[jennie]

Click link to view the Disability History Museum's psychiatic illness historical photos.

What feelings or thoughts do these images provoke in you?

[bebop]

sadness.

good to see you hon.

[Zorah]

we couldn't click the link, we will one day

we did an extended thesis, at one time, on the history of the treatment of mental illness

Scared.

[sabby]

Sad and angry

[AAAAA]

Very, Very sad.

[Lennie]

Relieved that I don't live in such an ignorant era. I feel guilty for complaining about my health service now. And indignant that people with mental illness were once treated with such a lack of compassion and understanding.

[pachyderm]

> Relieved that I don't live in such an ignorant era.

Eh?

[Rhapsody]

Mental Illness has always been a very lonely and scary place to Live in - How Sad..... may the Mind Escape one day.

So sad, but none of it was understood at that time. We have come a long, long way.

[jennie]

These are types of images no one wants to see. They are very shameful. Yes we have come a long way but we still have more way to go to educate others on the stigma of mental illness. We may not be treated as animals (or less than animals) anymore but in many cases (in my opinion) we are treated as persons with little/no rights.

When I was hospitalized, inside I felt like those naked men, stripped of all dignity, in those cold asylums. I guess that is why artists use the asylum allegories in their artwork and songs, etc., . . . very intense feelings.

[Perna]

I'm glad there weren't as many people perceived as having mental illnesses back then. The people who were put into such places were truly sick and a problem for society, they weren't "hospitals" really at all. I feel sorry that no one understood about most illnesses, people with major depression and anxiety, etc. got no help and just stayed in society, prisoners in their own houses like Emily Dickenson but most without her talent/interest in writing poetry. I can't imagine spending a life doing "nothing".

[__zh]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
What feelings or thoughts do these images provoke in you?

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they're not easy to look at as they evoke feelings of helplessness and isolation and desperation. what a dramatic difference of these stills to the current marketing campaigns of huge pharma w/ smiling ppl and running pets and so forth.

personally hospitalization and medications have not been sunny and happy like the websites and brochures advertise in this modern day and age. a piece of work reflecting part of that period of time (in our life) was recently in a show specifically for survivors. we were out of country during most time show hung but heard positive feedback for how viscerally the piece struck the audience and what they walked away w/ after viewing something so painfully real. sometimes the 'creation' of such pieces is the only way to express what was locked away for so long due to the shame of institutionalization.

education will continue to be paramount to fighting the stigma of mental illness. thank goodness there are many ways to educate and often the use of the arts can reach a wider audience than other mediums.

thanks for the link and your thoughts on this matter = ) as well as those of the rest of the contributors to this thread

[uknowhatimean]

These images give me mixed feelings of both deep sadness and gratitude that I did not have to experience those times.

[Maven]

I feel anger and sadness, and I agree with Lennie, except, as I think Pachyderm is implying, we still live in an era of ignorance, intolerance, prejudice and judgment when it comes to mental illness and those who are different in certain ways.