Totalitarianism and Asylums ： On Four Paths Leading Erving Goffman to the Theme of Concentration Camp and Totalitarian Society

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  • 全体主義と『アサイラム』 ―E・ゴフマンを強制収容所と全体主義社会の主題に導く四つの繋がり―
  • ゼンタイ シュギ ト 『 アサイラム 』 : E ・ ゴフマン オ キョウセイ シュウヨウジョ ト ゼンタイ シュギ シャカイ ノ シュダイ ニ ミチビク ヨッツ ノ ツナガリ

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Abstract

This essay is an attempt to situate Erving Goffman's book Asylums in its historical and his personal context. The book Asylums has been often considered an ethnographical study of a mental hospital, but it should be considered a comparative study of“ asylums”as the title of the book represents. Then, what created Goffman's interest in asylums, or isolation and detention facilities? The writer assume that there were four paths leading Goffman to the theme of concentration camp and totalitarian society. First, the fact that E. Goffman was a son of Jewish immigrants suggests that he was greatly shocked by the Nazi's atrocities against Jewish people in concentration camps and extermination camps which had been uncoverd just after the end of World War II. Second, the presence of Bruno Bettelheim at the University of Chicago might have aroused Goffman's interst in concentration camps. Bettelheim who had been sent to two concentration camps and brutally treated by the Nazi authorities emigrated to the US, gave a paper on his experience, and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago. Third, Everette C. Hughes who was E. Goffman's mentor had cherished a special interest in the Nazi Germany. Hughes invented the concept“ total institution”and wrote the essay,“Good People and Dirty Work.”And fourth, George Orwell whom Gofman liked reading and often quoted drew a vivid image of everyday life in a“ totalitarian society”in his Nineteen Eighty-Four, which might have provided Goffman with a concrete image of everyday life in“ total institutions”.

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