Images of ‘the Other’: Exploring the Concept in a Case Study of Pharmaceutical Advertising

Published date01 March 2008
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200800005
Pages27-32
Date01 March 2008
AuthorIan Shaw
Subject MatterHealth & social care
Ian Shaw
Professor of Health Policy, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
Images of ’the Other’: Exploring
the Concept in a Case Study of
Pharmaceutical Advertising
Abstract
The ‘other’ is a central concept in much of sociology, psychology and philosophy, and is useful in explaining the
social exclusion and stigmatisation of people suffering from mental health problems. This paper first defines the
concept and then applies it to a case study analysis of pharmaceutical advertising aimed at general practitioners. The
paper also explores the way in which advertising may exploit professional insecurities and own self-image. It is
argued that this is undertaken in ways that do not put the person with mental illness in the forefront.
Key words
Other, otherness, stigma, pharmaceutical companies, advertising, general practitioners
identity and sameness, and the experience of ’evil’
has often been linked with notions of externality.
’Otherness’ was seen in terms of estrangement,
which contaminates the unity of ’the same’. Evil
was linked to alienation. In contemporary society,
as in the past,the unfamiliar is often portrayed in
morally negative terms and as a scapegoat and as
an adversary. The portrayal of the Jews in the
media of Hitler’s Germany is a stark example of
this (Bolkosky, 1975). Indeed,as shal l be shown,
the media in modern society often uses ’otherness’
in subtle and not so subtle ways in stories and in
advertising.
The concept of the ’other’ is also used by
sociology to explore the processes by which groups
and societies exclude people they wish to subordinate
or to exclude or marginalise. The ’other’ is also
integral to the understanding of identities as people
construct roles for themselves in relation to some
other or others as a part of a fluid process of action
and reaction. This process is not only related to
subjugation or stigmatisation but can relate to how
people define themselves in terms of certain ’norms’
around sexuality and so on. Put simply, the self may
well require the ’other’ to define itself (Hegel, Satre).
An example of this is the use of the concept in
gender studies. The concept of the ’other’ has
become very important in studies of sex and gender.
Defining the concept
Put very basically, the ’other’ is a key concept in
Western philosophy.It refers to that which is
’other’ than the concept being considered. In
psychology as well as in philosophy the term often
means a person other than oneself,where the
’other’ is singled out as in someway different. It
can also be used to mean the unconscious, silence,
madness, the other of language (ie,what it refers
to and what is unsaid) and so on. However, for
the purposes of this paper the key point is that
a person’s definition of the ’other’ is particularly
important as it helps individuals to define or even
constitute ’the self’.
’What appear to be cultural units – human
beings, words, meanings, ideas, philosophical
systems, social organizations – are maintained
in their apparent unity only through an
active process of exclusion, opposition, and
hierarchization. Other phenomena or units must
be represented as foreign or “other” through
representing a hierarchical dualism in which the
unit is “privileged” or favored, and the other is
devalued in some way’ (Cahoone, 1996).
Within the history of Western culture and thought
what is ’good’ has often been equated with self-
Mental Health Review Journal Volume 13 Issue 1 March 2008 © Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd 27
RESEARCH

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