Society and Stigma

One of the key concepts in mental health is identity. In his theory of ‘spoiled identities’, Goffman identifies how people’s identities become spoiled by society – especially through stigma. In this talk I consider how creative expression can help to restore a sense of both personal and social identity. Although well-intentioned, the psychiatric system can be counter-productive to mental health recovery.

Autism is characterised by difficulties with social interaction. Psychology has typically adopted a medical model of social disability in autism, based on numerous studies showing that autistic people have difficulty inferring mental states of non-autistic people. However, social interaction always involves more than one person; this has been largely neglected in autism research. I will talk about my research showing that non-autistic people have considerable difficulty inferring mental states of autistic people, and discuss how this may contribute to social difficulties experienced in autism.

Are symptoms that cannot be seen missed by healthcare professionals and ignored and misunderstood by society? Remember how hard it was to describe that pain you had? People with multiple sclerosis (MS) routinely experience such challenges. MS is a neurological condition that is associated with several symptoms, many of which, like memory problems, fatigue, and pain are ‘invisible’. These invisible symptoms also relate to stigma that people with MS face. We will discuss how people with MS talk about and cope with these problems, and how our research is helping them manage these symptoms.