On The Characteristics of Total Institutions 1

Abstract

A basic social arrangement in modern society is that the individual tends to sleep, play, and work in different places, with different co-participants, under different authorities, and without an over-all rational plan. The central feature of total institutions can be described as breakdown of barriers ordinarily separating these three spheres of life. In total institutions there is basic split between a large managed group, conveniently called inmates, and a small supervisory staff. The desegregating process in total institutions creates instances of looping. In the normal course of affairs in civil society, audience and role segregation keep one's avowals and implicit claims regarding self made in one physical scene of activity from being tested against conduct in other settings. One of the most common forms of institutional ceremony is the house organ— typically a weekly newspaper or monthly magazine. Somewhat different type of institutional ceremony is found in the annual party at which staff and inmates "mix" through standard forms of sociability.

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