Social death
Condition of not being accepted as human by society / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Social suicide" redirects here. For other uses, see Social Suicide (album) and Social Suicide (film).
Social death is the condition of people not accepted as fully human by wider society. It refers to when someone is treated as if they are dead or non-existent.[1] It is used by sociologists such as Orlando Patterson and Zygmunt Bauman, and historians of slavery and the Holocaust to describe the part played by governmental and social segregation in that process.[2][3] Social death is defined by "three aspects: a loss of social identity, a loss of social connectedness and losses associated with disintegration of the body."[4]
Examples of social death are:
- Racial and gender exclusion, persecution, slavery, and apartheid.[5][6][7]
- Governments can exclude individuals or groups from society. Examples: Protestant minority groups in early modern Europe; ostracism in Ancient Athens; Dalits in India; criminals; prostitutes, outlaws[8][9]
- Institutionalization and segregation of those labeled with a mental illness.
- Change in the identity of an individual. This was a major theme during the Renaissance.