Dorian Gray syndrome "fountains of youth"" (2001), in a symposium about the unrealistic male pursuit of bodily perfection — by means of lifestyle-enhancing drugs, aesthetic surgery, and psychotropic medicines — and its consequences for his mental health as a social being. The culturally descriptive name of the syndrome refers to the eponymous protagonist of the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1891), by Oscar Wilde, the story of a very handsome young man who much admires and envies the just-completed portrait of himself, and wishes that it would grow old, rather than he. In order to resist the physical corruptions of time and
The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) Dorian contemplates the degradation of his life and his evil influence on others. Thinking about the young girl with whom he broke off, he removes the cover from his portrait, hoping to find some diminution of his temporal corruption. To his dismay, he sees instead a new look of hypocrisy and corruption. Hoping to destroy the one visual proof of his evil, he stabs the portrait with the same knife used to kill Basil. A terrible scream is heard. The portrait has regained its original look of the young Dorian, whilst on the floor lies the horribly disfigured body of