The Sociology Book

266

W

hen dealing with the

bureaucratic procedures

that typify the modern

world—and the frustrations they

engender—most of us can escape

into our private lives to maintain a

sense of balance. However, there

are people for whom this is not an

option because they spend all their

time in structured institutions,

such as prisons or asylums.

US sociologist Erving Goffman

was interested in how people deal

with things when they cannot

escape everyday rules and

regulations. For his seminal study

Asylums, published in 1961,

he investigated how the “self”

adjusts to living in permanent

and omnipresent bureaucracy. He

contended that the most important

factor for a patient in a mental

hospital was not the illness but the

institution—and that the reactions

and adjustments the affected

person makes are found in inmates

of other types of institution too.

Total institutions

Institutions that are closed off

from the outside world—often

physically by walls, fences, and

locked doors—are what Goffman

calls “total institutions.” Asylums,

prisons and concentration camps,

and even boarding schools and

monasteries, are examples of this

extreme form of organization.

In “total institutions,” not

only are the inmates physically

separated from the outside world,

they are frequently isolated for

extended periods of time,

sometimes involuntarily. Due to

these peculiar circumstances,

such organizations develop

particular ways of going about

ERVING GOFFMAN

“Total institutions” strip

people of their support systems

and their sense of self.

The goal of “total institutions”

is to influence the lives of

individuals comprehensively.

A person’s former identity and

sense of self is broken down...

...and they are forced to adapt

and become adjusted to the

goals of the institution.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Institutionalization

KEY DATES

1871 Henry Maudsley, a

British psychiatrist, argues

that asylums adversely affect

individuals’ sense of self.

1972 Psychological Survival,

Stanley Cohen and Laurie

Taylor’s study of a men’s prison

in Durham, UK, reveals that

inmates adapt behavior and

identity in order to survive.

1975 French thinker Michel

Foucault’s Discipline and

Punish: The Birth of the Prison

considers the ways in which

prisons and asylums maintain

social order and conformity.

1977 In Decarceration, US

sociologist Andrew T. Scull

contends that the trend

to reduce the number of

institutions for the mentally

ill and prisoners leads to a

greater lack of care.

These establishments

are the forcing houses

for changing persons in

our society. Each is a

natural experiment,

typically harsh, on what

can be done to the self.

Erving Goffman