The Personality Surgeon (1985), Colin Wilson’s fifteenth novel, gives an enlivening account of “[t]he sequence of events that transformed Dr Charles Peruzzi” – whose family, despite the Italian name, originated in the northern Pyrenees – “from an overworked general practitioner into one of the most remarkable medical discoverers of our time” (1). Surgeon charts Peruzzi’s discovery of “personality surgery”, which employs a digital paintbox – a very new form of technology in the early 1980s – to provide people with a positive self-image that will enable them to realize their full potential – if they want to. The novel is largely a third-person narrative with Peruzzi (usually called “Charlie”) as its viewpoint character, but its supposed author appears in the first person in the final chapter and, although unnamed, he is much like Colin Wilson...
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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Personality Surgeon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23978, accessed 09 June 2026.]
