Deindividualization

At the root of this wound is the experience of being treated not as a person, but only as a member of a group (and as a member of a devalued group at that).

Because of the loss of individuality and the apparent lack of personal autonomy, it is very easy to treat all members of a devalued group as having whole series of traits in common, and thus come to believe that they may be seen merely as members of a group.

Within the valued world, people can become very angry when assumptions are made about them because of the social roles that they hold.  Nurses get angry about being treated merely as a nurse and assumptions being made about their attributes that rely on the public perception of the Nurse.  Similar strictures apply to roles that are gender-based, race-based or hobby-based.  If valued people can be angry about being cast into positive roles and consider it damaging, imagine the damage done to devalued people when they are cast into negative roles.

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