This article focuses on the two concepts of « exposure » and « phantasmagoria » as proposed by Walter Benjamin in his works. Both make it clear that fixing a deficiency is a contemporary phantasmagoria to the extent that, under the effects of technical methods on a grand scale, and consensually, deficient bodies are fixed and reproducible, notably through surgical interventions which are the condition of their exposure. But at the same time, the fixing of the deficiency may be regarded as a phantasmagoria, because it illustrates a distinctive tendency of contemporary societies, namely over-confidence in progress, and because it provides, before disappearing, a key to understanding this. Both the concepts of « exposure » and « phantasmagoria » seem to be relevant for apprehending the deficiency, and the way it is managed: its fixing appears to be the major element, and, as such, emblematic of the era and of the relations to the Other that it generates and reproduces.