I'm a little surprised at your therapist colleague if she is the one who coined the term "society-based disorder." In my studies I never heard of one. I haven't seen one listed in the DSM4 - the manual used by Psychologists/therapists as the basis for diagnosis. What I would suspect is that the individuals are suffering from low self-worth and see altering their body in accordance with society's "highest" standards as a means to feel good about themselves. The pressure to look like that comes from within - not from without. I will grant you that there are some sub-cultures within society that have a high degree of peer-pressure, but one does not generally have to become a member of those sub-cultures if one doesn't want to. In the US, there are all sorts of sub-cultures - Yuppies, cowboys, goths, rock-n-rollers, blue-coller workers, religious people etc. - and they don't all have the same values and standards. I think what's key is your statement that, "If an individual has never had any other positive influences in their lives society is there only role model that they gage themselves by." That statement addresses the root of the problem. People don't have positive influences. They have absent fathers or mothers and broken homes. They see little stability in relationships. They see materialism as the goal of their existence, and find it unsatisfying. They see immediate gratification as 'life.' When they can't get that 'stuff' or that immediate gratification (which often happens because life simply isn't a 30 minute sitcom) they feel angry. And when they do get that 'stuff' they feel empty, because that's all it is. Stuff. BTW, nice point LadySilverMage ----- Out of curiosity, has there ever been a time (or culture) when women have not been idealized in some form or another? Has there ever been a time or culture when the local village, kingdom, or society has not pressured people to conform to it's standards? Especially those approaching the age where they could become married? If there has, it's been quite rare, which begs the question, what is genuinely different today?

Before they made me they broke the mold!
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