Erving Goffman (1922–82) was a Canadian-American sociologist and writer whose groundbreaking studies of everyday interaction reshaped the field of social psychology and symbolic interactionism. Known for his theatrical metaphors and meticulous observation of social behavior, his works explored how individuals present themselves in daily life, manage impressions, and navigate institutions.
Born in Mannville, Alberta, Goffman studied sociology at the University of Toronto, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1945, and later earned his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1953. His early career included research at the National Institute of Mental Health and teaching positions at the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania. His first major book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956,) introduced the dramaturgical model of social interaction, comparing daily life to theatrical performance.
Goffman’s subsequent publications solidified his reputation. Asylums (1961) examined life inside mental institutions, while Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963) analyzed how individuals cope with social disapproval. Interaction Ritual (1967) and Frame Analysis (1974) further explored the structures of communication and meaning. His final book, Forms of Talk (1981,) investigated conversational practices. These works combined ethnographic detail with theoretical innovation, influencing sociology, anthropology, psychology, and communication studies.
Biographies include sociologist Thomas Scheff’s Goffman Unbound (2006) and scholar Yves Winkin’s Erving Goffman: A Biography (1999.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Erving Goffman
The individual is not a concrete person, but a stance, a posture, a thing of many parts.
—Erving Goffman
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 Goffman
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 Goffman
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