This paper explores the contradiction between dominant discourses of individualist decision-
making and patient narratives of cosmetic surgery, in addition to relational understandings of
the body in cosmetic surgery. Using a psychoanalytic methodology for reading interview
transcripts called poetic transcription, the paper analyzes five narrative interview transcripts
that explore five women's experiences with various cosmetic surgeries. The patient
narratives stress the decision as one that happens in relation to others, and in particular …