Battered Wives: The Home as a Total Institution

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noga Avni
Keyword(s):  
Battered Women ◽  
The Self ◽  
Total Institution ◽  
Phenomenological Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Physical Barriers ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Total Institutions ◽  
Social Agencies ◽  
Harsh Reality

This paper is based on research which examined the lives of Israeli battered women from the phenomenological aspect. Thirty-five unstructured interviews were carried out in a shelter for battered women. The women’s accounts suggest that the situation of battered women resembles that of inmates of total institutions, as defined by Goffman (1961). Physical barriers are imposed upon them, and they go through a process of mortification of the self which begins soon after the marriage. Compulsory confinement to the house damages the self and diminishes the ability to cope. Furthermore, it cuts the women off from external sources of physical help and moral support. Increased understanding of this harsh reality would benefit the social agencies engaged in helping battered women.

scholarly journals Vanishing Selves under Hong Kong’s Unified Screening Mechanism

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pui Yan Flora Lau ◽  
Iulia Gheorghiu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Asylum ◽  
Slow Pace ◽  
The Social ◽  
Total Institutions ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Abstract Drawing on Erving Goffman’s analysis of total institutions and his concept of mortification of the self, the present article deals with the process of identity construction and identity loss among refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong. We argue that the slow pace of processing of political asylum applications as well as the harsh restrictions imposed on rights to work and the minimal welfare provisions for refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong operate as means of isolating them from the broader society. Another consequence of these restrictive conditions becomes manifest in the loss of identity experienced by those who have been stuck in Hong Kong for many years waiting for their applications to be processed. Being unable to preserve the sense of identity they had in their countries of origin, they find themselves deprived of the social and institutional resorts necessary to forge a new one.

Battered woman syndrome and defences to homicide: where now?

Legal Studies ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia Wells
Keyword(s):  
Battered Women ◽  
The Self ◽  
Life Imprisonment ◽  
Battered Woman Syndrome ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
Appeal Process ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Abuse Of Women ◽  
Self Defence

For many women, the abuse of power in the form of physical and emotional battering by their so-called ‘partners’ is a fact of life. Individual women feel the pain, the humiliation, the fear and the anger. But the debate about how legally we should respond to a woman who finally kills her abuser is significant beyond the individual. Whatever the predicament of women such as Sara Thornton, or Kiranjit Ahluwalia, sentenced to life imprisonment and forced to scale seemingly impossible obstacles in the appeal process, the exponential rise in literature on this subject is quite disproportionate to the number and increase (if any) in such cases. The real significance of the ‘self-defence for battered women’ movement lies less in these concrete examples and more in its metaphorical role as witness to the social reality of the abuse of women.

The Self as an Active Agent: Understanding Goffman’s Theory of Resistance in Total Institutions through Life-histories

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Anuragini Shreeya
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Active Agent ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Work Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Total Institution ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Total Institutions ◽  
Basic Characteristics

By drawing examples from a particular genre of literary work—life-histories—this paper aims to describe, how ‘resistance’, a pervasive feature of total institutions, occurs in a variety of ways in different total institutions. Working within the broad theoretical framework of Goffman’s Asylums (1961), this article will assess the extent and nature of resistance that is possible in each total institution, and the amount of agency each inmate is invested with. It will also explore as to ‘how’ the basic characteristics of total institutions create space for resistance and ‘why’ inmates resist. This will lead to an understating of the ways in which the ‘resisting self’ develops—whether it is a result of the inmates' interaction with other inmates/staff, or is a product of their personal experiences before entering the total institution. The discussion will also seek to establish that depending upon how, why, and against what inmates resist, several types of total institutions differ.

scholarly journals Anti-establishment Armed Groups as Total Institutions: Exploring Transformations of the Self

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Maritza Felices-Luna
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
The Self ◽  
Total Institution ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
Self And Identity ◽  
Total Institutions

Based on an empirical research on the Irish and Peruvian conflicts, this article uses Goffman’s concept of total institution to analyse women’s involvement in the armed struggle. It contends that organisations presenting themselves as the legitimate army of an embryonic state are in fact total institutions attempting to produce a particular self and identity on its members through the use of the physical environment and the framing of all social interactions that take place within their purview. However, members demonstrate agency and self efficacy by mobilizing the same physical space and framed interactions in order to either facilitate their own transformation or resist it, which results in the emergence of an alternative self and identity.

Providing Freshmen with a Good “Starting-Block”

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 69-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaël De Clercq ◽  
Charlotte Michel ◽  
Sophie Remy ◽  
Benoît Galand
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Student Adjustment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Pivotal Phase ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Study Task ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
Intention To Persist

Abstract. Grounded in social-psychological literature, this experimental study assessed the effects of two so-called “wise” interventions implemented in a student study program. The interventions took place during the very first week at university, a presumed pivotal phase of transition. A group of 375 freshmen in psychology were randomly assigned to three conditions: control, social belonging, and self-affirmation. Following the intervention, students in the social-belonging condition expressed less social apprehension, a higher social integration, and a stronger intention to persist one month later than the other participants. They also relied more on peers as a source of support when confronted with a study task. Students in the self-affirmation condition felt more self-affirmed at the end of the intervention but didn’t benefit from other lasting effects. The results suggest that some well-timed and well-targeted “wise” interventions could provide lasting positive consequences for student adjustment. The respective merits of social-belonging and self-affirmation interventions are also discussed.

Summary

1999 ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Editorial board Of the Journal
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
The Social

In the 10th issue of the Bulletin “Ukrainian Religious Studies” in the rubric “Scientific Reports and Announcements” there are in particular the following papers: “Religious Studies and Theology” by A.Kolodny, “Activity of the Orthodox Mission in Ukraine on the Turning Point of the XIX-XXth Centuries” by G.Nadtoka, “Religion in the Spiritual Heritage of V.Lypinsky” by L.Kondratyk, “Church as a Factor of the Self-identification of the Nation in the Cultural and Civilization Environment” by O.Nedavnya, “The Problems of Development of The Social Teaching of the Catholicism” by V.Sergyiko, “The God-Thunder Perun in the Pagan World-outlook of the Ancient Rus’” by N.Fatyushyna and other papers

»Gender« and (a-)symmetry

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Schober
Keyword(s):  
Social Condition ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Social ◽  
Institutional Success

In recent years cultural definitions of »gender« have had extraordinary institutional success. This paper analyses visual worlds that have been motivated by constructivist gender concepts that often display a pronounced symmetry. It relates them to competing images which present difference as scandal, as a mirrored form of the self, or as figurations, and which politicize a-symmetrical forms. The study looks into the social condition of publicity that is constituted by such »picture acts«.

External sources promoting resilience in adults with intellectual disabilities: A systematic literature review

2020 ◽  
pp. 174462952096194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Femke Scheffers ◽  
Xavier Moonen ◽  
Eveline van Vugt
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Network Support ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Adults With Intellectual Disabilities

Background: Persons with an intellectual disability are at increased risk of experiencing adversities. The current study aims at providing an overview of the research on how resilience in adults with intellectual disabilities, in the face of adversity, is supported by sources in their social network. Method: A literature review was conducted in the databases Psycinfo and Web of Science. To evaluate the quality of the included studies, the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used. Results: The themes: “ positive emotions,” “ network acceptance,” “ sense of coherence” and “ network support,” were identified as sources of resilience in the social network of the adults with intellectual disabilities. Conclusion: The current review showed that research addressing sources of resilience among persons with intellectual disabilities is scarce. In this first overview, four sources of resilience in the social network of people with intellectual disabilities were identified that interact and possibly strengthen each other.

scholarly journals Phenomenological approaches to personal identity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Čapek ◽  
Sophie Loidolt
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
The Self ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Continental Tradition ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Temporal Becoming

AbstractThis special issue addresses the debate on personal identity from a phenomenological viewpoint, especially contemporary phenomenological research on selfhood. In the introduction, we first offer a brief survey of the various classic questions related to personal identity according to Locke’s initial proposal and sketch out key concepts and distinctions of the debate that came after Locke. We then characterize the types of approach represented by post-Hegelian, German and French philosophies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We argue that whereas the Anglophone debates on personal identity were initially formed by the persistence question and the characterization question, the “Continental” tradition included remarkably intense debates on the individual or the self as being unique or “concrete,” deeply temporal and—as claimed by some philosophers, like Sartre and Foucault—unable to have any identity, if not one externally imposed. We describe the Continental line of thinking about the “self” as a reply and an adjustment to the post-Lockean “personal identity” question (as suggested by thinkers such as MacIntyre, Ricœur and Taylor). These observations constitute the backdrop for our presentation of phenomenological approaches to personal identity. These approaches run along three lines: (a) debates on the layers of the self, starting from embodiment and the minimal self and running all the way to the full-fledged concept of person; (b) questions of temporal becoming, change and stability, as illustrated, for instance, by aging or transformative life-experiences; and (c) the constitution of identity in the social, institutional, and normative space. The introduction thus establishes a structure for locating and connecting the different contributions in our special issue, which, as an ensemble, represent a strong and differentiated contribution to the debate on personal identity from a phenomenological perspective.

scholarly journals ‘We have become prisoners of our own age’: from a continuing care retirement community to a total institution in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liat Ayalon ◽  
Sharon Avidor
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Retirement Community ◽  
Retirement Communities ◽  
Continuing Care ◽  
Total Institution ◽  
Continuing Care Retirement Communities ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Total Institutions ◽  
Design And Methods ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract Background and objectives during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Israel, people residing in continuing care retirement communities (CCRC) found themselves under strict instructions to self-isolate, imposed by the CCRC managements before, during and after the nationwide lockdown. The present study explored the personal experiences of CCRC residents during the lockdown. Research design and methods in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 CCRC residents from 13 different CCRCs. Authors performed a thematic analysis of interview transcripts, using constant comparisons and contrasts. Results three major themes were identified: (i) ‘Us vs. them: Others are worse off’. Older residents engaged in constant attempts to compare their situation to that of others. The overall message behind these downward comparisons was that the situation is not so bad, as others are in a worse predicament; (ii) ‘Us vs. them: Power imbalance’. This comparison emphasised the unbalanced power-relations between older adults and the staff and management in the setting and (iii) ‘We have become prisoners of our own age’. Interviewees described strong emotions of despair, depression and anger, which were intensified when the rest of society returned back to a new routine, whilst they were still under lockdown. Discussion and implications the measures imposed on residents by managements of CCRCs during the lockdown, and the emotional responses of distress among some of the residents, revealed that CCRCs have components of total institutions, not normally evident. This underscores the hidden emotional costs of the lockdown among those whose autonomy was compromised.

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