The sociologist Erving Goffinan coined the tem1 total i11stit11tiMs to describe places that become almost entirely self-enclosed and self-referential in their values and behaviors. Goffinan's...

The sociologist Erving Goffinan coined the tem1 total i11stit11tiMs to describe places that become almost entirely self-enclosed and self-referential in their values and behaviors. Goffinan's principal example was the mental asylum. Can we describe The Citadel accurately as a total institution? Are its value� the product of its isolation, or does Faludi's account furnish evidence that the attitudes holdjng sway in The Citadel persist outside the institution as well? ls The Citadel just a11 aberration, or does it tell us certajn truths about our own society?