Stigma

Stigma has attracted attention within the health humanities in large measure because it relates to core human emotions and behaviors about disease, disability, and the body in historically and culturally specific ways. Exploring stigmas associated with various conditions and their effects on individuals and groups—through humanistic and other qualitative approaches—offers insight into fundamental questions of suffering, caregiving, social relations, health disparities, ethics and values, as well as health-care outcomes. The health humanities, broadly construed, offer important approaches and methods for understanding how stigma is generated and functions, the harms it produces, as well as strategies to mitigate its impact.