What is a total institution?
That concept, the creation of the sociologist Erving Goffman,
is a place of work and residence
where many people in the same situation
and isolated from society
share a daily, formally administered routine.
They are ordered into five groups:
1. Residences for the disabled or orphaned minors.
2. Mental hospitals.
3. Penitentiaries and youth internment centres.
4. Barracks and boarding schools. 5. Monasteries and convents.
To those five categories, we could add others,
such as migrant detention centres,
assisted living facilities, hospitals
and care homes for the elderly.
Total institutions are prone to the abuse of power
in the form of
psychological, sexual or financial abuse.
One difficulty in reporting those abuses
is the shame felt when an establishment
whose purpose is to take care of people,
in reality mistreats them.
Greater attention must be paid to those institutions
by the Public Authorities and responsible citizens.
That attention and consequent intervention
can avoid a great deal of hidden suffering by particularly defenceless people.