Ep 21: Sean Rife on the Uses and Abuses of Total Institutions

Sean Rife and I discuss the idea of the Total Institution, as originally described by sociologist Erving Goffman. We examine several Total Institutions in detail, and touch on the connection these have with religion and purity cults. We also discuss Thomas Szasz and his ideas about mental illness and the ways in which entire societies can come to resemble a total institution. Related links: Sean Rife's homepage Erving Goffman’s book Asylums. Thomas Szasz: The Myth of Mental Illness. Statistics Blog: Dumb Arguments by Smart People. Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations. Scite.ai citation analysis.