ABSTRACT

The person who is stigmatized is a person whose social identity is devalued, spoiled, or flawed in the eyes of others (Goffman, 1963). The concept dates to ancient Greece and was used to signify the marks that were pricked onto slaves to demonstrate ownership and to reflect their inferior social status. The ancient word for prick was stig, and the resulting mark, a stigma (Falk, 2001). Some authors have described stigma as a social construction associated with categorization and the recognition of a difference, based on a specific characteristic, which is used to devalue and dehumanize the person who possesses it (Dovidio, Major, and Crocker, 2000). Goffman (1963) identified three types of stigma: abominations of the body, deviation in personal traits, and tribal stigmas. Abominations of the body were described as stigmas associated with physical deformations or deviations from a social norm, such as people with physical challenges, missing limbs, or physical deformities, among others. Deviations in personal traits were stigmas associated with a person’s character, identity, unnatural passions, or simply their particular way of being. Some of these blemishes can be attributed to drug users, alcoholics, and people with poor mental health, among others. Finally, tribal stigmas referred to the negative evaluation of particular persons due to their association with a group. All of these dimensions could be argued to be part of the stigma that is related to substance use.