definitely reads like a collection of academic articles but also that's what it is! i think goffman is more interested in his audience than many academic writers so despite not having really read anything like this in over 2 years (or 5 if we're talking sociology specifically) it felt quite approachable (but still dry in the way virtually all academic writing seems to be).

content-wise it's a really fascinating read. the essays can be almost painfully detailed but the level of detail and the order of the essays really helps build the overall theory and argument - the broader view of total institutions in the opening essay sets up the frame of reference of the ones that follow it in a really concrete way, especially.

by the end of the last essay you've been given a detailed overview of how psychiatric patients recreate society on a smaller, constrained scale in often extreme circumstances, laying the groundwork for an argument for viewing psychiatric internment as a reflection of a failure of society to adequately handle those who behave outside the expected social norms to the degree that they're deemed insane. i really enjoy how (unsurprisingly) focused goffman is on the social nature of these institutions - at no point does he ever really explore the idea of sanity as anything other than social terms. just really good and interesting stuff even 60 years on