ABSTRACT
This chapter considers cosmetic surgery broadly and then focuses on the clinical example on a patient who sought breast augmentation specifically, because it is not only the most common surgery, but also because it illustrates very clearly some of the dynamics around envy and grievance. Psychological research findings are relevant in so far as they confirm from a more systematic perspective based on large samples that the pursuit of cosmetic surgery cannot be reduced to a primarily sociocultural phenomenon but speaks instead of relational difficulties. The chapter discusses that a more enslaved relationship to the pursuit of body modification can become a psychic retreat that belies a violent state of mind towards the object. Indeed cosmetic surgeons, too, recognize that some individuals who seek cosmetic surgery, the so-called 'insatiable' patient, will never be satisfied with the outcome because what they need cannot be delivered by the surgeon.
