Disrupted faces, disrupted identities? Embodiment, life stories and acquired facial ‘disfigurement’

Questions about the relationship between faces, ‘disfigurement’ and identity intensified following the first facial transplant (2005). Over a decade later, empirical research exploring the influence of acquired facial ‘disfigurement’ on embodied identity disruption and re‐formation remains limited. A common strand of thinking assumes identities are contained within faces. Commentators have suggested that identities can be diminished through ‘disfigurement’ and restored or replaced through reconstruction or transplantation. The authors question this claim and provide a conceptually informed, empirical alternative drawing on the results of a phenomenologically located, narrative study exploring identity shift in British adults following acquired ‘disfigurement’. Findings suggest that faces are important to humans and that identities can be disrupted in the aftermath of facial ‘disfigurement’. Though, the relationship is not simple and cannot be predicted by the degree of corporeal change. Disrupted, liminal and contradictory strands of identity emerged; pre‐existing identities were strengthened, new ones emerged, and other non‐related experiences were also influential. Nuanced relationality was at the heart of participant sense‐making. Consequently, the authors reject the idea that identities are contained within faces and call for the development of a wider social and relational facial phenomenology to more comprehensively explore this fascinating, multifaceted relationship.