Stigma

Shrink Definition

Stigma is a social process by which certain attributes get marked as reasons for discrediting, distancing, or discriminating against a person. Erving Goffman's foundational work distinguished stigma from the traits themselves; a trait becomes a stigma only in a social context that treats it that way. Three forms are commonly named: public stigma (community attitudes and discrimination), self stigma (the internalization of those attitudes), and structural stigma (policies and institutions that quietly encode disadvantage).

Plain language

Stigma is when a social group treats a personal attribute as a reason for exclusion.

Shrink Insight

The shame someone carries about a condition is often community shame that got moved indoors.

Why it matters

Stigma influences: help seeking, disclosure decisions, diagnosis rates, treatment adherence, workplace behavior, and the daily calculus of whether to tell someone what's going on.

Common misunderstanding

Reducing stigma isn't the same as pretending a difference doesn't exist. It's refusing to make that difference a reason for exclusion.

Shrink Perspective

The most stubborn stigma is often self stigma. It arrives before the community does and stays longer.

Shrink Reflection

Which stigma have you felt yourself, and how did it change what you told people?

Shrink Journal

Write about a topic you keep quiet about socially. Where did the quiet come from, and whose voice does it sound like?

Shrink Step

Today, notice one moment where you shrank a truth to fit an audience. You don't have to change anything. Just notice.

Shrink Minute

The shame you carry is often shame that used to live outside.

Shrink Takeaway

Stigma is social. Undoing it usually starts inside.

Medical boundary

Evidence summary

Stigma is one of the most studied constructs in medical sociology and public health. Public, self, and structural stigma are all well documented in the literature on mental illness, HIV, addiction, and other conditions.