Stigma: How We Treat Outsiders

by Gerhard Falk

What is it in human nature that leads us to label some as insiders and stigmatize others as outsiders?Sociologist Gerhard Falk examines the social psychology that motivates this process of exclusion, focusing on the outcasts in contemporary American society and comparing current experience with examples from the past. Referring to the work of Emile Durkheim and Erving Goffman, Falk reviews the whole range of stigmatized people from the mentally ill to ordinary people with unpopular occupations, like undertakers and trash collectors. Amid the wide diversity of stigmatized persons, he finds two basic types of the "existential" and the "achieved." The first group comprises those who are stigmatized because of their very existence, regardless of their specific the mentally handicapped, for example. The second group describes those whose actions or life conditions have resulted in from high achievers (often subject to resentment) to criminals. Falk also looks at the ways in which writers past and present have dramatized stigmatized characters in literature.This fascinating overview of a long-standing and widespread social problem will be of interest to all those concerned about creating a more fair-minded society.

Genres: Sociology

376 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2001

Reviews

[Jerry Wall]

. . . we and all societies will always stigmtize some conditions and some behavior because doing so provides for group solidarity by delineating "outsiders" from "insiders." p. 13
Greeks tattooed their slaves with a pointed instrument. Such an instrument pricked the skin and made a mark called a "stigma." . . . the ancient Greek word for "to prick" is "stig." Modern American usage of the words "stigma". . . refers to an invisible sign of disapproval which permits insiders to draw a line around "outsiders" in order to demarcate the limits of inclusion in any group. p 17
Unity is provided to any collectivity by uniting against those who are seen as a common threat to the social order and morality of a group. p. 18