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The Presentation of Self and the New Institutional Inmate: An Analysis of Prisoners' Responses to Assessment for Release *
Author(s) -
Watson Catherine M.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1982.5.2.243
Subject(s) - prison , dramaturgy , total institution , presentation (obstetrics) , institution , resistance (ecology) , psychology , character (mathematics) , sociology , criminology , social psychology , social science , aesthetics , art , medicine , ecology , geometry , mathematics , biology , radiology
This paper bases an analysis of the prison experience on Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life rather than on Asylums. It describes the situation of prisoners in an institution where release decisions are individualized and where release recommendations depend on official assessments of the character, background, and moral “change” of each prisoner. The paper then focuses on the work that prisoners do to demonstrate institutionally approved character and “change” to the prison staff or, in the words of prisoners, to “show them who you are.” The concepts and premises of dramaturgy are employed to analyse prisoners' techniques of self‐portrayal and to analyse prisoners' resistance to institutional assessment through describing their behaviour as simply “conning” and “manipulating.”