Goffman, Erving: Asylums

Wayne Gillespie

Asylums was published in 1961 by Erving Goffman after he spent 1955–1956 collecting ethnographic field data about the subjective experiences of hospital inmates at St. Elizabeths in Washington, D.C., a federal institution of mental health. Goffman was a visiting member of the Laboratory of Socio-environmental Studies of the National Institute of Mental Health for 3 years, from 1954 until 1957, and that agency funded the research that ultimately formed the basis for Asylums . As mentioned, Goffman employed ethnographic field methods to collect data for the book; ethnography is a qualitative research methodology that involves the study of a particular group through the use of participant observation and interview techniques. Goffman completed his Ph.D. in 1953 from the University of Chicago where he studied under Everett Hughes. Hughes is identified as a member of the sociological tradition known as the Chicago School, and he studied under the well-known scholars Robert ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.