Instytucje opieki totalnej jako forma zniewolenia i kontroli nad człowiekiem potrzebującym pomocy - na przykładzie domów pomocy społecznej
Institutions of total welfare as a form of enslavement and control over the human being in need. The case of social assistance institutions

Summary/Abstract: This article concentrates on the institutions of continuous assistance, which in the past took form of total institutions which tended to take control over people in need, causing the degradation of their personality. Organizing and running these institutions has always been considered morally debatable. The major moral question involved is that of the limits of human freedom. How far can it be enjoyed by a person who is incapable of independent functioning in the society? And how far can an institution intervene in order to – seemingly – ensure undisturbed social functioning of such people, but at the same time imposing the restrictions on the inhabitants? Such difficult social con-ditions always lead to a divergence between the needs of the inhabitants of social assistance centres and the possibilities of their being satisfied by these institutions. The article makes reference to social assistance centres, which once betrayed the features of a total institution. However, the pre-sent-day situation of the inhabitants of these centres also makes the author ask if the total institutions of social assistance are really only the remnants of the past.

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