Is it Time to Re-Visit Stigma? A Critical Review of Goffman 50 Years On

It has become a truism that the subject of mental health and in particular, those who suffer from mental health conditions, are subject to social stigma. Indeed Bates and Stickley (2013) demonstrate how mental health nurses and the law combine to reinforce stigma through systems-fostered defensive and risk-averse practice. This article explores further how the law on unintended consequences can predispose well-meant practice to be, in some cases, counter-productive and contrary to the principles of recovery. It also illustrates how stigma is understood to be a far more complex and subtly corrosive phenomenon than Goffman foresaw.