Window tax
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20428301211281032 |
| Date | 23 November 2012 |
| Pages | 181-187 |
| Published date | 23 November 2012 |
| Author | Peter J. Gordon |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Window tax
Peter J. Gordon
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss concerns that, despite recent campaigns, stigma has
not been fully addressed by the psychiatric profession and that evidence suggests it may have
unwittingly contributed to iatrogenic stigma.
Design/methodology/approach – The writer of this paper is a psychiatrist and considers the subject of
stigma by employing the metaphor of bricked up windows. Arguments are supported through the
evaluation of scientific research in addition to ideas from philosophy and literature.
Findings – The paper highlights areas of ongoing stigma and also identifies possible explanations for
this in the current approach of the psychiatric profession.
Practical implications – It is hoped that this paper stimulates further discussion particularly within the
psychiatric profession about the approach to tackling stigma.
Originality/value – This paper revisits the subject of Iatrogenic Stigma ten years on from an editorial in
the British Medical Journal by Professor Norman Sartorius. The assumption of the psychiatric profession
is that, by giving prominence to a biomedical view of mental illness, stigma will be lessened. This paper
challenges this view and widens the discussion.
Keywords Stigma, Latrogenic, Psychiatry, Biogenetic, Mental illness
Paper type Viewpoint
Daylight robbery
The term ‘‘daylight robbery’’ is thought to have originated from the window tax as it was
understood by some as a ‘‘tax on light’’. In Scotland, the window tax was imposed after 1748 as
a tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and
architectural force during the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. To avoid the tax some
houses from the period chose to brick-up window-spaces. This essay isnot about the window
tax but rather about stigma surrounding mental illness. It is my contention that in our
well-intentioned attempts to address stigma we have in fact blocked up many windows and
thus blocked the light that might bring fuller understanding of suffering.
In this essay, I will cover stigma from both within and outside the house. The house
represents the psychiatric profession. It is now ten years since Professor Norman Sartorius
wrote an editorial in the British Medical Journal on Iatrogenic Stigma (Sartorius, 2002). This
essay revisits the subject.
Phelan et al. (2008) found three major functions of stigma and prejudice: norm enforcement
(keeping people in); exploitation and domination (keeping people down); and disease
avoidance (keeping people away).
The term stigma refers to a mark that denotes a shameful quality in the individual so marked.
Mental illness is widely considered to be such a quality. Goffman (1963), in his classic
formulation, defines stigma as ‘‘an attribute that is deeply discrediting’’ and proposes that the
stigmatized person is reduced ‘‘from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one’ ’.
DOI 10.1108/20428301211281032 VOL. 16 NO. 4 2012, pp. 181-187, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308
j
MENTAL HEALTHAND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
PAGE 181
Peter J. Gordon is based at
NHS Forth Valley,
Sauchie, UK.
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