Causes
Psychodynamically, an interplay between narcissistic tendencies ("timeless beauty"), the inability to progress and mature ("developmental arrest") and, finally, as a defense, the use of "medical lifestyle" products (hair growth restorers, erectile dysfunction drugs, weight loss medication, mood lifters, laser treatment of the skin, and aesthetic surgery to remove signs of the aging process) are seen. The syndrome is delineated from the concurring clinical concepts of narcissistic personality, dysmorphophobia, and paraphilia. While Dorian Gray patients display diagnostic features of these disorders, the syndrome describes a common underlying psychodynamic behind these disorders in form of a narcissistic defence against time-dependent maturation—the seeking of eternal beauty. An estimated 3% of the total population displays features of the syndrome (compare Brosig, et al. 2005, based on a representative study of the German population).
Read more about this topic: Dorian Gray Syndrome