Asylums is an analysis of life in "total institutions"-closed worlds such as prisons, army camps, and nursing homes-where inmates are regimented, surrounded by other inmates, and unable to leave the premises. Special attention is given to mental hospitals, drawing on years of field work by the author and focusing on the relationship between the inmate and the institution, how the setting affects the person, and how the person deals with life on the inside.
Erving Goffman was born in Canada in 1922. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1945 and then studied at the University of Chicago, receiving his M.A. in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1953. For a year he lived on one of the smaller of the Shetland Isles while he gathered material for a dissertation on that community, and later he served as a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington. Mr. Goffman is the author of several articles and book reviews which have appeared in such periodicals as Psychiatry and the American Journal of Sociology. He is also the author of, among other works, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Asylums, Interaction Ritual, and StigmaView titles by Erving Goffman
Asylums is an analysis of life in "total institutions"-closed worlds such as prisons, army camps, and nursing homes-where inmates are regimented, surrounded by other inmates, and unable to leave the premises. Special attention is given to mental hospitals, drawing on years of field work by the author and focusing on the relationship between the inmate and the institution, how the setting affects the person, and how the person deals with life on the inside.
Author
Erving Goffman was born in Canada in 1922. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1945 and then studied at the University of Chicago, receiving his M.A. in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1953. For a year he lived on one of the smaller of the Shetland Isles while he gathered material for a dissertation on that community, and later he served as a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington. Mr. Goffman is the author of several articles and book reviews which have appeared in such periodicals as Psychiatry and the American Journal of Sociology. He is also the author of, among other works, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Asylums, Interaction Ritual, and StigmaView titles by Erving Goffman
