Psychology of the beautiful woman - Part 3

In recent times I have come under some criticism about my posts on the beautiful woman. It has been alleged that I have been too critical and demonizing them. After reading again what I have written I think there is truth to these comments that I have been too harsh.

I did at one point say that I was generalizing with my comments but I perhaps should have also said that most beautiful women will adjust relatively normally to the odd situation in which they find themselves. Any exceptional person is abnormal in the statistical sense of the word. Because of some quality they have, they are out side the normal range where most people fit.

The normal curve. The beautiful and the very unattractive are not in the normal range as the vast majority of people are. 

As they are outside the normal range they will have to deal with circumstances which most other people do not. This is what I have been attempting to explain with my posts. I think I have achieved this but at the same time I have not highlighted that many beautiful women are probably nice people people with good psychological adjustment. They have been able to successfully negotiate the psychological pitfalls which their physical appearance brings them and develop psychologically in a reasonably normal way. 

It is true I have been focussing on the negative psychological fallout that their appearance can bring them. The reasons for doing this are obvious in that this is the purpose of the writing in the first place BUT I do also want to say that in my view most will avoid any serious psychological damage that could result, such as significant narcissism.

This of course applies to any person who has some exceptional quality whether that be academic ability, power, wealth, singing ability or being the fastest runner in the world. However I would say that the beautiful woman has more difficult circumstances than these others. In the other examples just cited they can easily hide their special attribute. No one would know they have it unless they are told or the person goes out of her way to show it, like running a race. 

However the beautiful woman cannot do this as her exceptional ability is ‘in you face’ each and every day she ventures out into the social world. She could dress in a very unattractive way but in essence she would have to hide herself like this for people to not see. 

It could therefore be said that her special ability is going to have more of an impact on her psychology than other types of special ability. Also her specialness is there from day one and especially from early adolescence whereas one does not know they have exceptional academic ability until the end of school or one does not know they are the fastest runner until they have competed at the olympics.

However I would like to say to these women that I apologize if I have treated them too harshly. My motive was to look at this group who fall out side the normal range and examine what may be the psychological consequences of that. Naturally there will tend to be more interest in the negative psychological consequences as that is what psychologists and psychotherapists are required to deal with when they work. Clients don’t seek out psychotherapists to work on what is positive and healthy.

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