Stigma

Abstract

Stigma, as we have come to define it today, was officially launched as a sociological concept by Erving Goffman over 60 years ago. In his book, Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity, Goffman describes how people tend to make characterizations on others’ social identities based on attributes. When others possess an attribute “of a less desirable kind – in the extreme, a person who is quite thoroughly bad, or dangerous, or weak,” people tend to reduce such individuals as tainted persons. This type of person is someone who could be “justifiably” discredited or is discreditable. Goffman defines this sort of attribute to be a stigma. Yet, it goes deeper. Goffman describes how, in some situations, an attribute that could be stigmatizing may be interpreted in differing ways, depending on context. Stigma, then, is better described as when attributes and stereotypes collide. This stigma could fit within three broad domains: (1) physical deformities, (2) “blemishes of individual character,” which could range from proclivities toward deviance, mental illness, criminal behavior and incarceration, alcoholism and drug use, and so on, and (3) inherited attributes from familial lineage to include race, national identity, and religion. Modern approaches to stigma continue to focus on the concept of devalued identities as the direct or indirect result of the interactions Goffman describes.

By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human. On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, if often unthinkingly, reduce his life chances. Erving Goffman, 1963.