Specialists in different areas indicate that it is necessary to analyze case by case and point out the possibility of self-esteem problems, the need to stand out or even body dysmorphia.
The Frenchman known as Dark Alien seeks with aesthetic operations to look like an extraterrestrial, amputating some parts of his body. Artist Neil Harbisson had an antenna embedded in his skull that, he claims, allows him to see infrared or ultraviolet, receive calls or connect to the internet. The British Lepht Anonym self-installed 50 implants under her skin to gain ‘capabilities’. Are we facing an eccentricity, a fashion or the step towards a new species? What answer is given from psychology, sociology, medicine and philosophy?
Using surgery to look like an alien, inserting implants (even LED lights under the skin and injecting magnetic particles into the fingertips to attract metals) or even an antenna in the skull is not science fiction, but the reality of very few humans. Its purpose is to demonstrate that homo sapiens can go beyond the continent and content with which he was born.
In the case of people who include technological implants, the goal is to have one foot in the human and another in the machine. This is what is called transhumanism.
The professor of Philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela Alejandro Sobrino points out that transhumanism “is a philosophical, non-biological theory, about the scientific advances of NBIC – nanotechnology, biotechnology, computer science (AI) and cognitive science (neurology) – that would allow biological evolution, slow and random, to be replaced by an evolutionary technology based on exponential growth and accelerated returns, which would presumably result in a cyborgization of humans that would allow them to improve as a species by living longer and better.”
For Sobrino it represents “a desire or chimera of people who define themselves as visionaries. Their supporters often refer to them as gurus, which means spiritual teacher or religious leader. In fact, one of them, Kurzweil, a great scientist turned prophet, has proclaimed the imminent advent of immortality with the NBIC.”
Sobrino believes that “it is true that every time we have our provision more and better prostheses mechanical devices, such as pacemakers or exoskeletons, that substantially improve the lives of some people, whether they have an illness (e.g., an injured elbow) or are healthy (e.g., helping to carry excessive weights), but there are no neural implants yet that substantially modify our cognitions. Mind-computer interfaces are in their infancy; “There are no ‘prostheses’ that mitigate or cancel unwanted effects of mental illnesses, for example.”
Psychology
But what opinion is provided by psychology about these people? Psychologically, does having surgery to look like an alien or to get technological implants or to look like a famous person or a cartoon have any point in common?
Enric Soler, professor of Psychology and Education studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), explains that “we are dealing with cases of body dysmorphia. They are people who do not recognize their own bodies as their own. Here, there are people with self-esteem problems, who do not feel comfortable with themselves and who live a fantasy that by changing their external appearance they will feel differently.”
In the conversation, the question arises of what happens when a person working on their transformation ends up amputating a healthy part of their body. “From my point of view it is self-injury like any other. You kill a piece of yourself. Considering that this is a human evolution seems outrageous to me. Now there are many young people who self-harm, cutting themselves with a cutter, for example. If we consider it pathological, linked to a mental disorder, how are we going to normalize the amputation of an ear or a leg? “He has a serious psychiatric problem,” asks Soler.
At this point, he clarifies that a different situation is experienced by a person who, due to an accident or illness, has lost a member of his or her body. “Scientific advances could provide a replacement for those lost functions. That’s healthy. It is a scientific advance for a person, let’s imagine, to have a robotic implant installed because they are missing a leg. Another thing is for another person to cut off a leg to get a robotic implant,” she clarifies.
A Galician neuropsychologist, who prefers to hide her name, considers that it could be a dysmorphia in general terms but each case is particular. She also points out other possibilities: derealization (which is why they undergo amputation); delirium; search for social acceptance because it is fashionable and they get followers…
This expert recognizes that “the issue is complex. Each case must be evaluated individually, to analyze its behavior exhaustively, which implies identifying its morphology (what, the way in which the behavior manifests) and, even more important, its functionality (the why, the sequence of behaviors and contextual and personal variables that facilitate the appearance of this behavior). However, the social reinforcement they receive through social networks only increases behavior and encourages them to continue doing what they do.
The sociologist Jorge García Marínprofessor at the University of Santiago, believes that “There is gray in everything. We don’t know what a trend could be. or a pathology. A person who undergoes surgery more than a hundred times on his body goes beyond sociology, but as a sociological trend you can think about the explanations. They may be people who have a desire to be seen, to stand out, to attract attention, in a world in which it is increasingly difficult to achieve this.”
García Marín recognizes that it can also be “an escape from reality towards a fantasy, like living in virtuality, in the identification of characters that do not exist. We would have to look for deeper causes within current culture to think about those identification processes that entail a transformation of one’s own body” and that can lead to health problems like those that Leph Anonym had, who had to be admitted to the hospital for months. The hacker who had given himself 50 technological implants, promised in his
Could these examples be connected to the changes in the body (piercings, lengthening of some areas…) carried out by indigenous tribes?_ For this expert, “each society has cultural elements that in many cases are rites of initiation that carry these marks in the body. In postmodern societies, the rites are different and standing out within a tribe could be a symbol of belonging to another group. It could be identification with another different group.”
Infections and other consequences
In this matter, do Spanish doctors have ethical and legal limitations when operating on a person to look like an alien, a celebrity, or installing technological implants?
“Currently, the ethical limit is established by respect for the Code of Collegiate Medical Deontology, of December 2022. It talks about the quality of medical care and patient safety. “Plastic surgeons also have a code of ethics from the Spanish Society of Aesthetic Surgery and, in addition, there would be the common sense of the surgeon himself,” he explains. Diego Murilloplastic surgeon and president of the dental commission of the College of Physicians of Pontevedra.
“In our ethical code it is stated that unnecessary operations should not be performed because these are the same as medical error,” adds Murillo in reference to those people who “want to look like celebrities, objects, animals or dolls or the case of dysmorphophobic patients who want to “to have surgery and surgery because they are not comfortable with their body and those who modify it to put on devices, which is fashionable in Korea.”
Murillo also warns of health risks. “There are people who place dilators like ear dilators in the facial region. These reconstructions are super complex and in most cases are not done by plastic surgeons. What’s more, not even doctors. “There we already crossed other borders,” he warns.
“Painting the eye by placing ink inside this organ can lead to vision loss,” he warns. As for implants under the skin, he indicates that they end up coming out and becoming infected.
“The problem is when there is a significant remuneration in return. “That should not be done, it is neither ethical nor legal and the doctors here can be expelled from the Association,” she emphasizes.