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Title: Stigma : Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman ISBN: 0-671-62244-7 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 15 June, 1986 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Breaking Down Barriers Between the Normal and Stigmatized
Comment: These the second Erving Goffman book that I've read this year (the other being "Asylums", please see my review on Amazon.com if interested).
I work as a criminal defense attorney and I read "Asylums" in an effort to gain perspective on the attitudes of institutionalized persons (i.e. convicts). I was suprised by how brilliant "Asylums" was, so I picked up "Stigma". I was similarily impressed with Stigma.
Where "Asylums" dealt with the relationship of individuals and institutions, "Stigma" deals more with inter personal relationships. The role of instituions in forming identity is noted in footnotes throughout, but the primary focus is in discussing the relationship between identity and stigma.
Goffman, of course, defines the dickens out of his concepts. If you gain nothing else from this book, you will have a thorough understanding of what it means to have a "stigma". The heart of the book consists of Goffman defining a five phase process which individuals with stigma go through. First you learn what it is to be "normal". Then you learn you're not "normal". Then you learn to control disclosure of information about your stigma, then you learn to "pass" as someone without a stigma and then you learn how to "voluntarily disclose" your stigma.
I don't have a degree in sociology, so I'm not sure about the theoretical backgrounding of this approach, but it made sense to me.
The best part of this book was the end, where Goffman argues (persuaively, I thought) that even "Normal" people have to deal with some sort of stigma at some time in their life. In that way, by studying people with stigma we study the interactions of "normals" with each other. So really there's no difference, just a continuum of stigma, ranging from those who are always suffering frm stigma, to those who rarely ever have to deal with it.
I thought that was an interesting insight. I recommend this book highly, and I look forward to reading his classic: "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life."
Rating: 3
Summary: my uncle has a quiggle!
Comment: this book was terribly boring, but it had this one great example in it about how people treat someone when they just find out about their stigma. they made up an example of someone having a quiggle. People won't know what to say so they ask totally inappropriate questions like "how do you bathe with that quiggle?" and then they try to related it to their own life so it wont seem like they're making a big deal out of it, hence "my uncle had a quiggle!" it's totally true and it was hecka funny. my friends and i wandered around asking each other inapproprate questions about each other's quiggles for a month. i wanted to make a T-shirt that said "embrace your inner quiggle!"
Rating: 5
Summary: Invaluable
Comment: I was first given this book by a blind judge who thought I needed to understand the concepts within prior to commencing psychotherapy. I have since used it in many papers to discuss issues of disability, sexual orientation, and addiction. The concepts also resonate with clients.
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Title: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman ISBN: 0385094027 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 May, 1959 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Asylums : Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates by Erving Goffman ISBN: 0385000162 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 18 October, 1961 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Interaction Ritual by Erving Goffman ISBN: 0394706315 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 1982 List Price(USD): $12.75 |
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Title: The Social Construction of Reality : A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge by Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Thomas Luckmann ISBN: 0385058985 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 11 July, 1967 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: BEHAVIOR IN PUBLIC PLACES by Erving Goffman ISBN: 0029119405 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1966 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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