This innovative book investigates the roots of contemporary experiences of stigma, throwing new light on the phenomenon by examining a variety of long-term conditions.

Behaviour, lifestyle and identity are no longer the results of mass-production by social class and nation, but increasingly the quirky and unique eccentricities of the individual as consumer, reflexive citizen and free agent. But if the hallmark of the post-modern world is endless variety and unlimited sub-cultural freedom, should we not be witnessing "The End of Stigma"? The book takes Fukuyama s notion of "The End...