Labels and lingo in epilepsy: A response to Dr Hatcher

摘要

Dr Hatcher expresses concern about the use of the abbreviation 'PWE' rather than the phrase 'person with epilepsy', which he considers an offensive and stigmatising practice. As a researcher on stigma, I have some sympathy with Dr Hatcher's position - to be abbreviated is a state unlikely to be welcomed by any of us, whether we have epilepsy or any other condition of human being. Dr Hatcher makes the point that abbreviations and acronyms are common parlance in the present day - and certainly, I have been present in many meetings where to any 'outsider' the language, steeped in such devices, must seem quite confounding. However, I would suggest that the use of what Frank Tannenbaum, the so-called 'grandfather' of labelling theory, referred to as 'tagging'1 - the tag in this instance being 'PWE' - is not necessarily intended to erode the sense of identity of people who have epilepsy.