Why are women, and many men as well, spending more and more time and money on their appearance? How should this development be interpreted? Does the quest for beauty reflect a profound desire for a type of harmony that has become easier to attain, or is it simply a fad, an obsession of the times, much as sex in the Sixties?
This book is the result of the collaboration between two physicians whose specialities seem practically in opposition: psychiatry and surgery. Yet the aim of both is to rehabilitate damaged harmony, whether physical or psychic.

Willy Pasini and Maria Teresa Baldini examine what lies behind the desire for beauty. Their aim is, partly, to help us enhance our appearance — after all, why shouldn’t we? — but above all, they hope to make us understand that beauty is the product of harmony between the body and the spirit.
Willy Pasini is a psychiatrist and sexologist. He is the author of many best-selling books, including À quoi sert le couple? (1996), Le Temps d'aimer (1997), La Force du désir (1999), Les Casse-pieds (2000), Le Courage de changer (2001), Être sûr de soi (2002), Les Nouveaux Comportements sexuels (2003), La Jalousie (2004) and Le Couple amoureux (2005).
Maria Teresa Baldini is a plastic surgeon.