Why is it ok to cut and scar yourself with plastic surgery but it is "wrong" to cut your body yourself with knives ?

Cosmetic surgery is ( supposedly ) an attempt to improve on nature. Self-cutting is an indication that nature has gone rather wrong.

@CaptainHarley – How far can “improving someone” go though ? I mean, someone who is surgery obsessed ? Rather than someone who might get one or two things done ?

Plastic surgeons will take all the money you care to give them. How far can “improving someone” go? How high is up?

For example if I had a million dollars and was financially secure to get many many surgeries done…. Why is that considered ok ? But if I cut myself with a knife, I’m sent to a mental institution or considered crazy ?

People see DIY cutting as being driven by the desire to hurt oneself where as plastic surgery is perceived as a cosmetic endeavor. This doesn’t mean that cutting must always be symptomatic of a psychological problem, (some people do practice it for aesthetic reasons), and it doesn’t mean that plastic surgery is never indicative of a psychological problem.

These are broad strokes.

Not exactly DIY, but you get the picture.

One is a medical procedure and the other is not. Why over think it? Hospital surgery rooms provide on sight trained staff and equipment to provide help in the event a “cut” goes wrong. If something goes wrong at home with a cut or even the healing of a cut you end up where?

Good question. Both have underlying psychological issues.

cosmetic surgery is a surgery to improve a persons self confidence. Cutting yourself is just BS.

I often say that I someday hope to win the plastic surgery lottery, because duh, I wanna fix some stuff and I want to look good later in life. If I fix it at 22, I’ll look better at 40 when I’m a cougar. (haha) and typically you don’t leave a plastic surgeon mangled and scarred…

Cutting is waaaaaay different though. The people I have known who cut said they just felt completely numb and needed to feel something, anything, even if it was something negative. It was like they needed to make sure they could still feel and cutting made them feel better, it was like a release that cleared their head and focused them.

Both are psychological issues and while they might be connected somewhere they’re very different.

Great question. Both have deeply rooted psychological issues (although I agree with @fundevogel in that this is not always the case) As someone who used to self harm, I now feel it wouldn’t be okay for me to cut myself as my self esteem has improved and I have a sense of self-worth. In terms of it not being acceptable in society, I think there’s a huge stigma around it due to a lack of understanding
On the other hand, there’s such value placed on beauty, or our societies’ idea of beauty, that it’s much easier to justify/turn a blind eye to it.

Plastic surgeons go to school for many many years learning how to operate. They are medical professionals. Kids and teens with psychological issues who cut themselves don’t know what the hell they’re doing, and can cause themselves serious injury.

One can be a relatively harmless obsession. The other can be a precursor to a potential dangerous psychological condition.

@mattbrowne
And which one is which?

First, serial plastic surgery is not OK and reputable plastic surgeons will not do it.

Second, it is the purpose for which you get cut or cut yourself that is the difference. People get plastic surgery to improve their appearance. people cut themselves to relieve pain.

Cutting yourself is not good. It’s not a healthy way to fix your pain or your problems. Therapy is the answer.

You realize that plastic surgery is often used to correct things like hare lips and disfigurements that people don’t want to live with, right? And that it isn’t strictly a past time for bored, dissatisfied billionaires?

Why is it OK for someone to go under the knife, get horrible surgery, and continue cutting, tearing, and re-arranging their face ?

But if someone cuts themselves with a knife, they are quickly sent to a mental institution ?

Is it all for money, because doctors and hospitals make money from people’s insecurities ?

Why are people allowed to get so much surgery but it’s “wrong” for a person to be a cutter ? When it is somewhat almost the same thing ?

It is not “almost the same thing.” I’m saddened and surprised you think they’re the same thing. People who cut themselves with razor blades or knives need, without question, intensive therapy. I don’t know the jargon but if someone cuts himself he/she is either severely depressed or angry and is in danger of bleeding to death. If you have a facelift you more than likely will not die and a lot of healthy people get them. People who are not severely depressed or angry get plastic surgery. Some, I repeat some of them need counseling.
I don’t think “wrong” is the right word to define cutting oneself. It is not wrong; it’s a cry for help. May I ask your age?
I have an old friend who cut herself with razor blades as a teenager—it had something to do with her mother. She is in her late fifties and still has the scars. I am sorry to say she spent years in mental institutions and is on a dozen psychoactive pills per day. One bright spot is she married a college professor and they are still married with grandchildren. Her husband has always paid for her therapy and medications. I can’t see any similarities between her and someone who had breast augmentation. Very sad question.

“someone cuts themselves with a knife” is just a bit ambiguous… If you’re slitting your wrists you should be taken to an institution.
If you’re decorating yourself such as @fundevogel‘s scarification examples (incredible!) then that is a whole different matter, on a level with a tattoo.
Someone taking unplanned hacks at themselves goes in the first category.

@ragingloli – Plastic surgery (when not related to accidents or genetic defects) can be a relatively harmless obsession. It still points to a (mild) psychological problem: obsession with appearance.

There are similarities; both are carried out by people who are unhappy with themselves. I disagree with plastic surgery unless it is designed to help those mutilated by war or accidents.

Question not valid. Pretty big equivocation on the words “cut and scar”

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard – Of course I’m not talking about plastic surgery used like that. I’m talking about serial plastic surgery. The kind where people get getting and getting work done, fixing “imperfections” they think are there, but really aren’t. I think usually people who get it, is called body dysmorphic disorder.

Usually the intent behind them is completely different. People get plastic surgery to look better. People cut themselves to intentionally cause pain. One is indicative of a mental problem, the other isn’t necessarily.

“Cutters” as they are known, are usually not suicidal or self-destructive. If they want to stop doing so, there is counseling, just as there is counseling for all sorts of behavior that people want to change about themselves. But there is no need to incarcerate or force such people into therapy against their will.

@HungryGuy It’s a coping mechanism right? It isn’t a psychological problem in itself, but it could be a means of dealing with an internal problem. Maybe not the best way, but a way.

@fundevogel Exactly. I agree!