In Asylums, Erving Goffman delivers an analysis of life in an institution, particularly the mental-hospital. These closed worlds are similar to other “total” institutions in that they are closed off to the outside world and the patients or residents are surrounded by other patients or residents and are not permitted to leave the institution. The essays are designed to illustrate how these institutions view or form the residents while also analyzing what the residents can make of life inside of them. The main contention of the author’s argument is that the most profound factor affecting the resident of the mental-hospital is not his particular illness, but the institution itself-a factor closely related to how residents in other institutions respond and/or adapt to other residents within them. After painting a picture of the daily life or routine in the total institution, the author delves into three specific aspects of the resident’s existence: how entering the institution affects the resident’s former social relationships; how residents can “make out” once inside the institution; the role of institution professionals in making the resident aware of the facts of his specific situation within the institution.
The novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is also by an author who, like Goffman, spent time working in a mental-hospital. Ken Kesey’s depiction of life in a mental institution is really an attempt to show the misconception and disillusionment of specific psychiatric modalities that have enjoyed favor over the past few decades. Looking at the smaller scope of the novel, it illustrates how freedom is worth the risk of rebellion but the individual must defy authority to achieve it. One the larger level, the novel is about everyday humanity in the sense that McMurphy, the main character, could represent the disruptive classroom student or corporate worker who breaks the laws in order to support a higher ca...