The author defines a "total institution" as a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated, individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life. Prisons serve as a clear example, providing we appreciate that what is prison-like about prisons is found in institutions whose members have broken no laws. This volume deals with total institutions in general and, mental hospitals, in particular. The main focus is, on the world of the inmate, not the world of the staff. A chief concern is to develop a sociological version of the structure of the self. Each of the essays in this book were intended to focus on the same issue--the inmate's situation in an institutional context.

Originally published: Garden City, N.Y. : Anchor Books, 1961.

On the characteristics of total institutions -- The moral career of the mental patient -- The underlife of a public institution : a study of ways of making out in a mental hospital -- The medical model and mental hospitalization : some notes on the vicissitudes of the tinkering trades.