The concern of this article is with the impact of facial disfigurement on social interaction during brief encounters, the ramifications of which have the potential for psychological and social destruction. Largely ignored by those interested in the social and psychological problems and rehabilitation of the functionally impaired, such as the blind, the deaf, the amputee, the intent here is to point up the major problems associated with facial disfigurement and to explore some of the ways of dealing with them. The data on which this article is based were collected over many years and are no longer new, but this attempt to synthesize them for a particular purpose is.