Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates

Asylums

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One of most influential social scientist of the twentieth century examines the meaning of the asylum 
 
'Psychiatric staff share with policemen the peculiar occupational task of hectoring and moralizing adults' 
 
This groundbreaking work of social science explores life in 'total institutions': the closed, regimented systems of prisons, boarding schools, nursing homes and, most importantly, mental hospitals, which cut individuals off from society. Focusing on the relationship between an inmate and the institution that contains them, Goffman unpicks how lives are managed 'on the inside', the loss of selfhood experienced by those held there, and the ways in which they try to regain their identities. 
 
'One of the most distinguished and provocative of social scientists' The Times

Asylums presents four interlinked essays that explore life in the 'total institutions': the closed systems of prisons, boarding schools, nursing homes and, most importantly, mental institutions. Focusing on the relationship between an inmate and the institution that contains them, Goffman unpicks how lives are managed 'on the inside', and how the setting more often than not works against the inmate's best interests. 
 
A radical exploration of the institutions that rule over the lives of men, women and children, Asylums is one of Erving Goffman's most insightful and long-lived works.

Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity

Stigma

The acclaimed sociologist's landmark, compassionate work on how society treats those who are different 
 
'By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human' 
 
In ancient times stigma were physical marks branded on people considered unfit to be in society. Today social stigma shames those seen as 'abnormal' in more insidious ways. Erving Goffman's defining sociological study draws extensively on the lived experiences of those who have found themselves on the edges of society to look at the complex ways in which stigmatized individuals see and project themselves, the strategies they use to deal with rejection, and how stigma can shatter their relationships with others. 
 
'His brilliant book' Guardian

In this groundbreaking work, acclaimed sociologist Erving Goffman examines how society treats those who it considers abnormal. Forced to adjust their social identities from situation to situation, Goffman analyses the variety of strategies that stigmatised individuals deploy to deal with the rejection of others, as well as the complex image of themselves they subsequently project. 
 
Relying extensively on biography and the lived experience of those who have found themselves on the edges of society, Goffman lays out the ways in which stigma dramatically alters the way the person affected feels about themselves, and the ways in which it can often violently shatter their relationships with 'normal' people.

Erving Goffman

Acclaimed on first publication and today considered one of the defining works of the sociology, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life is Erving Goffman's extraordinary analysis of the structure of our social interactions. 
 
Blurring the line between workaday life and theatrical performance, Goffman argues that our behaviour with others is defined by how we wish to be perceived - resulting in displays bearing a startling similarity to those of an actor on the stage. From the houses and clothes that we use as 'fixed props' to the 'backstage' of the solitude in which our personas are rehearsed and relaxed, Goffman's insight reveals human character to be not fixed or stable, but liquid and consciously maintained.

Erving Goffman

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

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