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The Body's Edge: Our Cultural Obsession With Skin
The Body's Edge Our Cultural Obsession With Skin Author:Marc Lappe Our skin covers us in a mantle no thicker than this line of type, separating us from the outside by the thinnest of margins. It is the real and symbolic boundary between ourselves and the external world. It is there, at the body's edge, that some of the most interesting stories about human biology, mythology, medicine, and health... more » are told.
The author discusses how the permeability of the skin has led to the use of drug-bearing patches, how potentially harmful chemicals penetrate the skin, how vulnerable we are to particular environmental insults, and the inside story of the ill-fated experiments of silicone injections of the 1960s and 1970s.
This book examines the form and function of the skin, diseases of the skin, hypersensitivity and symptoms of illness, ways of bolstering skin defenses, and likely future dermatological response in view of our cultural obsession with skin. It explores the roots of this obsession and reveals some of the truths about the skin.« less