"It is someone else's gaze that brings me into being," said Lacan. This has never been more true than for those who have to undergo the loss of their self-image. Having seen it happen, I can state that people can finally forget their damaged bodies because they are themselves, because the people around them still look at them with loving tenderness and do nothing to call attention to their physical collapse.
— Marie de Hennezel, Intimate Death by Marie de Hennezel, Carol Brown Janeway, translator