Book, Asylums, prisons and convents[LS]

Asylums, Prisons and Convents makes a critical survey of life in closed institutions and shows how this type of segregation affects the individual. The privileged example is that of the mental hospital and through it the author explains why the behavior of the mentally ill person towards the institution is much more related to their condition as an inmate than to their illness. Erving Goffman, from the Department of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, a social scientist with several published works, defends his point of view supported by a large mass of data and broad sociological information. The topic is controversial and is part of the most recent studies that deal with mental health problems and community life in conjunction. Deprived of community life, how does the individual manifest himself? Goffman, a sociologist emeritus from Berkeley, responds in a polemical way, supported by a large mass of data and extensive sociological information: the segregated act in a similar way, whatever the reason for isolation, vocation, punishment or mental illness. An authoritative and innovative point of view on a key issue in the contemporary world, Asylums, Prisons and Convents, is now republished by Editora Perspectiva, which is proud to have it in its Debates collection.