Athens Mental Health Center, Ohio: Opened January 9, 1874. Used methods of torture including water treatment, where a patient was submerged for an significant period of time in ice cold water or wrapped in a sheet soaked in ice cold water and restrained, shock therapy where doctors would use electric shocks to shock the patients brains or submerge the patient in water and administer a shock through the water. Also lobotomies and trans-orbital lobotomies were performed frequently. A lobotomy was when doctors cut open the patients skull and separated their neural passages. In a trans-orbital lobotomy, doctors would shock the patient unconscious then roll their eyelids back and insert a thin metal instrument into their tear duct and a mallet was used to push the instrument farther into the brain.
Danvers State Lunatic Asylum, Massachusetts: Opened May 13, 1878. Originally designed for 450 patients Danvers State Lunatic Asylum was once known for being one of the most humane institutions in America but very soon due to overcrowding and lack of funding became one of the most cruel. Patients were subjected to shock therapy, lobotomies, and straightjackets.
Danvers State Lunatic Asylum, Massachusetts: Opened May 13, 1878. Originally designed for 450 patients Danvers State Lunatic Asylum was once known for being one of the most humane institutions in America but very soon due to overcrowding and lack of funding became one of the most cruel. Patients were subjected to shock therapy, lobotomies, and straightjackets.
This is a topographical sketch of Danvers State Lunatic Asylum sketched by Charles A. Hammond showing what the ground of the asylum would have looked like.
McLean Mental Hospital, Massachusetts: Opened October 1, 1818. This was the fourth special hospital for the mentally ill built in America and it is still running today. This hospital not unlike the others used shock therapy, performed lobotomies, and used water treatment. It is known to be one of the most beautiful insane asylums ever built but it's exterior cannot hide the horrors that went on within.
Willard Asylum for the Chronically Insane, New York: Opening in the 1860's throughout its years of operation around 64,000 patients were institutionalized and 5,776 patients died and were buried in the cemetery on the ground of the hospital. Treatments such as shock therapy, lobotomies, and experimental psychiatric drugs were administered to the patients. This asylum was abandoned in the 1990's.
Willard Asylum for the Chronically Insane, New York: Opening in the 1860's throughout its years of operation around 64,000 patients were institutionalized and 5,776 patients died and were buried in the cemetery on the ground of the hospital. Treatments such as shock therapy, lobotomies, and experimental psychiatric drugs were administered to the patients. This asylum was abandoned in the 1990's.