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FACIES
Face Facade Facetius Facet
Facial expressions, like music, transcend the barriers of languages.
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Facies, in medicine, describes a particulalr or peculiar thus distinctive face or facial expression or more succintly, a face “with a message”. In this instance, the groom has a "facies" of "mental subnormality and appears to have a small head (probably microcephaly), a flat nasal bridge (“saddle-like nose”), a small chin (micrognathia) and a low frontal hairline. Such features were recongized by the public as indicative of "cretinism", a term used for persons with congenital forms of oligophrenia (lacking in cerebral development). In this detail of a bethroal ceremony, the bride probably ahd no say in the matter.
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In biologic terms, the FACE is a relatively flat anterior (ventral) and inferior (cuadal) area of the skull (cranium). From the flat facial FACET proturde the NOSE and LIPS (more so in persons of some ethnic groups). Diverse facial "expressions" are an integral part of every language and contrary to words which are peculiar to specific languages, facial expressions of joy and pain are universal. In fact, the public can recognize the "dull facies" of the mentally "retarded", including those with "Mongolism" (an offensive term for a more specific category of congenital "cretinism" recently replaced by Down syndrome). In short, the face reflects degrees of cerebral development by the link of emotions and the facial skin musculature giving rise to facial expressions. For example, the "risorius" muscle gives rise to the "risa", or smile in Spanish. Primates have the most developed system of "facial expressions" which complement verbal comminications.
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| Prominent noses or lips are more common among some ethnic groups, a fact stressed by ancient and modern artists alike. |
The face is like a FACADE used to display or hide feelings. In FACT, the face is a FACTORY of signals that lend humans the FACULTY to show pain, pleasure, surprise, be FACETIOUS, or to grimace in tune with FASHIONS and ethnic cultures. "Caras y Caretas" (faces and masks), the name of a once famous Spanish journal , underscores that humans can also rely on the face to mask their true feelings.
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Actors and other artists strive to express facial feelings that convey the nature or portrait of those portrayed. Infants recognize the meanings of facial expressions before they grasp the meanings of words. Mothers are also the best at recongizing the facies of their infants indicating joy, fear or illness. |
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Optimist - Pessimist |
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Democritus |
Heraclitus |
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A pesimistic "facies" of an Emperor aware that "All is in Flux" and an optimistic facies of a Philosopher convinced that "All that is, is the best (possible)". |
It is of interest that with the advent of telecommunications and imaging technologies the value of "face to face" communications stands undiminshed. An index of this fact is the travel schedule of Secretaries of State or those who pay vast sums to attend all sorts of "concerts in vivo".
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Approaches to quantify Physiognomy |
Strictly speaking, the terms "face", "facies" and "physiognomy" are synonymous. Howerver, in medical terms, "looking at a face" implies "looking for a facies". For example, a Clinical Geneticists may find in a face signs peculiar to Achondroplasia. Such realization may accelerate the diagnosis and formulation of early, context specific health care interventions.
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Individuals with achondroplasia have a typical facies, particularly a “pug” like nose. |
More that a century ago, interest in PHYSIOGNOMY (phyein for "to engender" and gnomo for "to judge") reached its peak. Enthusiasts then believed that the face was not only "a window to the soul", as asserted by many proverbs, but that it also was an indicator of health, disease and mental status. Physiognomy was linked with Phrenology. Early applications were oriented to better understand the human mind and not as today to understand physical prenatal development. Among early enthusiasts, many were tainted by dogmatic religious and political convictions. An emphasis on premature applications to detect socially undesirable individuals ultimately led to a loss of credibility and the demise of this approach until the advent of modern Dysmorphology. As mentioned above, Clinical Geneticists interested in Dysmorphology (study of altered shapes and proportions) have be ability to suspect many disorders from a peculiar facies as in the case of Achodroplasia or Down syndromes.
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The achondroplasia "facies" is characteristic - note the "saddle" like nose and prominent forehead (however words can not convey what the eyes can). |
W. Wertelecki, M.D. 20091114a
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