Goffman's concept
Goffman (1961), drawing on fieldwork in a mental hospital, argued that activities normally spread across settings are collapsed into one, and grouped such institutions into five types.
Mortification of the self
Inmates lose possessions, names and privacy, a process linked to labelling theory and symbolic interactionism. Sykes (1958) described the pains of imprisonment and inmate subculture.
Critiques and extensions
Davies (1989) reviewed critiques. Foucault (1977) analysed disciplinary power, Wacquant (2001) linked ghetto and prison, and Scott (2011) proposed voluntary reinventive institutions.
FAQ
- What is a total institution in simple terms?
- A place like a prison or barracks where people live apart from society under one set of rules.
- Why does it matter in sociology?
- It shows how institutional life reshapes identity and informed debates on deinstitutionalization.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. Anchor Books. The founding work on total institutions.
- Sykes, G. M. (1958). The society of captives: A study of a maximum security prison. Princeton University Press. A classic on the pains of imprisonment.
- Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books. Disciplinary power as a lens on institutions.
- Davies, C. (1989). Goffman's concept of the total institution: Criticisms and revisions. Human Studies, 12(1–2), 77–95. Critiques and revisions of the concept.
- Wacquant, L. (2001). Deadly symbiosis: When ghetto and prison meet and mesh. Punishment & Society, 3(1), 95–133. Ghetto and prison as linked institutions.
- Rothman, D. J. (1971). The discovery of the asylum: Social order and disorder in the new republic. Little, Brown. A history of the rise of the asylum.
- Scott, S. (2011). Total institutions and reinvented identities. Palgrave Macmillan. Extends the idea to voluntary reinventive institutions.