Despite the sustained assault on the self in total institutions, Goffman claims that for most inmates a radical and permanent change of self does not occur.
This is partly because they are able to defend themselves from the mortification process by playing it cool. Goffman is scornful of the official goals of organizations such as prisons and mental hospitals which present themselves as institutions which treat cure and rehabilitate their clients. He concludes that, ‘Many total institutions, most of the time, seem to function merely as storage dumps for inmates.’