Fifteen years afterAsylums: Description of a program for victims of the total institution

Abstract

Since the publication of Goffman'sAsylums in 1961, major changes in the philosophy of treatment have been made within psychiatric facilities. While legislative and judicial action have done much to encourage community service provision and to protect the rights of prospective inpatients, long-term psychiatric patients have been neglected. Socialized into the lifestyle described by Goffman as the “total institution,” the chronic patient lacks the skills and motivation to successfully adjust to community living. The needs of the long-term inpatient can be met through a nontraditional training model, but only if intervention is made on community, political, and staff levels as well.