Common Birthplace? Modern Plastic Surgery and Surrealism.

Abstract

Modern plastic and reconstructive surgery certainly has a well-documented history and evolution, with its roots, thinking about the principles of nasal reconstruction by Sushruta for instance, dating back several thousand years.1 However, World War I (WWI) can undoubtedly be considered a time of major importance to advances within our specialty. Modern weaponry and trench warfare lead to severe bodily trauma and a subsequent need for plastic and reconstructive surgery. Not only medicine, but also art and the societal and political mindsets were obviously strongly influenced by the war. As such, several reports about art in plastic surgery and respective exhibitions dating from the time around WWI exist in the literature.2-5 While many illustrations and paintings were initially very graphic in nature, the nihilistic view of the horrible war also lead to the Dada movement and subsequently surrealism. These facts are well described in the literature.6 The fact that modern plastic and reconstructive surgery and the surrealist movement are actually very closely interlinked and may as a matter of fact have common roots is much less well described. The surrealist movement, which commenced in the 1920s primarily in Paris and from there spread around the world, was in part founded and consequently heavily promoted by Louis Aragon (1897-1939) and Andre Breton (1896-1966), two French writers and poets. Surrealism profoundly influenced the evolution of modern art with representatives like Dali, Picasso, and Miro, but also provided the theoretical framework for surrealist philosophy, as well as social theories and political concepts. Breton defined surrealism in his 1924 manuscript “Manifesto” as follows: “ Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside …