Irving Goffman (1922–1982) is a classic of 20th-century sociology. The main idea of his fundamental work is that human behavior, in particular norm and pathology, is explained by the forms of organization of everyday experience and communication - the frames from which social life is “assembled” and which allow one to interpret the behavior of other people. A systematic analysis of such categories as “switching”, “fabrication”, “civil non-intervention”, “total institution”, etc. is carried out. The book is intended for sociologists, psychologists, specialists in the theory of mass communication, undergraduate and graduate students of humanities faculties.