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Institutionalism revisited
Author(s) -
Wing J.K.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1993.3.4.441
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , institutionalism , specialty , term (time) , sociology , function (biology) , new institutionalism , psychology , epistemology , psychiatry , political science , law , philosophy , politics , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology
The sociological background to clinical studies of the effects of large single‐specialty psychiatric hospitals on their long‐term residents is briefly discussed. The review emphasises the continuities in structure and function between complex organisations of many kinds irrespective of their geographical situation. The aims, methods and results of a study of three mental hospitals during an 8‐year period in the 1960s are reviewed with a view to their relevance for the institutions of the 1990s. It is concluded that the concept of institutionalism, in both its narrow and its broader sense, remains highly relevant to present day problems and that lessons learned 30 years ago have yet to be fully applied.