Social and human sciences.
Whether they are the result of a birth defect, an illness or an accident, disfigurement, facial abnormalities, facial paralysis, scars on the face can have major psychological consequences: many patients suffer from a lack of self-esteem, poor self-image and more than half of them show signs of depression and loneliness.
Indeed, patients who show those abnormalities often are rejected or singled out by society: people either look away or, on the contrary, stare quite uncomfortably at the abnormal physical feature.
It is therefore important to study the psychological, legal, societal impact of the physical difference in order to improve the quality of the care to the patient and ultimately their quality of life, and to design and organize events (bringing sciences and art together) with the goal of changing how society treats the facial handicap.
PROJECTS
Qualitative and quantitative pilot study (using eye-tracking system) on how we look at patients with a facial paralysis;
- Research on cleft lip and palate : social perception and cognition. Change in how children and teenagers with a cleft lip and palate perceive their own face
- Psychopathology of disfigurements (identity, narcissistic weaknesses, emotional deprivation, collapse)
- Development and set-up of an objective analysis platform of facial micro movements in relation to emotional expression, interaction, communication and paralanguage features (movement capture and video system paired with eye-tracking device)
Animateur de la thématique
Luc Vandromme
Thèmes
Epistémologie du visage
Histoire des transplantations
Figure humaine ; éthique et perception