Facial Disfigurement, Stigma, and Cancer: Interaction Between Patients and Members of Secondary Groups

This article probes the issue of stigma generated by the interaction of facially disfigured cancer patients with strangers and acquaintances (secondary groups). Now, patients with cancer of the face survive. As they survive, they spend significant portions of their lives dealing with stigma. Limited knowledge is available on the interaction processes leading to the creation of stigma for facially disfigured cancer patients. This article addresses this gap in the literature by reporting the results of a qualitative study of individuals who remained facially disfigured as a result of required surgery and cancer treatments. In-depth interviews with patients and their family members were conducted and analyzed employing grounded theory. Three primary analytical categories were generated to illustrate interaction with secondary groups: intrusion, sympathy, and benign neglect. These categories refer to conditions that are decreasingly favorable to the creation of stigma whereby intrusion and sympathy foster stigma while benign neglect does not.