The Sociology Book

267

Bethlem Royal Hospital, London’s
notoriously chaotic asylum, from which
the word “Bedlam” is derived, was
founded in 1247. It is now a modern
psychiatric facility.

Alcatraz prison, US, is a powerful

symbol of institutional dominance.

Foucault saw prison as omnipotent, but

Goffman argues inmates of institutions

try to fashion life to meet their needs.

their business. Within such places,
says Goffman, a relatively small
number of staff supervise a much
larger group of inmates. They do
so using surveillance techniques
to achieve compliance—an
observation made by Michel
Foucault in his 1975 study, which
depicted prisons as all-seeing,
all-powerful machines. Goffman’s
additional insight was that inmates
responded to “total institutions”
by fashioning a new mode of life.
Functionalist theory holds that
society is glued together by social
consensus—an agreed sense
of purpose. A “total institution”
works because it has goals, and
everything within it is targeted on
those goals. Goffman, who worked
in a US asylum between 1955 and
1956, argues that alongside the
official aims of the organization,
there exist other, invisible goals
and practices that constitute a
crucial part of its functioning. He
calls this the “underlife of public
institutions” and he concentrates
on the world of the asylum patients
to understand this “underlife.”

Using his own observations and

drawing upon a range of published

material, such as autobiographies

and novels about similar

institutions, Goffman concludes

that identity is shaped, and

adjusted, through interaction

with others. He states that if the

organization’s key goals are to be

met, it is sometimes necessary to

sideline official practices and ideals

while giving the impression they

are being upheld.

Goffman maintains that the

social relationships and identities

that patients possessed before they

entered a mental institution give

way to wholly new identities that

are built around the ways in which

they adapt to life in their new

institutional home.

Breaking down the self

The process begins with the

breaking down of the old self.

The patients are sometimes either

forcibly committed or tricked

by family members and health

professionals into entering an

institution, and discover that

these same people are stripping

them of their rights. In this way,

they lose their autonomy and

experience humiliation and

a challenge to their identity,

perhaps by having their actions

or their sanity questioned.

The admission to the hospital

continues this breaking-down

process: being photographed,

having personal possessions

confiscated, fingerprints taken, and

undressing—all these procedures

chip away at the “old self.” Goffman

argues that our sense of self is

partly invested in our appearance,

the things we own, and the clothes

we wear; if these are changed or

taken away, people are given a

message that they are no longer the

person they were. Once admitted,

this feeling is continually ❯❯

See also: Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55; 270–77 ■ G.H. Mead 176–77 ■ Ivan Illich 261 ■
Howard S. Becker 280–85

THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS