Michael J. Hyde. Perfection: Coming to Terms with Being Human. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010. 322 pp. 29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-60258-244-6.

Reviewed by Kristina Peel (University of Bristol)
Published on H-Disability (July, 2010)
Commissioned by Iain C. Hutchison (University of Glasgow)

A History of Perfection through a Philosophical Lens

The concept of perfection is one that permeates our understanding of disability history, and often this notion of perfection is used as an explanation for wider debates on eugenics, normalcy, bioethics, and biotechnology, as well as on deafness and disability. Perfection undoubtedly runs through our understandings of culture, society, politics, and religion, and using a philosophical lens Hyde explores how society views perfection and how this alters our understanding of life experiences.

In his initial chapter, “Coming to Terms with Perfection,” Hyde charts how philosophers such as David Hume and Edmund Burke have identified perfection and, through our understanding of terms such as “proper,” “beauty,” and “eloquent,” we can see how perfection in itself is a requirement of life’s desires, wishes, hopes, and dreams. The requirements to speak a language perfectly, to raise children properly, or to have a perfect night’s sleep are all related to our understanding of perfection, and of perfection in itself and within our ambitions, hopes, and fear. It is to this extent that Hyde reminds us of the phrase “rotten with imperfection” in which some event is so far beyond our natural understanding and desires that it becomes pathetic, cynical, and impossible. Alternatively “rotten with perfection” can be used as an explanation for medical disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anorexia nervosa where the desire for perfection becomes a controlling feature in one’s life.

Greek and Roman gods are often portrayed as perfect or unbreakable; however in reality perfection is most frequently flawed, unpredictable, and flexible. Stemming from the notion of god-like qualities is the term “goodness” or “arête,” which connotes excellence, virtue, or living up to one’s full potential. Hyde uses this notion of goodness to explain how the study of, or belief in, goodness alters one’s perception and may lead to a life spent continually searching for one’s own goodness, without ever fulfilling one’s desires. Similarly, Greek sophists have taught rhetoric and philosophy using the principles of arête and this in itself places the notions of self-importance, truth, and power onto its students. 

Hyde addresses how beauty has often been seen as synonymous with perfection and, drawing on the work of Henry Petroski, Immanuel Kant, and Plato, Hyde explores the relationship between aesthetic mechanical beauty and mathematical and scientific beauty. Kant made clear the difference between natural beauty and aesthetic beauty, the latter being a presentation of a thing and revealing its most perfect and appreciated form. Aesthetically, something can be at its best when its function and outer appearance match its requirements and, drawing on the work of Petroski, Hyde explains how often our favorite possessions lose shape, color, and beauty with age, but often gain in value--whether sentimental or monetary. Often, pieces showcased in a museum have lost their original beauty, but display with age a story about their function. An “new” toy train from the 1920s, still in its original packaging, shows what could be produced in the 1920s and depicts the beauty of industrialization and manufacturing. But a train aged through use and devoid of its original coloring, tells us far more about the traits and experiences of children in the 1920s. The beauty of this item alters from the beauty of manufacturing to the beauty of childhood. Beauty becomes synonymous with truth and perfection, and in understanding human behavior, experience, and the issue of disability, the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” stands strong. For what is true, acceptable, and beautiful in one case or life story, is void from another. How we analyze creates opinions with regard to genetics or genomics and is ultimately linked to our innate understanding of perfection.

“Science is reason at its best” (p. 77) is a sentiment with which Hyde concurs, rationality and reason lying at the core of medical, scientific, and philosophical developments. Medicine, similar to mathematics, consists of a set of problems in which the physician or mathematician must use logic and reason to come to a suitable answer. It is reason that leads us to predict, deduce, and diagnose, and human beings form arguments, principles, and relationships based upon these reasonings. This is  all expressed through preaching, teaching, newspapers, TV, and in everyday society, and Hyde leads us to conclude that, through the art of oratory, society forms its beliefs with regard to the human body and mental state.

Throughout history, reasoning has been presented to aid the support of laws, governing bodies, principles, etc., and Hyde draws on the work of Kant to explain how lay people are frequently highly influential, or adopt beliefs depending on oratory reasoning. Kant wrote, “examples are the go-cart of judgment, and those who are lacking in the natural talent can never dispense with them” (quoted, p. 90). Hyde explains that Kant believed society was weakened by those following ideals rather than adopting or formulating their own. The essence of Kant’s works as applied to modern-day society suggests that society needs to think for itself; however the educational systems in capitalist societies tend to focus away from true pedagogical thinking and towards a banking-system style of education--or learning by rote.[1].

The way in which society has followed beliefs regarding perfection has influenced immigration and eugenic legislation as well as bioethics and technology. Hyde confirms that reason suggests truth and beauty, and as long as society remains obsessed with this notion of perfection then people will continue to make decisions about right and wrong based upon the beauty of reasoning.

Hyde draws on Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) to describe how, despite embodying an attempt to create perfection and thus aid humanity, Frankenstein’s monster turned out to be a physical monstrosity and contradicted this ideology of perfection. Hyde analyzes how the imperfection of the creature brought out even deeper imperfections in the scientist, such that the scientist was unable to accept the real beauty of truth and knowledge as discovered in his experimentation. This can be paralleled with the experiences of parents who give birth to children with disabilities, and J. B. Ellis describes how there is often a period of grief on behalf of the “non-perfect” disabled child, before there is acceptance.[2] This perception and obsession with perfection as displayed by Frankenstein is evident throughout debates on biotechnology and genetics. The 1997 movie Gattica illustrates how obsession with genetics and perfection can lead to a society fraught with disillusionment, false identity, and fear. The pursuit of perfection breeds discontent as true perfection is beyond the realm of human attainment.

Ultimately, the desire for human perfection can lead to medical conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder or anorexia nervosa, which further alter our own understandings of what it means to be human and what signifies a perfect or happy life. Raising the question of how perfection alters our perception of life and death, Hyde draws on the case of Terri Schiavo who, in 1990, sustained severe brain damage and was diagnosed as being in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS). Prior to collapse, Schiavo had bulimia, which in itself is a disease related to our own understanding of perfection. Her continued bulimia led to potassium imbalance which led to her PVS. Hyde, while raising the question of correct treatment for people in a PVS, simultaneously describes the conflict that occurred between Schiavo’s parents and her husband Michael, who all claimed to be representing Schiavo’s best interests. The case of Terri Schiavo raises numerous questions with regard to the right to life, dignity, medical treatment, what constitutes a disability, and when death is a preferable option to life or medically sustained life. Certainly ethical and religious issues play an integral role in our decisions and options regarding disabilities, deafness, medical treatment, and the right to life, but intertwined with that is our own perceptions of what constitutes life and the extent to which we believe something or someone has an acceptable quality of life. This raises questions related to prenatal genetic testing, which have been debated and discussed among disability studies scholars with regard to abortion, body politics, and social models of disability.[3]. The right to life is a philosophical decision that is bounded by personal perceptions of disability and perfection and, as illustrated by writers such as Ruth Hubbard, there is no simple answer regarding disability, life, or death [4]. Whether it is the choice of abortion, euthanasia, or the right to die a natural death, Hyde raises questions regarding perfection that, for the majority, remain unanswerable and unthinkable. Genetics poses another model or lens through which to view and alter the world, but if one begins to alter the human genome for one’s own desires or beliefs, then the world is succumbing to a false idea of perfection, beauty, and truth.

Notes

[1]. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th anniversary ed. (New York: Continuum International Publishing, 2008); and Peter McLaren, Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of Education, 5th edition (Princeton: Merrill, 2005).

[2]. J. B. Ellis, “Grieving for the Loss of the Perfect Child: Parents of Children with Handicaps,” Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 6, no. 4 (December 1989): 259-270.

[3]. Lennard J. Davis, ed., The Disability Studies Reader, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2006).

[4]. Ruth Hubbard, “Abortion and Disability: Who Should and Who Should Not Inhabit the World?” in The Disability Studies Reader, 93-104.

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Citation: Kristina Peel. Review of Hyde, Michael J., Perfection: Coming to Terms with Being Human. H-Disability, H-Net Reviews. July, 2010.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=29736

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