thought they had been curious and “nasty” at first. According to the study, other than “a minority of parents felt remarks as well as staring were easier accepted to children than adults”, a great amount of parents said the pressure of deformity children were higher than the adults. Moreover, the authors discussed that “the origin of the disfigurement was also said to be an important determinant of the behavior of others”. Eventually, “in postoperative interviews”, parents frequently claimed that, nowadays, “people gave more sympathetic and less curious.”
Critique
Deformity children, as the most concerned people among contemporary society, should paid more attention and care during their growing up. Definitely, authors’ opinions explained in the article were unbalance which toward to the parents of the patients. For instance, “Nearly all parents reported that it was extremely difficult for the child to be accepted in school. Furthermore, aside from the child’s own ability to gain friends, it depends to a large extent on how successful the teacher was able to help them.” After reading that, most readers would pay sympathetic on the children, but citied the attitudes of others even the teachers. Nevertheless, I agreed with most of points which being explained in the article. The authors noticed the people who around a deformity child need treat them as a normal child and encouraged him or her confront his or her life positive. Combine all the information in the chapter; it was a useful and valuable article.
Vocabulary
1. Deformity (n.): a faulty formation.
2. Enormous (adj.): excessive in size or intensity.
3. Curious (adj.) eager to know.
4. Nasty (adj.): highly unpleasant.
5. Postoperative (adj.): of the period following a surgical operation.
Questions
1. What’s your attitude toward deformity children?
2. What would you do if you born with deformity?