And to the degree that the individual maintains a show before others that he himself does not believe, he can come to experience a special kind of alienation from self and a special kind of wariness of others.
Erving GoffmanRead
Any group of persons – prisoners, primitives, pilots, or patients – develop a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable and normal once you get close to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Groups create their own realities that hold significance for them based on shared experiences.
This quote by Erving Goffman highlights how different groups of people, whether in challenging circumstances like prisoners or patients, or in specific roles like pilots, develop their own understanding of life. When observed closely, their experiences and interactions create a unique culture and meaning that may seem logical and normal within that context, illustrating the power of social environments and shared experiences in shaping individual and collective perceptions of reality.
Themes
GroupMeaningSocialExperienceReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a sociology class discussing group dynamics, this quote can illustrate how shared experiences shape identity.
More from Erving Goffman
All quotes →When a stranger comes into our presence, then, first appearances are likely to enable us to anticipate his category and attributes, his 'social identity' - to use a term that is better than 'social status' because personal attributes such as 'honesty' are involved, as well as structural ones, like 'occupation.'
Erving GoffmanRead
I assume that the proper study of interaction is not the individual and his psychology, but rather the syntactical relations among the acts of different persons mutually present to another.
Erving GoffmanRead
Approved attributes and their relation to face make every man his own jailer; this is a fundamental social constraint even though each man may like his cell.
Erving GoffmanRead
By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human. On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, if often unthinkingly, reduce his life chances.
Erving GoffmanRead
Our sense of being a person can come from being drawn into a wide social unit; our sense of selfhood can arise through the little ways in which we resist the pull. Our status is backed by the solid buildings of the world, while our sense of personal identity often resides in the cracks
Erving GoffmanRead
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