Bruce G. Link Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric
Institute Jo C. Phelan The publication of Erving Goffman's
seminal Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity in
1963 generated a profusion of research on the nature, sources
and consequences of stigma. Numerous elaborations of Goffman’s
ideas, conceptual refinements, and repeated demonstrations of
the consequences of stigma for stigmatized individuals have been
put forward. The stigma concept has been applied to a very broad
array of circumstances ranging from urinary incontinence
(Sheldon and Caldwell 1994) to exotic dancing (Lewis 1998),
being in debt (Davis 1998) and being a mother who is lesbian
(Causey and Duran-Aydintug 1997). Amidst this profusion of
research, we return to the idea of stigma to reconsider its
conceptualization, to explore how and why it has pervasive and
persistent effects on people’s lives and to ask how and why it
is connected to the health of the public. After considering
these issues, we turn to ideas about