A discrediting attribute spoils social identity, and management of that spoilage organises the bearer's life.
Goffman's 1963 analysis. His point is that stigma is relational rather than a property of the person, so the same attribute is discrediting in one setting and unremarkable in another.
In practice
- An employee with an old conviction is unremarkable on the warehouse floor and unemployable in the finance office of the same firm.
- A parent decides afresh at each new school gate whether to mention the diagnosis, and the decision is about the audience rather than the child.