A Stigma

Goffman notes that the term 'stigma' originated in ancient Greece, where it referred to bodily markings such as branding which identified people as criminals, slaves or traitors (Goffman 1963). In more modern times, Goffman identifies three types of stigma: abnormalities of the body, by which he means physical deformities; character blemishes, such as a weak will, domineering or unnatural patterns, dishonesty etc. which are known from prison records, addictions, homosexuality, mental disorders or radical political behavior; and there are the stigma of race, religion and nationality which can be determined through lineages and equally affect all members of a family.

Goffman says that a stigma is something that detracts from a person, and that 'normal' people cannot ignore (Goffman, 1963). It is something that makes them less than human, and normal people construct a theory to explain their inferiority and the danger they present to them. Goffman says the stigmatized person may believe that he is 'normal' and feels he is entitled to a fair chance just like everyone else. At the same time, in the presence of normal people, he realizes that he is different and cannot do what they can, and this causes him to feel shame, and can lead to self-hate and self-degradation.

The stigmatized person is not accepted by the normal people (Goffman, 1963). He does not get the respect he deserves. Goffman says that where possible, the stigmatized person often tries to repair the probl

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Goffman saw stigma mainly in physical terms, e.g. the lame, the blind, those with chronic ailments, Link and Phelan (2001) looked at how people respond to those with a stigma. They looked at how stigma has been defined by researchers and how the stigma concept has been used, critically analyzing these studies and developing a new conceptualization fo the word stigma. They explain the many different definitions of stigma by the fact that the stigma concept has been applied to many different circumstances, and that it has been used by researchers from many different disciplines, each with their own idea of what the word 'stigma' means. Link and Phelan (2001) challenge the stigma concept because most of those who have studied it belong to the 'normal' population rather than those with a stigma, so really don't understand what it is like to live with the stigma they are researching, and the studies are also usually very individualistic in nature. Goffman defined stigma as the relationship between an attribute and a stereotype: Link and Phelan define it as having two components - 1) people labeling human differences, and 2) dominant cultural beliefs linking labeled people to undesirable characteristics, or negative stereotypes. T

Category: Psychology - A