Erving Goffman Total Institution Essay

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Erving Goffman, a sociologist, is commonly known for his published work Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (1961). Goffman’s goal in writing this was to describe “the social world of the hospital inmate." Erving Goffman accomplished much in writing Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, basing it mostly off of his fieldwork at St. Elizabeth's Institution and his own interest, discovering many theories during his fieldwork, coining the term ‘total institution’, and leaving a lasting impression on sociology.
Erving Goffman wrote Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, because of his field work at St. Elizabeth’s Institution, a widely known psychiatric facility in Washington D.C. Another inspiration for Goffman was his own interest in human interaction. Throughout Goffman’s time at St. Elizabeth’s institution, he …show more content…
Goffman coined the term after spending a year in St. Elizabeth’s analyzing the characteristics of the mental institution. Goffman also categorized this term with prison camps and concentration camps. With such domination of every life aspect, Goffman's research reveals this invasion did not promote the type of recovery these patients needed, and instead helped provoke the behavior of why they were first admitted. This term is often compared with an authoritarian system, the strict enforcement of obeying to authority rather than individual freedom. Total institution reflects what affect the institutions make of the patients, and how the patient makes life inside an institution. Through all of Goffman’s sociology theories, his interest in social interactions is still impacting sociologist
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