1,337 Comments for Middletown State Hospital

Just the right age, the right deterioration, the proper theme. A damned good shot.
Captured it.

The beauty of Autrian taffeta creeping out of a container never used, but used.

How about a white water trip down the Colorado. What a trip.

"This is one of the greatest pictures in the history of photography in my opinion." (quote)

So true!

The paint peel on the right looks like someone sititng with their knees to their chin and arms around their legs to me. Almost like the patients fear has started to burn itself onto the walls

All of the vertical lines in the picture really draw your gaze up to that ceiling. It looks like the whole room is ready to consume you, like a bunch of feelers hanging down waiting to snatch you up and drag you away when you enter.

This is one of the greatest pictures in the history of photography in my opinion.

Amen, Jane.

I feel the need to jump in here. I have been looking at this site for some time, but have mostly refrained from joining the debate.

I think we need to remember that there are a lot of immature people looking at this site for a ghostly or romantic thrill, along with those of us who are looking at it for a love of architecture or an interest in the history of the medical field. They probably haven't been around long enough to look at what the media tells them with a critical eye.

That said, I agree totally with Lynne, Lyric and the rest of you who are in the field and standing up for your colleagues and profession.

I taught for three years in an alternative school that was housed on the grounds of a home for troubled youth (which is often a polite way of saying mentally ill). Three years was all the time that I could bear that heartache and my hat is off to those who show up for work in mental health day after day and year after year. It is really hard to keep showing up and putting in your best effort for people who aren't going to get better in a place with no funding in an environment of scrutiny and criticism. I too had to cut my hair, remove all jewelry for my own protection. I had to take Safe Physical Management every month to learn how to wrestle down a patient without harming them or myself. Several times a day I had to run to another room to help with a violent kid or call for backup myself. I've been spit on, had chairs and books aimed at my head and been threatened and sworn at daily. All the while, I had to deal with threats of lawsuits from parents (who had often abused their kids horribly).

Let us not forget that we are talking about people with mental illness. They did not ask for this illness and we would not wish it on them, but nevertheless, the illness is there. Wishful thinking will not make it go away. It is a terrible and cruel thing to have that type of illness, far more terrible than any cruelty perpetrated by some small number of the staff of these old hospitals. It is a terrible and frightening thing to be betrayed by your own brain. At the very least, these patients probably had little grasp of reality. They probably spent a lot of their time being confused, frustrated and unable to communicate their needs. They would have suffered confusion and frustration wherever they were, it is the nature of their disease, but they probably suffered far less within these familiar walls than they did when turned out into the streets to live as best they could in unfamiliar surroundings. Many of these folks have probably died since this building closed: victims of a cold snap or storm or heat wave when they refused to go to a shelter or couldn't find one that had room for them. Many are probably in prison for some petty crime or a threat that was taken seriously. Some are sleeping out in the cold tonight, maybe under a bridge or wrapped in newspapers on a park bench or sitting on a subway car muttering to themselves.

Some of these folks were probably violent. This probably wasn't how they chose to be, again it was the nature of their disease. Many are frightened and trying to protect themselves against something or someone they perceive as a threat, but that makes them dangerous nonetheless. Some have little "impulse control" which is a sanitized way of saying that they little control over their animal nature. The most primitive part of their brain is in control. Things that you and I can do at appropriate times and in appropriate ways are uncontrollable to them. That includes sexual behaviors and predatory behaviors. That lack of control quickly lands them in prison if they aren't in a place where they can't hurt someone. However bad this place may have been, I'm sure being here was preferable to being in prison.

So for those of you who feel the need to continually comment about how creepy, abusive, disturbing or frightening these hospitals may have been, lets not forget that they were home to a lot of frightened, confused people who were made homeless when they closed. Many of them have probably not had a decent meal since it closed.

And while you are talking about how abusive the staff was, let's not forget that most of this staff was decent and caring and endured much abuse and discomfort in order to take home what was probably a pretty meager paycheck.

jane,

It is refreshing to see someone put some thought into this instead of just assuming that there were only negatives to living in places like this. I agree that living on the street or living in a prison or jail isn't much in the way of improvement for the folks who don't fit the current outpatient mental health scheme.

Boy I am glad I wasn't commited back then

yeah, well, the current alternatives aren't great either. It sucks to be homeless and hungry and out in the cold too. And I'm sure the huge percentage of mentally ill and "developmentally challenged" folks who are housed in prisons these days might actually prefer being in a place like this. At least they had "three hots and and a cot" and while they might have had to deal with the cruelties of some of the staff, at least they weren't being preyed upon by a prison full of criminals and predators. To find a place like this so overwhelmingly creepy, I guess you have to believe that we stand on some moral high ground now and that things like this belong safely in the past. In a lot of ways, things are worse now.

Would def. buy a book as well, ooo can't wait, so excited.

I see it, too! There looks like there's an arm and part of an upper body peeking out from behind the open door on the left!

forget that i just read the disclaimer.......amazing pic tho

hey were is this place?!?