Labelling
Labelling is the process of attaching negative tags to certain
behaviours to show that they are considered deviant, and
hence morally inferior. For most participants, ‘anorexic’ was
such a label. It effectively placed these patients outside the
range of ‘normal’ illness behaviour and led participants to
treat sufferers as ‘bad patients’ (Goffman 1961) or even as
criminals. An overwhelming sense of frustration at not getting
the patient better, lack of understanding and lack of
skills and support to handle and care for these patients led
some participants to describe them using prison terminology.
They cast patients metaphorically as ‘criminals’ who ‘do
their time’ and ‘eat to get out’ of the ‘prison’ or who are
‘repeat offenders’ and keep returning to the ‘prison’ with
‘suspended sentences’. This language reveals another truth
about the participants’ situation: they were, effectively,