Compare And Contrast Goffman And Foucault

Goffman and Foucault: Institutionalisation and Identity
Social welfare institutions threaten people’s identity as they are built with the purpose of gathering ‘abnormal’ people from society and institutionalising them in order to create a better or just society (Dreyfus and Rabinow, 1982). Goffman and Foucault both discuss how institutions such as mental hospitals, prisons and even schools take away peoples identity by forcing them to be subordinated to a hierarchy of power; whereby they must follow rules and regulations and therefore must act in ways that may be alien to them and to their identity. Institutions take away a person’s ability to be in command of an audience, it takes away “self-determination autonomy and freedom of action” (Goffman,
This also happens in the admission process where personal belongings can be inspected and the inmate may be frisked and searched before entering the institution. These searches carry on as a regular occurrence for inmates, which violates their own personal space and identity. Inmates are in a mixture of people from all backgrounds, therefore, an inmate may feel contaminated by the fact that they may be surrounded by “undesirable fellow inmates” (Goffman, 1961, p.36). Inmates may also feel contaminated if private property is used to publicly humiliate them. The inmates’ personal information is also violated as their past behaviour and outside life is kept on record for staff to view (Goffman, 1961). Foucault also discusses how knowledge is power, in that, experts and professionals are able to assess and evaluate inmates based on case files and records and so are more able to control them (Mills, 2003). The inmates are subjected to observation from professionals who are provided with their personal information (Oliver,
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McIntyre, L.J. (1999) The Practical Skeptic: Readings in Sociology, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Mills, S. (2003) Michel Foucault: Routledge Critical Thinkers, London: Routledge.
Office of Child Development (2012) ‘Understanding Institutionalised Children: Developmental Issues, Intervention, and Policy Implications’, Developments, 26(3), 4-8.
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Taxel, H. (1953) “Authority Structure in a Mental Hospital Ward”, unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago.
Weinstein, R. M. (1994) ‘Goffmans Asylums and the Social Situation of Mental Patients’, Psychiatry, 57(4), 348-367.
Young, T.M., Dore, M.M. and Pappenfort, D.M. (1988) ‘Residential Group Care for Children Considered Emotionally Disturbed 1966-1981, Social Science Review, 62(1),