A unitary theory of stigmatisation: pursuit of self-interest and routes to destigmatisation.

<bold>Background: </bold>Stigmatisation is of increasing importance in relation to racism, ageism and sexism but also as an impediment to treating patients.<bold>Aims: </bold>To develop a theoretical foundation to help comprehend the core meaning of stigmatisation and to guide practical anti-stigmatisation measures.<bold>Method: </bold>Personal reflection; re-interpretation of stigmatisation and reformulation of the relevant concepts.<bold>Results: </bold>Emergence of a unitary theory of stigmatisation.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Based on the structure of stigmatisation one could explore six levels of intervention in anti-stigmatisation campaigns: the cognitive level - educational intervention; the affective level - psychological intervention; the discrimination level - legislative intervention; the denial level - linguistic intervention; the economic origin - political intervention; the evolutionary origin - intellectual and cultural intervention. As destigmatisation has to challenge fundamental human tendencies, anti-stigmatisation campaigns have to be continuous, non-stop, open-ended projects aiming at keeping alive thought processes that moderate and humanise the pursuit of self-interest and the urge to survive in a competitive world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]