Abhorrence, Compassion and the Social Response to Suffering

Abstract
This article re-examines the question of ‘blaming the other’ and the stigmatization of the sick. It sets recent analyses of the stigmatization of illness within a cultural context (effectively North American) that has been concerned with the AIDS epidemic in particular. The article argues that this focus upon difference as an undesirable response to sickness in general has lead to the marginalization of expressive reactions to suffering. These responses, which raise different questions, include those of abhorrence and compassion, which the article argues have been historically central to the treatment of the sick within western societies. Using ideas drawn from research into charitable giving, the argument is made that abhorrence and compassion are necessary terms for understanding the various reactions of people to human suffering and misery. As a consequence, medical sociology needs to widen its focus from the ‘fragile selves’ who are assumed to populate a world in which exclusion and difference is paramount, to include ‘human frailty’ as a key feature of suffering, stigma and the care of the sick.