They still do ECT now in asylums and hospitals as far as I know. It should read Welcome to your nightmare under those doors. I don't know if what Margeret says is true or not but I'm glad that I did'nt have to live through it myself to know. Many of the patients of these places are quite old now. If I would have checked into this info alot sooner I would have asked my mother what it was like where she was. Anyone else?
Before the Kirkbride Hospitals came into being the mentally ill were mainly kept in prisons and much worse places. Kirkbrides whole idea was to have a place where the insane and mentally ill would be treated with dignity and respect and given windows for sunlight and colorful areas to live in as you can see in many of the Kirkbride pics. My mother had schizophrenia and spent 5 years in the Kirkbride hospital in Fergus Falls, MN. from about 1960-1965. I used to think that they were all treated inhumanely (her included) until I started investigating more into it all. The Kirkbride in Fergus Falls is probably in the best condition of any of them and they have tours also! And I would definately like to go. I just found a site called flikr.com and if you search kirkbride you will see that a whole lot of people are very interested in seeing inside these buildings. Anyone can download their Kirkbride pics onto the site and it is so amazing to see these memories of the past.
I went to RIT and had photographed this while attending. At the time there were city workers who came out of the darkness (backwards in a truck), as me and my friend entered at the ramp entrance. They warned us that there were dangerous people in there often times and at that moment some druggies huffing spray paint. There is a doorway behind the ramp some where the workers spoke of. My friend and I entered anyhow and took the left hall to the side of the raamp rather than the door. Pretty cool place to see once or twice, some areas of water that could be dangerous if uncareful.