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Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 - November 19, 1982), Canadian sociologist and writer. Goffman received his B.A. at the University of Toronto in 1945, his M.A., and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, in 1949 and 1953 respectively.
Author of the seminal text Asylums, for which he gathered information at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, that describes "institutionalization" as a response by patients to the bureaucratic structures of a hospital setting. He also authored The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, a study of social ritual and the personas we create for ourselves.
Goffman uses phenomenology to understand how humans perceive the interactions that they observe and take part in. To Goffman there is no real capital T Truth, but interpretations that are real to each individual.
See also: American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization, total institution
Main works
- 1990: Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. New York, Doubleday
- 1963: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Prentice-Hall
- 1956: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre
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