Goffman's Characteristics - Lennox Castle

Using Goffman's characteristics of a total institution compare the life of Margaret Scally when she was a resident of Lennox Castle Hospital with that of Lesley Learmonth. What do their experiences tell us about how assumptions have changed regarding care and support for people with learning disabilities?

In this essay I will look at the comparisons between the lives of Margaret Scully, when she was resident at Lennox Castle hospital, and Lesley Learmonth. I will do this by using Goffman's four characteristics of a total institution, batch living, binary management, the inmate role and the institutional perspective, to illustrate how their lives differ in relation to each and to inform us on how care and support for people with learning disabilities have changed.

Margaret Scally was a patient in Lennox Castle hospital from 1958 until 1991. Lennox Castle was a hospital for the ‘mentally deficient', and was typical of the large institutions of that time. Men and women were kept in separate living and working areas. Lesley Learmonth spent the first thirty-five years of her life living at home with her parents. In 2004 Lesley moved to her own home, where she lives independently with the support of her family and Enable, Lesley pays for her support through direct payments

Batch Living – this is when all aspects of daily living are conducted in the same place, with each resident's daily living activity being carried out in the immediate company of others, all of whom are treated alike and required to do the same things. There is no structure for individuals to express themselves and strict rules in place to control the environment.

Margaret experiences relate to this, she describes living in a ward with thirty-one other women, their beds placed very close and there being very little, if any, privacy. Her routine was very controlled and she was allowed very little freedom. Margaret also recalls being disciplined in a very childlike way, being put to bed, scrubbing floors or eating at the ‘punishment table'. In contrast Lesley has had quite a bit of freedom, she is familiar with her local community and has a network of friends and support.

Binary management – is when two different worlds develop, a staff world and a

residents world. Both are controlled, although by different rules, there is no association between the two groups - as we saw at Lennox Castle, even though staff also lived on site, they lived separately from residents and also ate separately. This reinforces the negative role of residents and also creates abuses of power. From listening to Margaret's experiences and the accounts of others it is evident that there was an obvious distinction between patients and staff within Lennox Castle and that staff asserted their power over the patients, making the them feel inferior and weak, Margaret talks of staff controlling

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