Boundaries of Stigma. Anti-Stigma Campaigns as Social Control and a Source of Self-Stigma

Abstract

The article presents stigma in mental health as a boundary object for different scientific disciplines. The research that is dominated by the approaches present in medicine and quantitative social sciences has resulted in the conceptualizations of stigma and practical solutions to combat it that seem counter-effective. It has also neglected important questions about the role of stigma in society. It is argued that biomedical understanding of mental distress is inherently stigmatizing and anti-stigma campaigns based on this discourse are necessarily paradoxical and lead to self-stigma. This could be interpreted along the lines of Foucault's concepts of biopower, panopticon and governmentality. Another perspective could emerge from utilizing concepts associated with the Frankfurt School, especially Lukacs's reification and Adorno's identity thinking. Anti-stigma campaigns can be seen as a means of social control, legitimizing the use of stigmatizing labels and the biomedical psychiatric discourse that ultimately serve to preserve the social, cultural and economic status-quo.