Facultatea de Sociologie şi Asistenţă SocialăSociologie (Seria 2 Avansati 2) ASYLUMS THE MORAL CAREER OF THE MENTAL PATIENT Prof. Coordonator: Claudia Ghișoiu Student: Vasile Ana-Maria Alexandra Universitatea Bucureşti Anul 2016 Ervin Goffman’s book. The II. The paradox of aging in place in assisted living. Jacquelyn (2002).This institution is divided in two section: the people who need to be separated from the society and the people who mantain order in the institution and have the power. Greenwood Publishing Group. „The Underlife of a Public Institution: A Study of Ways of Making Out in a Mental IV. sometimes work where a great number of similarly situated people . asylums from America in the 60’s. „The Moral Career of the Mental Patient” – The second chapter talks about the like of a patient in a total institution like a mental hospital or an asylums and why are the III. phases that a person became a patient and loose the connection with the his social life. Hospital” „ The Medical Model and Mental Hospitalization: Some notes on the Vicissitudes of the Tinkering Trades” The total institution can be classified on five main categories: 1 Frank. p. Goffman studies is based of certain accounts and observations in many mental hospitals. Asylums: Essays of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates talks about the total institution in America. and in many cases people who suffer for mental illness become more troubled and sick. In Goffman’s point of view a mental institution is very similar with another institution who in fact gather several people. cut off from the wider community for a considerable time1.This capther talks about how a total institution can enter in a person life and how some total institutions works. in this case.The sujbect of the book is a painful true and it shows that many people who are forced or just stuck in some kind of institute dosen’t have a chance of life anymore. majority of this institutions abused their patients and degrade their life. The term total institution is a place of residence. „The Characteristics of Total Institutions” . the staff control the life of inmates in the institute. The book is very well structured in four essays that talks about: I. 44 . with some issues in order to reabilitate them and if this is not possible anymore. because they developed some deviant behaviors. if this posibility was still available. Sanatoriums or hospitals for mental healtth for example. First side is the career that follow things that the human keeps inside of him. Anchor Books. The secons side talks about the official position. Assylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patiens and Other Inmates. internal matters such as the image of himself and his indentity. in a broadened sense to refer to any social strand of any person's course through life”2 Goffman talks about the concept of career in two-sidedness.1) Institutions designed to take care innocent people who can not take care of themselves because they are old or have some disabilities an no one to help them. These institution. Goffman. 4) Institution that allow different activities for the good of society like schools and boarding schools. I chose to talk about „The Moral Career of the Mental Pacient” because this part of the book is in my oppinion the one who focus on the people who arrive to live in a mental hospitall. Ervin (1961). juridical matters and style of life „and is part of a publicly accessible 2. concentrations camps or war camps intended to protect the society. „The term (career) is coming to be used. prisons. 2) Institution for people who take care of people that are a danger for society and can be controlled because they have some psychosis. how much influence has this institution it institution for the ill ones and if the people are actually helped in here. however. The chapter begins with the term career who is used in this context to show how a mental ill can be read like a straight profession. 5) Institution that are fully committed to religion and preserve religious laws like monasteries. p.127 . In this area of institutions are: asylums or orphanages. 3) Institution for those people who can be a social danger and have discernment for their deeds. two things very important and cherished by the human. 3 Goffman. Anchor Books. some inpatients were influenced by family and just a few inpatient realise the problem who need to get a special help. in the side of human self (the personal matter) and in the side that targets the society where the human is living. Many persons who became mental-hospital patient don’t get along with the diagnosis and don’t think this is just a tremendous mistake. it’s just a normal attitude that every human would have it. Sometimes people with mental issues can be controlled outside of a mental hospital with drugs or shock but there are other situations when the person entered in the circle of mental hospitals. I find very intersting while reading that the actually study has being very hard for the sociologists because every inpatient is a person instable in many ways and the observastion and taking notes it’s the only way to understand the fight between acceptance and refuse. the period when the person is actually in the mental hospital and lives here. The majority of pacients has a lack of carelessness because they don’t think they are ill and this is not the because of the mental illness. Assylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patiens and Other Inmates.127 4 Goffman. Assylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patiens and Other Inmates. Anchor Books. The term of „mental patient” has an important way of understanding because it became important too late when the social life is already alterated and the person is cataloged sick or crazy and hospitalized. In conclusion we can see in both sides. „the ex-patient phase” but Goffman refferes in his book just the two phases. Many inpatients have been taking from their homes by police for example. Many inpatiens need to be supported by their families and other need a „next-of-relation” how Goffman said. Students who take notes in mental hospitals discover that the „sick behavior” everybody has once is hospitalied it caused by the social distance and the situation that the patient is in and is not „primarily a product of mental illness. p.”4 The career of the mental patient grows in three principal phases: the period before the person enter in the hospital system and this phase is called „the prepatient phase”. Ervin (1961).130 . p. „the inpatient phase” and the phase when the person is no longer in the hospital. Ervin (1961).institutional complex”3. Goffman’s Aylums and the Social Situation of Mental Patients . And his generalizations about mental hospitals from one unrepresentative case study are suspect. Most patients do not see themselves as inmates who are coerced. „Not all mental hospitals are total institutions or remotely resemble prisons or concentration camps.”7 5 Goffman. in this instance the last to doubt his sanity and the first to have done everything to save him from the fate which. And last but not least and in my oppinion a very important people. as the two can never be divorced. At the beggining the prepation is very antisocial and wants to be alone like he tries to force things and not get the hospital authority to control him. it transpires. p. betrayed. abused. Ervin (1961). This phase lasts a few days or weeks but the inpatient begin to be more open to treatment and talk to other people just because next-of-relation pressed him with other people. 6 The subject is very popular in the XII century because all the things Goffman observe in his work are the painful true and the power that a total institution has on the patients.136 6 Weinstein. Goffman's vision of mental hospitals without reference to the psychiatric problems of patients is actually quite myopic. Anchor Books. „the mediators” the sequence of agents and agencies that prepatient has in the progress of him in the hospital. Assylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patiens and Other Inmates. Even the work of Goffman dates back to 60’s is on the of first sociological examination of the social situation of mental patiens. or abandoned. he has been approaching. many writers and researchers have argued the perspective took by Goffman in his books an they said that Goffman was „exaggerated and overdrawn”.„First is the next-of-relation-the person whom the prepatient sees as the most available of those upon whom he should be able to depend most in times of trouble. depersonalized. Asylums is also a starting point of every study who talk about mental health and the social disorders. Unfortunately. „5 Other than next-of-relation is „the complainant” a person who convice the inpatient to go to a mental hospital for help. Raymond. like a counselor for example. the hospital world as subjectively experienced by the pacient. Hastings Center Report(1977). If an inmate try to escape from the power of the staff he is marginalized and the few advantages that he has are taken from him and the inmate is isolated from the rest of inmates.”8 The treatments in the asylums and mental hospital are a way to desconsider the patinents. to play different games and take walks outside. Goffman’s Aylums and the Social Situation of Mental Patients. in fact i think that if a patients or inmates. The majority of commitment proceedings originated within the family. In my oppinion the study Goffman takes in the 60’s it is not longer available with the institution these days.Weinstein says that the meaning of the term „ideal type” used by Goffman for organization is a Max Weber elaboration of the idea of bureaucracy and not all the mental hospitals has been so strict with the patients and things get to be a little more dramagtic in Goffman’s study.33-441 . For example. p. Gerald N. pacients that behave good are given the chance to socialize more with other patients. The advantages that a few pacients has are things that every human need in their life and not to be given to the patients just because they have a good behaviour.272 8 Grob. like Goffman reffers to them are treated like objects. and those persons committed were seldom perceived as threats to society. „Grob's analysis of the characteristics of institutional populations during the last century suggests that. Raymond. Instead of a good life in a mental hospital that is 7 Weinstein. I understand that a mental hospital or another total institution like a asylum is a place when a person arrive just when they have serious issues with themselves or are a danger for the love ones and the strangers but I think the hard treatment and the abuse that is described in this book is no longer applied.Rediscovering Asylums: The Unhistorical History of the Mental Hospital. The family dosen’t know the struggle in a mental hospital and think their love ones is just crazy or sick and dosen’t understand that this type of life is for his own good and for a limited time of life. Pp. the staff tries to dehumanise them in order to control them better. contrary to what Goffman says. hospitals were not intended as instruments of social control. The Hastings Center Report. The paradox of aging in place in assisted living. Rediscovering Asylums: The Unhistorical History of the Mental Hospital. Anchor Books.Gerald N. ora: 13:14 GROB. the patiens are more anxious and depressive once they are enter in this vicious centre of the total institutions.01.org/library/jom/1982/pdf/1982-v11n04-p267. (1977). (2002). JACQUELYN. Greenwood Publishing Group. No. Raymond. WEINSTEIN.pdf accesat la data de 19. Assylums – Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients. Goffman’s Aylums and the Social Situation of Mental Patients de pe site-ul http://orthomolecular. BIBLIOGRAPHY GOFFMAN. (1961).trying to treat your mental illness. 7 .2016. Frank. Ervin.