A review by emilyclairem
Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates by Erving Goffman
4.0
I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I knew I would appreciate it as a historical text, one that had such an impact on the deinstitutionalization movement and a key example of the thoughts on mental illness at the time. But I found his writing style quite enjoyable, especially considering that it's a study on such a serious matter. He writes in a very clear, intelligible way and even difficult concepts were made easy to understand. I did think there were perhaps too many examples, particularly in the first essays, but those were easy enough to skim over. I also would have liked some kind of final synthesis of the four essays since they were a bit disjointed, but as it is a collection of essays I suppose that comes with the territory. I also would have liked more examples from his experience doing field work in an institution - though surely most of his arguments stem from that, I expected more direct evidence from his time spent there, particularly direct quotes from patients. The lack of this latter point was a big oversight, in my opinion.
I don't agree with Goffman's overall message that mental illness is largely socially constructed, particularly constructed by asylums. That mass deinstitutionalization occurred and mental illness still persists is proof that his theory is not entirely sound, though of course he wouldn't have known that at the time unless he had a time machine. So I expected to disagree with most of what he said, but I was actually swayed by a lot of it. I am of the opinion that institutions have the potential to be very untherapeutic, damaging places, so his explanations of why they're this way was very interesting and convincing. However, like I said, where it drifted into the area of "and thus institutions create mental illness," I was not as persuaded by (though I certainly agree that institutions can exacerbate certain symptoms and thoughts).
I don't agree with Goffman's overall message that mental illness is largely socially constructed, particularly constructed by asylums. That mass deinstitutionalization occurred and mental illness still persists is proof that his theory is not entirely sound, though of course he wouldn't have known that at the time unless he had a time machine. So I expected to disagree with most of what he said, but I was actually swayed by a lot of it. I am of the opinion that institutions have the potential to be very untherapeutic, damaging places, so his explanations of why they're this way was very interesting and convincing. However, like I said, where it drifted into the area of "and thus institutions create mental illness," I was not as persuaded by (though I certainly agree that institutions can exacerbate certain symptoms and thoughts).