Stigma

Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity

Book Report

STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity

by Erving Goffman Simon and Schuster/Touchstone Books, New York

Reviewer: Date reviewed:

Rudy De Paoli January 31, 2004

Notes on the structure of this Book Report Three Levels of summary can be accessed quickly and efficiently depending on the timeand interest in this subject matter. 1. A two-page “executive summary” can be efficiently gleaned by reading only the italicized book overview in green italics on p.2 and 3 of this report. 2. A quick read summary can be obtained by reading the green italicized two-page “executive summary” and the Chapter Overviews in blue italics for each chapter. 3. A third level of detail is the full book reportthat follows each Chapter Overview and is a detailed distillation of key points within each Chapter. Every attempt has been made to keep the reviewer’s perspective out of the picture and to keep the ideas true to Goffman’s text. Of course, the mere selection and distillation or emphasis process biases the objectivity and reflects subjective aspects of the reviewer. The reviewer apologizes for thisand also for inadvertent misunderstandings of Goffman’s original text.

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Book Report: STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity

Two-Page Executive Summary Overview of STIGMA – Notes on the management of spoiled identity
Structure of the Book Goffman has structured his book STIGMA around five concept clusters with a chapter for each: 1. Conceptual constructs for the phenomenaof Identity, Spoiled Identity, Stigmatization and its causes – in other words – what is Stigma; what is its relation to Identity and Social Identity in particular; and how does Stigmatization arise? 2. The impact of Social and Personal Information on our “Identity” and the possibility of the Management of a Spoiled Identity. 3. The search for a doctrine or philosophy of life to deal with theambivalent sense of “self,” the influences on the stigmatized of “their own” versus normals’ expectations and demands, and the resultant “identity crisis” resulting from the stigmatized individual’s choice of orientation or alignment to these two Groups’ “external imputations” of what a “self” should be. 4. Considerations that the concept of Stigma is a result of societal norms, gaps between virtualand actual compliance and conformity to those norms, and the extension that the “stigmatized” and “normal” are not, in the ultimate analysis, fixed persons or instances, but points of view that all participants in society must learn to be aware of and adopt as an adaptation skill. The concept of Deviation is explored to link the study of Stigma to the study of the rest of the social world. 5.Contemplations about the relationship between the specific study of Stigma versus general social studies on sociological issues whose core dynamic relates to deviations and deviance. The point is made that the lessons from the specific study of Stigma can be applied to the understanding of other social issues related to deviations and deviance in a context of addressing normative dilemmas. In so doing,students can focus on what distinguishes these other social challenges while seeing that one of the aspects they have in common is addressed by considerations of Stigma and its management. Content of the Book Goffman’s book STIGMA – Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity deals with the effects of varying degrees of social and self-identity awareness on the possible adaptive patterns ofbehavior and accommodation that may arise when stigmatized individuals interact with “normals” in immediate physical proximity of each other in various social settings. Goffman deals with various definitional aspects of Stigma and contrasts ego identity (what an individual feels about stigma and its management) versus the more external pragmatic challenges of social identity management (its effect on...