Comments

I bet you could sell that for a lot of money considering you found it in an abandoned building.

Did you go in the room?

The light is.. perfect.. Strange and creepy.. not a spec on it. Very cool shot!

Say Motts, did you look at that comfortable bed, and get so enraptured in its comfyness and sleep on it?

How utterly INVITING that bed looks!

When people in town found out about what was happening in the hospital, what did they do?

looks like a thanatron...

Just a few questions:

1) Were the experiments done in the bathtub, or was the tub used to clean the patients afterward?

2) If you don't know what kind of experiments they were, how do you know there were any experiments at all?

3) If you can't describe the "experimental juices," how do you know there were any juices at all?

4)If these barbaric experiments were done, why weren't the records destroyed? Obviously this sort of experimentation would have to remain secret, but the records were just dumped in an old farmhouse?

5) Just how did you become the one--the few-- who knows all these dreadful secrets? With all the class action lawsuits that led to deinstitutionalization, wouldn't some lawyer have already come across this experimentation and used it to help win the case?

Now a few facts:

1) There was a strong eugenics movement in the US, which the National Socialist Party under Hitler took to the gross atrocities of the "Final Solution." By the time the Nazis were in full force committing crimes against humanity, the eugenics movement in the US was in decline.

2) Involuntary sterilization operations were done in the US, made legal under state laws and upheld by the Supreme Court in a majority opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. There were a few doctors who thought that it was best to withhold treatment from newborns with severe abnormalities, but this never went further than a few isolated cases. While there were plenty of people who wanted to prevent individuals with mental illness, and more particularly those with mental retardation, from having children, there was never any proposal to "eliminate" people already living. An excellent book on these topics is "War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race" by Edwin Black.

3)There were experiments done without the kind of informed consent and other ethical safeguards we consider mandatory today, but those experiments were not exclusive to psychiatric hospitals and institutions for people with developmental disabilities (think of the Tuskegee airmen or the studies of deliberate air contamination over towns and schools, etc.).

Finally, it is always a good idea to question, to verify, to THINK. Sometimes people take a subject that has a grain of truth, and expand on it until it fills a whole silo, just to see how much outrageous BS they can get others to accept. Believing and spreading this kind of garbage does nothing to further the cause of better care for people with mental disabilities. It only makes people skeptical of everything you say, and plenty of regrettable actions really did happen. There's no need to embellish with such far-fetched nonsense that serves only to diminish the real suffering that did occur.

sorry so long. I tried to not say anything, but the more I thought about it, the more I had to respond. At least I finally figured out how to arrange my posts in paragraphs instead of one big block :-)

these were probably put up by a patient. like nursing home patients put up pictures of their kids/grandkids. it is really sad though.

Throughout my non-productive academic years, I supplimented my experiences with multiple ventures into this complex. I explored the buidling in tiny fractions, however never experienced any paranormal activity., just the typical random wheel chair, a messy records room and an attic that had nails protruding from every loose board. The towers has a series of ladders that leads to the roof, expore it! Just go

Hospitals for psychiatric treatment may, at first glance, seem like prisons, but there are vast differences (except those which exclusively house people who have committed serious crimes but were found not guilty by reason of insanity). Almost any congregate living situation is going to look rather sterile and impersonal and have a degree of regimentation in its daily routines. Today there is much greater emphasis on individualized treatment and patient's rights than there was in the "bad old days" of "maltreatment" and "abuse." There are also many more options for treatment today, treatment that is much more effective than the old methods. But even those old methods, like today's, were not intended to be punitive or to "blame" the patient for the symptoms of the illness (and if they were used in a punitive manner, that was because someone either didn't understand how to use them or chose to not use them correctly). The goal of the staff and of the hospital's design is to help the patient feel safe and achieve a level of stability sufficient for returning to a productive life in the community. Observation windows in the doors give some privacy to the patient, but also permit staff to watch the patient to prevent suicide or self-injurious behavior. Glass bottles are prohibited because they could become weapons. A daily activity schedule is enforced because the routine and the activities help the patient change the patterns that led to hospitalization. Medication can do many things, but medication alone can't do it all. Patients often also need to develop coping skills, ways of dealing with anger, healthy ways of expressing feelings, etc. The hospital is structured so that the patients can do this in a safe, supportive setting. Locks on the doors prevent patients from leaving when it would be dangerous for them to do so, and also protect patients from unwanted visitors.

Regarding volunteering--most community mental health centers and hospitals have organized volunteer programs and welcome people with a sincere interest in helping. Typically a criminal background check is required, as well as training in confidentiality, client rights, prevention of abuse and neglect, etc.

Special Olympics (for people with developmental disabilities) uses volunteers. Many communities have baseball, soccer, or swimming programs for children with developmental disabilities. Advocacy on behalf of those with mental illness or developmental disabilities is always welcomed--letters, phone calls to legislators, speaking at public hearings, etc. Contact the human resources department of the organization to let them know of your interest .

its so nice and overwhelming

Wow, the correlation with the restraint and the medicine bottle is uncanny and eerie.
Especially since they are both covered in dirt.

Yeah, it could be something from TB, Polio or even Rickets (nutrient deficiency).

Baaah. Thats awful. I cant stand rust.