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Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health pp 539–562Cite as

Instituting Madness

The Evolution of a Federal Agency

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Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Erving Goffman’s (1961) collection of essays, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, is one of sociology’s classics. It has probably been read by more sociology students than any other single book in the field of mental health. Suffused with the author’s eye for irony, amused skepticism, and gift with the language, the essays examine the nature of “total institutions” such as mental hospitals, the “moral careers” of patients, ways of “making out” in a mental hospital, and the “vicissitudes of the tinkering trades,” as he referred to psychiatry and other mental health professions. Goffman’s objective was “to try to learn about the social world of the hospital inmate, as this world is subjectively experienced by him” (p. ix).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Welfare, School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 90095-1656, USA

    Stuart A. Kirk

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  1. Stuart A. Kirk
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095-1772, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Carol S. Aneshensel

  2. Division of Sociomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, Columbia University, 10032, New York, New York, USA

    Jo C. Phelan

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Kirk, S.A. (1999). Instituting Madness. In: Aneshensel, C.S., Phelan, J.C. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36223-1_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36223-1_26

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-32516-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-36223-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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