text: This text was assigned reading in a Psych101 back in 1970, but its themes have stayed with me so strongly I am now ordering it for my personal library.  I was born with a club foot, and experienced the power of being  different, even though my personal defect was so minor as to be rarely  noticed by others.  STIGMA gave me an appreciation of the force behind my  own shame and the reaction to my difference of others.  More importantly, I  learned about the degrees of identity-- which differences make the most  difference (sex, race, disabilities...) and the increasing intensity that  comes with breaking the most closely held norms.  A classic study
  