The intersection of loneliness, symbolic death, and total institutions

the reduction of the other to totality in opposition to the metaphysics of the ethics of alterity

Abstract

This article reflects on the concept of "total institutions" proposed by Erving Goffman—viewed as social structures of power that totalize subjects, reinforcing patterns of isolation and uniformity while obliterating individual uniqueness through treatment as a homogeneous group. This process results in a form of symbolic death for these individuals and renders impossible the formation of relationships based on the metaphysics of the ethics of alterity, a theory proposed by philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. Given this context, the research problem can be summarized by the following question: to what extent do total institutions contribute to the annihilation of subjects' uniqueness and the impossibility of establishing an ethical relationship of alterity? To address this issue, the article analyzes the relationship between loneliness and the symbolic death of subjects within total institutions, identifying this as a power dynamic that precludes the formation of relationships grounded in the ethics of alterity. Employing the hypothetico-deductive method alongside bibliographic and documentary research, the study concludes that total institutions are structures rooted in the concept of totality; they promote the erasure of individual uniqueness, thereby producing symbolic death and making it impossible to establish relationships based on the metaphysics of the ethics of alterity—which posits an essential openness to the "Other" as a fundamental, irreducible element in the constitution of the subject.