Total Institutions

The sociologist Erving Goffman introduced the concept of total institutions in his 1968 work Aslyums. The phrase total institution was used to describe a selection of organizations or social entities that were unique in their capacity to isolate members from society, regulate their behavior, and have policies that pervaded the entirety of the life of a resident of that institution. A notable contribution to sociology, the concept has encouraged scholars to examine how organizations differ in their capacity to promote and monitor conformity of residents within the institutions to minimize the potential for disorder and deviance.

In crafting this concept and providing some archetypical examples, Goffman argued that the identification of a total institution would be contingent on the presence of several ascribed characteristics, including the dismantling of the barriers that allow individuals to compartmentalize different aspects of their life and the creation of barriers (social or physical) to distance residents of the institution from those of regular society. Residency within a total institution creates conditions that facilitate the disintegration of the purposeful separation between aspects of an individual's social life (rest, entertainment, and work), allowing the rules and authority of the institution to permeate every aspect of the individual's life. This disintegration and immersion occurs through four processes.

First, within a total institution, the entirety of the individual's routine activities is conducted within relatively close proximity and under the supervision and monitoring of those who operate the institution. This environment creates a rare convergence in which one authority has control over all segments of an individual's life, and consequences from one aspect (rest, work, or play) can be directly applied to another. This pervasiveness is unavoidable and inescapable.

Second, the institution takes an active role in the organization of routine activities of its members to create a tightly scheduled environment for convenience for either success in the institutional purpose, increased security, or to facilitate control. This regimentation is imposed on all phases of the person's life, and it primarily acts through policies or regulations directing that daily activities start and end at specified times to allow an orderly sequence of activities. For example, when members of that institution will eat, sleep, and be allowed to congregate with other members are the types of behaviors subject to control.

Third, this sequence is not experienced in isolation but rather in the presence of a larger cohort of fellow members. This cohort is treated similarly and is expected to comply with the same regulations, and its members are engaged in the same activities at the same time with one another. In essence, the individual is part of a grouped daily experience in which the institutional authority is treating everyone identically.

The final characteristic is that the activities offered by the institution, and the policies enforced by the institution, are neither random nor an unforeseen by-product. Rather, they are purposeful

[Page 739]consequences of a rationally instituted plan designed to fulfill the institutional purpose. According to Goffman, the cumulative consequence of these characteristics is the devaluing of the members' individuality and dignity, with grave potential for dehumanization in their treatment as a group rather than as individuals.

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