48 Comments Posted by William

reminds me of the movie " The Ring " lol

what type of sadistic child draws a picture of a alligator eating a deer

More tragic evidence of the destruction wrought by Vatican II. Many of the comments here are plain uninfomred other than those who express appreciation for the fine photography. This was once a place of holy learning and holy use and nothing else. Orate Fratres.

I my self have attempte to enter this place, and its on lock down. If anyone knows how to get me in let me know.

The droppings may have been from pidgeons.Pidgeons are known to leave their droppings in the same place for a long time.I have been in old buildings where the droppings were 6 to 12 inches deep.

The value of the phone will not cover your court costs and fines you will get from the jugde for trespassing of private property and stealing a telephone.

If anyone would like to see pictures of Byberry in the 1930's and 1940's,you can go to the Philadelphia Historical Digital Image Library.Type in Byberry in the search box.You can click on each picture and get a full screen image.There are some pictures of the patients/residents,and staff inside the hospital.

Hi Lynne,
I was referring to the Opacity home page for the Pennhurst school.That home page and both sets of pictures have information describing some of the conditions at the school.There is also a link to check out some of the Pennhurst documents.None of it paints a very good picture.Some of the things that went on were pretty horrible.That does not mean that everyone was treated like.That also does not mean that everyone who worked there treated people poorly.Most of the people who worked there tried their best.The few who did their job poorly or abused patients made everyone look bad.
Each place shown on Opacity has a little background information.Many of the hospitals,asylums and schools had some history that was sad.For many,that is what they think when they look at the pictures.When you look at the outside of Danvers State Hospital,you see a beautiful building.When you look at the inside,you see darkness..For someone who does not know much about mental illness,it is difficult to think that anything good ever happened there.When a Kirkbride asylum or hospital opened,it was a beautiful,well run facility.By the 1950's many of those places were horrible.They were not funded adequately,there was not enough staff and they had more patients than they were designed to hold.The state goverment has responsibilty for many of the problems.Society has some responsibilty for not wanting to have anything to do with the mentally ill.For many,out of sight was out of mind.
There are many things that get repeated in history.The human race does not always learn from their past errors.We still experience things today that went on in the past such as wars,conflicts over religion,and many other things.The killing of millions in the death camps during WW2 happened 60 years ago.We would have hoped that something like that would not be repeated,but it happened again in Cambodia,Chechnia and many other countries.It happened many times before World War 2.I dont know why this happens.Is it human nature?
I think it is important to talk about mental illness.There are lots of people who would like to know more about it.I have suffered from mental illness since the 1970's.Learning as much as I can about my illness has been very important.It is a learning experience that never ends.Please dont get so frustrated when someone makes a comment that is negative to your profession.People with mental illness have lived with those remarks for a long time.

Did anyone read the information on the Pennhurst home page?

There is a show on CNBC at 9:00 about people with mental illness in prison.Check it out.This is our 21st century Insane Asylums.

The pictures shows alot of parts on the floor.That looks like they repaired wheelchairs there.Parts from one would be used to fix another.After awhile you end up with alot of extra parts.

How does tap bells and mouth gags relate to each other?

What does tap bells mean?

If you go back,not that long ago,many of these places had 2 and 3 times the capacity they were designed for.It is said that Danvers State Hospital at one time had 2,500 patients.Can you imagine what that could have been like?There was not alot of effective medications.When a person goes high,the adrenilan takes over and you could have someone with super human strength.It could take 4 or 5 men to restrain a patient.At that point all that could be done was give the patient medication and put them in restraints.Hopefully they would calm down.Thats a pretty tough job.

PTSD can be horrible.I once worker with a man who did 2 tours in Viet Nam.Sometimes we would talk about the war and you could see him change and for a minute he was back in the war.