The "hidden and closed" world
Goffman had penetrated was both "bizarre" and
"abnormal" in terms of our usual understanding of the social
world - yet through his research, Goffman claimed to have discovered the
"tricks and strategies" employed by staff and patients
in order to cope with their situation. How, in short, people made sense
of an apparently senseless situation - in other words, how:
- The Staff and the patients came to terms with it as best they
could.
- What looked abnormal (in terms of norms of behaviour) to the
outsider, was normal to those on the inside.
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