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Institutions and the Self

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Submitted By dobs11
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Do the institutions that deal with people with social and personal problems always act in the interests of those they serve? Discuss through the ideas of Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault.
Introduction
This essay will concentrate on the works of Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault. Erving Goffman is seen as the sociologist of the micro level and Foucault at the macro level. What this essay will aim to do is to distinguish the works of both these sociologists and identify the concepts that both try to portray.
When speaking in relation to the works of Erving Goffman, one must speak about his studies of the self and the identity that one creates in society. He speaks of how people are actors and that performances are what the people see and thus creating the self identity of one self. Performance is the key area which Goffman speaks about in his writings. From here, the essay will establish how institutions have an effect on certain societies and what happens to identity once someone enters into an institution and the meaning of total institution and will incorporate the work of Foucault.
Michel Foucault looks at the long term history of madness, asylums and prisons. The essay will elaborate on Foucault by discussing what he says in relation to where and why such institutions came about, thus the effects that they have on an individual.
Erving Goffman
Identity
“I shall consider the way in which the individual in ordinary works situations presents himself and his activity to others, the ways in which he guides and controls the impression they form of him, and the kinds of things he may and may not do while sustaining his performance before them”
(Goffman 1959, p.9)
It is believed, that when individuals come into contact with another, it is general that one will search for the information about the other person (Goffman 1959). This is done by different means.

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