Asyle

What is attempted in the asylum of Görz or in the patient collectives is the reversal of the "moral career" of the patient that he has described. Total institutions are closed worlds like prisons, barracks, boarding schools, monasteries, nursing homes, and asylums. Goffman examines life in these institutions, particularly in asylums and sanatoria; he illustrates what they make of the inmates and what the inmates can make of themselves. The central thesis is that the most important factor shaping a patient is not their illness, but the institution to which they are subjected; their reactions and adaptations resemble those of inmates in other total institutions, which help society maintain its functionality.