The Invisible Smile by Cole, Jonathan; Spalding, Henrietta;

Living without facial expression

GET 10% OFF
The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.

Publisher's listprice GBP 75.00
The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

35 831 Ft (34 125 Ft + 5% VAT)
Discount 10% (cc. 3 583 Ft off)
Discounted price 32 248 Ft (30 713 Ft + 5% VAT)

35 831 Ft

Availability

printed on demand

Product details:

Publisher OUP Oxford
Date of Publication 30 October 2008

ISBN 9780198566397
Binding Hardback
No. of pages247 pages
Size 241x161x23 mm
Weight 546 g
Language English

Short description:

Long description:

We are defined by our faces. They give identity but, equally importantly, reveal our moods and emotions through facial expression. So what happens when the face cannot move?
This book is about people who live with Möbius Syndrome, which has as its main feature an absence of movement of the muscles of facial expression from birth. People with Möbius cannot smile, frown, or look surprised or sad. Talking and eating are problematic, since their lips do not move. Even looking around is also difficult since the eyes cannot move either.

The book is unique in giving those with Möbius a voice, allowing children and adults with the condition to explain what it is like. These fascinating biographies reveal much about the relations between face and facial expression, and emotional expression and emotional experience which we normally take for granted. The narratives also show the creative ways in which those with Möbius construct their lives and how they come to terms with and express their identities with, and yet, beyond their faces. Some with Möbius have been thought to have learning difficulties and autism, since an impassive immobile face has been assumed to reflect inner cognitive problems. This book criticises such work and asks people to look not only at the face but beyond it to see the person.

Throughout the book, several themes emerge, of which perhaps the most surprising is the reduced emotional experience those with Möbius can have as children and young adults and the journeys they go on as they realise this and then assimilate emotion from the outside in.

The result of a 4 year collaboration between a clinician/neuroscientist and a teacher/lobbyist who lives with Möbius, 'The Invisible Smile' provides an authentic, personal, and moving account of this disorder.

We face people every daybut what if a rare congenital malady deprives a child of the power to smile or frown, to have any facial expression whatever? Dr Cole is an expert on this condition, and, along with Henrietta Spalding, who grew up with Möbius Syndrome herself, he presents the life stories of people with this neurological conditionand the varied ways in which they cope and adapt. Cole writes vividly, but with delicacy and sympathy, combining deeply personal portraits with pioneering scientific insight.