VIVIAN DILLER, PH.D. AND JILL MUIR-SUKENICK, PH.D.
FACE IT
WHAT WOMEN REALLY FEEL AS THEIR LOOKS CHANGE
(March 2010)
by Vivian Diller, Ph.D. and Jill Muir-Sukenick, Ph.D.
“Finally, not just another beauty book. As someone in the public eye, I truly appreciate the authors’ understanding…of how all women deal with complicated reactions to their aging appearance. Face It offers a refreshing perspective and long-lasting solutions. It’s a book you can give to your mother, your daughter or any woman who wants to feel and look great at any age.” - Sela Ward, Actress
The $20 billion U.S. anti-aging products industry has been built on women’s fears, anxiety, and despair, creating a generation (or two) more afraid of living while looking old than they are of dying. What is it about the first gray hair or brown spot that throws women from all walks of life into a tailspin?
Former professional models and today practicing psychologists Vivian Diller and Jill Muir-Sukenick see firsthand that many of their clients suffer debilitating symptoms—depression, eating and sleep disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, compulsive plastic surgeries—due to their concerns about aging. As models, both women were highly visible in careers where physical appearance was paramount. Now, Dr. Diller and Dr. Sukenick—intimately involved with the worlds of beauty, inside and out—share their six-step process that frees women of all ages from the dread of looking older.
In their book FACE IT: What Women Really Feel as Their Looks Change (Hay House; March 2010; $24.95), Vivian Diller, Ph.D., and Jill Muir-Sukenick, Ph.D., help women make sense of the complex emotions provoked by their aging appearance. A psychological guide to enjoying your looks at any age, FACE IT offers an insightful understanding of this seemingly “skin-deep” issue and provides the kind of long-term solutions women are desperately seeking.
Today’s culture sends a mixed message: Be yourself, gain experience, but don’t dare show it on your face. To look beautiful you must defy your age, yet the younger we try to look, the less beautiful we feel. It’s a Catch-22—or as the authors write, a Catch-55! There are alternatives to going under the knife or dismissing looks entirely to successfully deal with our changing appearance. In an interview, Drs. Diller and Sukenick can lead the conversation no one else is having:
• The Beauty Paradox – Living longer in a youth- and beauty-obsessed culture, struggling with mixed messages about our looks;
• Is 50 the New 15? – Why an adolescent-like self-doubt reemerges and what to do about it;
• How to be 30 or 40 Without Dreading 50 and 60 – Models for aging well, and empowering the next generation with courage and confidence;
• The Uh-Oh Moment – Facing the first time you look “old”—did it register like distant thunder or an earth-shattering blast—and how to turn uh-ohs into ah-hahs;
• Aging is not a Personal Failure – Too many women react to aging as something they did wrong;
• Plastic Surgery from the Inside Out – Approaching cosmetic procedures using “internal” guidelines that ensure greater satisfaction;
• Symptoms that “Mask” Concerns – How to face the truth about aging;
• The Six Steps to Freedom – The psychological steps to a new approach to beauty, and much more.