3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

See Cyrus' note above. It's just a surgical/operating table.

I don't think Marcia (or anyone else) was commenting about you, m'dear Puddleboy; I think we are all frustrated about people getting into the "bathos" mode without checking out how related it is to reality. As noted a billion times hence; yes, bad, bad things happened there and many, many other places (and still do to this day, maybe even in the house next to you - gasp!), but some people seem to want to use that as an excuse to take everything associated with Pennhurst and self-righteously "emotionally bleed" all over the place. I think some folks get their kicks from being shocked and outraged (but only at a safe distance, mind you), which disturbs me almost as much as the original problems that occurred.

My belief is that if people are willing to DO something about it they can "bleed" all they want, but if not, most of us would prefer that they politely shut the hell up and quit making judgments without all the facts.

But wait - one day I'll tell y'all how I REALLY feel about this. ;-)

Truckie, I wasn't implying that you did or didn't find something on your camera. I was just noting that once when I thought my camera was taking "spooky" pix it turned out to be something else. I've quoted Don Marquis' cockroach, archy, before, but here goes again:

"you want to know whether i believe in ghosts of course i do not believe in them if you had known as many of them as i have you would not believe in them either"

I'm going for "You've another sinner" or "We've another sinner." What say you?

ali, the things you see on the wall WEREN'T put there by former patients; they were put there by vandals who came after these places were closed.

Same with the folks who drew the angels and devil - those were also vandals.

Now, as to how educated people are who break into deserted buildings, trash the place, and spray paint the walls, I think their grammar speaks for itself. ;-)

rich,

It used to be a common thing back in the 50s to 70s to take school children to institutions for field trips. The intent was educational, but as soon as people with disabilities began to be seen as "people," this practice died off. Back in the 1500-1700s in both England and the US people would pay admission to go to the "lunatic asylums" on weekends and get their entertainment staring at the "inmates."

http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/addenda.html
"Public admission to the wards at Bethlehem Hospital, London, was discontinued. For at least 200 years, visits to 'Bedlam' had been a common entertainment for Londoners, but the practice became more restricted after 1766."

http://ise.uvic.ca/Lib.../society/bedlam.html
"And why visit? Not necessarily to see relatives, or to offer charity. The sight of the mentally disturbed became a spectacle, an entertainment."

http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1315card.htm
"Considerable anxiety is sometimes expressed by persons who derive a morbid satisfaction from looking on scenes of human misery, as to the propriety, safety, &c., of their visiting the Asylum. This diseased state of the sentiments is most incident to those who have been badly educated..."

http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1124.htm
This is a fascinating article from 1852 written by the Superintendent of Butler Hospital in Rhode Island. You can see that the same issues we discuss today were relevant back then as well.

http://en.wikipedia.or...sychiatric_hospitals
This is a good overview on the history of psychiatric hospitals, types of hospitals and treatments, and, most interesting to me, a discussion about how mental illness and psychiatric hospitals are portrayed in the media.

Finally, if anyone is truly interested in the history of disabilities there is probably no better source for historical documents than the Disability Library Museum, available on the Internet. I believe to profit from it you need to read more than one or two of these original source articles to get a feel for the history of the field, but I have spent many, many hours over many months going through these documents and I find them fascinating and a great backdrop to the pix Motts has taken. Some of the facilities he has photographed are discussed in these papers, so you can actually read about these places from a time when they were still in use.

http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/
Disability History Museum
"Mission: The Disability History Museum's mission is to promote understanding about the historical experience of people with disabilities by recovering, chronicling, and interpreting their stories. Our goal is to help foster a deeper understanding of disability and to dispel lingering myths, assumptions, and stereotypes by examining these cultural legacies."

Oh, no! Don't be goin' there! They have real live terrorist training going on there and you might get shot! Honest to God! These Homeland Security people seem to be the most paranoid folks out there, so they will truly shoot you if you go there! Ix! Nix! No!

Ha! I had the same embarassing thing happen. I took some pix of my dogs and one of them came out with an eerie glow each pic I took of her. Then someone suggested I had left greasy fingerprints on the lens and that she was on that side each pic I took. Wiped it off and the pix turned normal. :-( Oh well, I still have the pix and they still look pretty cool. 8`-)

Only if they were a sick SOB.

I have had many a client who was nonverbal who had hidden abscesses, etc., who would engage in severe aggression or self-injurious behavior because they couldn't communicate their pain or show you where it hurt.

Having had a root canal myself 6 months ago and going through some of the most exquisite pain I have ever been through while waiting the l--o--n--g weekend to get to the dentist, I know how bad this can be.

Every dentist I have ever met who works with folks with handicapping conditions does their best to get them in and out ASAP, because most of these folks don't understand why their mouth hurts or why some stranger is sticking their hands and large sharp pieces of metal in their mouth.

Since you have to have assistants when you do dental work, if you did something wonky there would usually or always be witnesses. I am having a hard time envisioning a mad dentist out to wreak terror in the mouths of these folks.

Now, were there (and are there) many dentists who do not understand the health care issues associated with handicapping conditions? Yes, most decidedly so. We have a hell of a time getting dentists to work with our folks. It's hard enough to get you and me (or even ~Me) to a dentist - we all act like idiots and try to hurt the nice dentist, don't we? And we have some vague cognitive glimmer of why they are doing what they do. If you don't have the ability to understand what is going on, either because of a mental illness or a learning disability, you aren't the most cooperative participant in the dental process. If I were a dentist I would think twice (and then 7 more times) about working with either of these groups. However, I am MORE than thankful for those hardy souls who do this work. It is one of the hardest services to get in the community, as people aren't running out to volunteer in droves.

Unless I am misunderstanding your comment.

Hello, darlin'. I didn't mean you specifically. Institutionalization is such a hot-button topic these days that for anyone to talk about it "in public" means they are going to be skewered, whichever side of the issue they take.

That's half her charm. ;-)

Funny how we are all partial to that child, what?

Here we are again with the "Motts only has one eye" theory. What's up with that? Y'all partial to cyclops or what? ;-)

Well, just a few slices here and there . . . . . Also, a full spray bottle of water, a handful of newspapers, lots and lots of rice, well - you know . . . . . guess you had to be there . . . . . . .

Or not . . . . .

Most institutions used to allow field trips. At some point someone finally figured out it was like a trip to the zoo, so luckily they don't do those anymore.