I have a passion about reading about lunatic asylums and how patients were treated and lived in them. Does anyone else?
I have visited many of them to take pictures and just feel the surroundings. We have come a long way in the treatment of psychiatric patients for the better. But the beginnings of these places show what misconceptions can lead us back to.
Do you have any in your area and have you visited any? Post pics and stories would love to read them.
It saddens me because I know in some places of the world people are poorly treated, it depresses me a lot to compare the kind of treatment we get in first world countries and in third world countries. I count my blessings and try not to think about it too much. Maybe some day I can do something about it.
This thread is a bit triggering.
That’s some Hobby that you have there @mjgh06
In Clint Eastwood’s movie “The Changeling” it gives a pretty grim picture of mental health treatment in the late twenties and early thirties.
I watched movies…like Shutter Island…there are lots of documentaries and horror movies about ( like Grave encounters)…but its just another way of demonizing and stigmatizing the mental illness, because even if the directors are aiming to describe the way sick people were treated, it still presents them as just a weird subjects of manipulation…it is actually horrible the way that mental illness is sold to make people feel thrilled and entertained.
And that’s what all the talk about asylums eventually comes to.
For me it is history and architecture. I love any old building.
We have several that have closed in the US. The closest near me was a city in its own. They are trying to get approval to repurpose the buildings. It’s like a ghost town. I think it opened in the 1800’s Four of the buildings after it closed was used a prison for the criminally insane. They have closed as well now. In the 80’s it was its own community. They had 2 and 3br private housing for patients that were semi-functional on the property that they would allow two-three live together and nurses would come check on them two times a day. It is overgrown with ivy and such now and they have security that drives around to make sure people don’t go in the buildings.
I remember the stories of the place and it does frighten me to think how the mentally ill were treated. Even up to when it closed, they were still doing lobotomies there. I guess that is why i like learning the history, to know how bad things could be. Most are all gone in the US either because they were torn down or just faded away through time.
The architecture of these buildings is still amazing to me. The Utica in New York is closed but still has tours. Utica Lunatic Asylum has some great pictures of the buildings.
I don’t think we should hide from history. We have to know it to not repeat the same mistakes. The more people are informed, the less likely things like that will happen again. It’s when fear from lack of knowledge or misguided knowledge is out that this cruelty is allowed.
I am sorry Wave. This wasn’t supposed to be a trigger thing. I would have put it into unusual if I thought it would be. I just wanted to know how many keep up with the knowledge of history.
I use it as a reminder of how ignorant people are and how they allow their fear to control them at times. It actually helps me to think that way about my fears - to not let them get out of hand.
i watched lots about it in the last 16 years also read books…
have you gone to visit any. Most people don’t like to go because of belief spirits. I don’t mind spirits and it was nice to see them in person. It’s not just asylums I like - maybe I got thing about the dead because I want to save up money to go visit the church of the dead in Italy and other places like that. So a combo of old architecture and dead.
some of them are very haunting looking, so much suffering in them
Good movie…
I know it’s totally fiction but on Netflix they have a series called American Horror Story and they have a season called “Asylum” and it’s REALLY GOOD.
Moved to Unusual Beliefs.
Pixel.
Volunteer moderator.
I own the book mad in America …now that I think of it id like to visit some old asylums. Shutter island is a cool movie.
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