3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

http://encarta.msn.com..._Mental_Illness.html

The BODY FARM! :-)

http://www.avionnewspa...w.avionnewspaper.com

Wabisabi,

Perhaps you are thinking of the Utica crib, utilized in the 1800s. They have not been used, to the best of my knowledge, since that time, and they were never made of metal. Here is a pic of a Utica crib:

http://www.uihealthcar...iagnostik/utica.html http://www.indiana.edu/%7Emedhist/dwyer.htm

Also, check out the interesting comment about the Utica crib here: http://www.omh.state.n...hq/q0900/archive.htm

Again, this was developed WAY back when the only other (legal) alternatives were beatings, chaining someone to the wall, spinning chairs, locking people in rooms (usually attics or cellars), putting people in cages outdoors, and/or true ice cold water "therapy", and given the culture at the time, it was STILL initially believed that any or all of these techniques might be therapeutic, given what was believed about people with mental illness then. Again, many of these devices were developed because people back then didn't have any other ideas as to what to do, and as time went by, they WERE used for "staff convenience," since nothing else was offered in the way of alternatives.

I can fairly well guarantee that a bed such as this was never legally or therapeutically utilized for restraint in the last 100 years. As to what some people will develop and/or use when left to their own devices, either because they had no other resources or because they were sick individuals, I can't comment.

I'm not allowed to comment on anything having to do with size. ~Me put a muzzle on me sometime back. :-(

What? You mean we DON'T beat up all the fragile people we are supposed to look after? Maybe I am reading too many gothic horror novels or reading too many websites where people want this to happen and I've gotten cornfused with my own self . . . .

Gosh, thanks for straightening me out, Lyric!

Yes, that is so very true and I am so very glad that someone finally had the courage to say it, Shawna. Us hospital staff types were and still are always beating up the people we are paid to look after. We have absolutely nothing better to do than beat and pound defenseless people and then we have to try to hide it, naturally.

[Thump thump thump]

Well, I suppose that would be the case if these rooms looked like this when people were still living here, but these didn't look like this until some years after the people left.

Well, I guess that would fall under the category of a "conscience" question, 'specially since it technically belongs to someone else at this point.

psych one,

SMA is a pretty rare disease and few folks have heard of it unless they have a family member affected with it. The reason I asked Henry L. about it is that negative air pressure vents are hardly used any more except by people with post-polio syndrome or SMA. There are a handful of other conditions and diseases that might result in the need for a device such as this, but they are generally even more rare than those two.

Sorry - spinal muscular atrophy.
http://www.fsma.org/

Henry L,

SMA or post-polio?

Check out the local airport or bus station and tell me you don't get the same "sixth sense" that bad things happened there. ;-)

Bri, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Rosenhan wrote that sign, huh?

Peaches, I am positive that knowing how to break in is also somehow part of the class assignment. 8`-)

Translation: I must say that I am extremely enamoured with your photography! Such an unusual picture and such a unique theme! I am most appreciative of your artistic talent and I commend you for it.