Abandoned Asylums

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Cliffside Mental Hospital - Located in the U.S. - Built in 1930

Abandoned mental hospitals or "insane asylums" are a fascination with many. Some attempt to visit the various sites across the world and sneak photos or just wander around the facilities. This is risky as arrest is a possible consequence.

I am a social worker who has worked in outpatient and inpatient settings that serve the severely mentally ill. I fell in love with this population in graduate school and I consider them my heroes. I am very much an advocate for their well being and and an advocate against the stigma they often face.

During my second year of graduate school I served as an intern for a psychiatric hospital. Through my schooling and internship I have learned of the various changes in institutionalization throughout the decades.

In the 1800s Quakers actually provided for mentally ill individuals in very humane ways. Facilities were built to care for them. Residents were not as confined and were given opportunities to engage in such activities as planting gardens and taking part in tea parties.

In grad school I learned of an amazing woman named Dorothea Dix. The professor who introduced the nature of her work to my class was so impressed with Dix she almost named her own daughter after her.


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Dorothea Dix

Dix was an American activist and advocate for the mentally ill. She lobbied state legislatures and created the first generation of American mental hospitals or asylums. She insisted upon the proper treatment of patients. In later years when psychiatrists took over much of the landscape changed.

Many of the procedures used to treat patients in the 1800s, and throughout many decades in the 1900s have been deemed cruel and unusual. Shock treatments, cold water and dunking and "Tranquilizer Chairs" were thought to be useful tools in which to rid patients of depression, anxiety and psychosis.


(infoaboutpsychiatry.blogspot.com)
Tranquilizer Chair

Dr. Benjamin Rush, inventor of the chair once described the chair as something that "binds and confines every part of the body. By preventing the muscles from acting the position of the head and feet favors the easy application of cold water or ice to the former and warm water to the latter. Its effects have been truly delightful to me."

Patients were often corralled in confined spaces and left unattended. Staff had difficulty managing patents and the hospitals were often unkept and over crowded.

Today mental hospitals exist under different codes and facilities are mandated to be kept clean. Patients do not undergo bizarre treatments and are stabilized on medication when hospitalized. Today patients are hospitalized when they attempt to harm themselves or others or if they are unable to care for themselves. Patients generally reside in hospitals for anywhere between three days to two weeks.

I will say what bothers me is that many patients leave the hospital in unstable states. Many are still psychotic when they leave and often return to the hospital as they are re-admitted by police or family members.

Patients are released quickly as doctors are pressured from higher up management to get patients in and out. While social workers attempt to find family or residential facilities where patients can recover, this is not always possible.

Those who actually receive long stays with the hospital are those that are taken in by state hospitals. It can actually be a difficult process for social workers to admit a patient to a state hospital and the ones that are admitted are usually so sick that they will remain for a very long time.

Needles to say, I am not happy with today's current system.
I have an interest in abandoned asylums because I know that real people and real stories existed within those walls. It's like going into a vintage store and purchasing clothing that once belonged to someone else.

For those of us who cannot travel to abandoned asylum sites there is a wonderful book entitled The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States by Carla Yanni.


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The Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky was built in 1910 and closed in 1961


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Northwood Asylum - Located in U.S. - Built in 1970


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Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital capture that poetic vision. Founded in 1876 as the New Jersey State Lunatic asylum, north of Morristown, this is where folk music pioneer Woody Guthrie spent five years, 1956 to 1961, as he was ravaged by Huntington's disease.


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Drawing out of feces from a patient at Cliffside Mental Hospital built in the U.S. in 1930


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Malone Psychiatric Center - Located in the U.S. - Built in 1927

"Enjoy your summer
Take care
Goodbye
and don't speak to me
leave me alone
I want to go home"


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Verden Psychiatric Hospital - Secure Ward - Located in the U.S. - Built in 1871