America's Long-Suffering Mental Health System

By

Zeb Larson

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Oregon State Hospital in 1885.

Oregon State Hospital

Oregon State Hospital in 1885.

A straitjacket from Eastern Oregon State Hospital in Pendleton.

Straitjacket

A straitjacket from Eastern Oregon State Hospital in Pendleton.

Patients made toys as part of occupational therapy in a psychiatric hospital around World War I.

Occupational Therapy

Patients made toys as part of occupational therapy in a psychiatric hospital around World War I.

Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY.

Willowbrook State School

Willowbrook State School, a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities in Staten Island, NY from 1947 to 1987.

A 1967 advertisement in The Journal of the American Medical Association for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

Thorazine Advertisement

A 1967 advertisement in The Journal of the American Medical Association for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

Nikolas Cruz being arrested.

Nikolas Cruz

Nikolas Cruz—the suspected gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL—being arrested.

A graph depicting mass shooting deaths in the U.S. from 1982 to 2016.

Total Deaths in U.S. Mass Shootings

A graph depicting mass shooting deaths in the U.S. from 1982 to 2016.

Darren Rainey.

Darren Rainey

Darren Rainey, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in 2012 from burns to over ninety percent of his body after prison guards locked him in a shower for two hours with 180°F water.

Dade Correctional Institution—a prison in Miami-Dade County, FL.

Dade Correctional Institution

Dade Correctional Institution—a prison in Miami-Dade County, FL—has received numerous accusations of poor treatment of mentally ill prisoners before Darren Rainey’s death.

The entrance to Cook County Jail in Chicago, IL.

Cook County Jail

The entrance to Cook County Jail in Chicago, IL.

The Angeles County Jail in downtown Los Angeles, CA.

Los Angeles County Jail

The Angeles County Jail in downtown Los Angeles, CA.

An aerial view of the Rikers Island prison complex in New York City.

Rikers Island

An aerial view of the Rikers Island prison complex in New York City.

President Ronald Reagan outlining his tax plan.

President Ronald Reagan

President Ronald Reagan outlining his tax plan in a televised address from the Oval Office in 1981.

Gay rights activists Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny and Dr. John E. Fryer at a panel discussion at a 1972 American Psychiatric Association conference.

American Psychiatric Association Panel

Gay rights activists Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny and Dr. John E. Fryer—a gay psychiatrist in disguise—at a panel discussion at a 1972 American Psychiatric Association conference the year before the association removed homosexuality as a mental disorder from its diagnostic manual.

An engraving of Bethlem Royal Psychiatric Hospital in London, England around 1750.

Bethlem Royal Psychiatric Hospital

An engraving of Bethlem Royal Psychiatric Hospital in London, England around 1750.

Oregon State Hospital for the Insane opened in 1883.

Oregon State Hospital

Oregon State Hospital for the Insane opened in 1883 and is one of the oldest continuously operated hospitals on the West Coast.

Oregon State Hospital was the setting for the novel (1962) and the filming location (1975) of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Oregon State Hospital was both the setting for the novel (1962) and the filming location (1975) of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The patient population at Eastern Oregon State Hospital tripled in its first fifteen years.

Number of Patients at Eastern Oregon State Hospital

The patient population at Eastern Oregon State Hospital tripled in its first fifteen years.

Eastern Oregon State Hospital in Pendleton.

Eastern Oregon State Hospital

In 1913, 325 patients were transferred from Oregon State Hospital in Salem to the newly built Eastern Oregon State Hospital in Pendleton, but the new facility itlself quickly became overpopulated.

The Lunatic Asylum at Utica opened in 1843.

New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica

New York’s first state-run facility for the mentally ill, the Lunatic Asylum at Utica opened in 1843 and adopted “Moral Treatment” methods.

Patients performed manual tasks like shoe-making at the Willard Asylum.

Shoe Shop

Patients performed manual tasks like shoe-making at the Willard Asylum in New York for the Insane.

Female patients engaged in agricultural labor at a mental health facility.

Farm Work

Female patients engaged in agricultural labor at a mental health facility.

Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA was the largest insane asylum in the world.

Central State Hospital

Opened in 1837, Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA became the largest insane asylum in the world with over 13,000 patients and, by the 1950s, had a staff-to-patient ratio of one to 100. It stopped accepting new patients in 2010 and four of the asylum’s buildings have been converted into prisons while the rest were boarded up.

A 1929 map of states that had implemented sterilization legislation.

Legal Status of the Sterilization Laws

A 1929 map of states that had implemented sterilization legislation.

Carrie Buck and her mother Emma Buck at the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded in 1924.

Carrie and Emma Buck

Carrie Buck and her mother Emma Buck at the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded in 1924. Emma had been committed after accusations of immorality, prostitution, and having syphilis. Her daughter was committed after becoming pregnant at seventeen as the result of a rape.

A protest against forced sterilizations in North Carolina around 1971.

Sterilization Protest

A protest against forced sterilizations in North Carolina around 1971.

A historical marker in Raleigh, NC regarding the 7,600 people sterilized in that state.

Eugenics Board

A historical marker in Raleigh, NC regarding the 7,600 people sterilized in that state.

Electroconvulsive therapy being administered at a Liverpool, England facility in 1957.

Electroconvulsive Therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy being administered at a Liverpool, England facility in 1957.

A nurse administering glucose to a patient receiving Insulin Shock Therapy in an Essex, England hospital in 1943.

Insulin Shock Therapy

A nurse administering glucose to a patient receiving Insulin Shock Therapy in an Essex, England hospital in 1943.

An image of removed teeth from Henry Cotton’s The Defective Delinquent and Insane (1921).

Removed Teeth

An image of removed teeth from Henry Cotton’s The Defective Delinquent and Insane (1921).

Doctors Walter Freeman (left) and James W. Watts (right) studying an X-ray.

Doctors Walter Freeman and James W. Watts

Doctors Walter Freeman (left) and James W. Watts (right) studying an X-ray before a psychosurgical operation.

Journalist Albert Deutsch published a catalogue of abuses in state hospitals in 1948.

The Shame of the States

Journalist Albert Deutsch published a catalogue of abuses in state hospitals in 1948.

One of the images in Albert Deutsch’s The Shame of the States of an overcrowded day-room in a Manhattan asylum.

Overcrowding

One of the images in Albert Deutsch’s The Shame of the States of an overcrowded day-room in a Manhattan asylum.

The 1948 film The Snake Pit.

The Snake Pit

The 1948 film The Snake Pit depicted a semi-autobiographical story of a woman in an insane asylum who could not remember how she got there.

A poster presentation at the Minneapolis Health Fair in 1944.

Minnesota Mental Hygiene Society

A poster presentation at the Minneapolis Health Fair in 1944.

A 1962 advertisement for Thorazine, an antipsychotic and tranquilizer.

Thorazine Advertisement

A 1962 advertisement for Thorazine, an antipsychotic and tranquilizer.

The Kennedy Family at Hyannis Port, Mass. in 1931 with Rosemary Kennedy on the far right.

The Kennedy Family

The Kennedy Family at Hyannis Port, Mass. in 1931 with Rosemary Kennedy on the far right.

President John F. Kennedy signing the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Center Construction Act.

President John F. Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy signing the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Center Construction Act in late October 1963.

Psychiatrist Robert Felix (far right) at the White House with President John F. Kennedy.

Robert Felix and President John F. Kennedy

Psychiatrist Robert Felix (far right) at the White House with President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara, CA.

Agnews State Hospital

Originally known as the Great Asylum for the Insane, Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara, CA opened in 1885 and closed in 1998.

The Demented Men’s Building at Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara, CA.

Demented Men’s Building

Built after World War II, the Demented Men’s Building at Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara, CA was an attempt to move toward preparing patients to leave the hospital.

A graph depicting inpatient psychiatric beds by type from 1970 to 2002.

Inpatient Psychiatric Beds by Type

A graph depicting inpatient psychiatric beds by type from 1970 to 2002.

Kenneth Donaldson filed the lawsuit that eventually became the Supreme Court decision O’Connor v. Donaldson and wrote a book about his experiences.

Insanity Inside Out

Confined to Florida State Hospital against his will for fifteen years, Kenneth Donaldson filed the lawsuit that eventually became the Supreme Court decision O’Connor v. Donaldson and wrote a book about his experiences.

A 1955 advertisement in Mental Hospitals magazine for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

Reduces Need for Electroshock Therapy

A 1955 advertisement in Mental Hospitals magazine for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

A 1956 advertisement in Mental Hospitals magazine for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

The Child with a Behavior Disorder

A 1956 advertisement in Mental Hospitals magazine for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

A 1966 advertisement in The Journal of the American Medical Association for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

The Discharged Mental Patient

A 1966 advertisement in The Journal of the American Medical Association for the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

A vigil for increasing mental healthcare at Cook County Jail in 2014.

More Mental Health Care, Less Jail Time

A vigil for increasing mental healthcare at Cook County Jail in 2014 (photo credit: Sarah-Ji).

A graph and chart showing the percentage of inmates with and without mental health problems in state prisons.

Inmates With and Without Mental Health Problems

A graph and chart showing the percentage of inmates with and without mental health problems in state prisons.

Montevue Asylum in Maryland in 1909, a segregated asylum where patients slept on floors with minimal bedding.

Segregated Asylums

Patients in the segregated asylums of the South lived in deplorable conditions, such as at the Montevue Asylum in Maryland in 1909, where patients slept on floors with minimal bedding.

Shackled patients in the segregated Montevue Asylum in Maryland in 1909.

Shackled Patients

Shackled patients in the segregated Montevue Asylum in Maryland in 1909.

Patients congregated in the only space available for them in the Montevue Asylum in Maryland in 1909.

Montevue Asylum

Patients congregated in the only space available for them in the Montevue Asylum in Maryland in 1909.

Students from a Brooklyn, NY high school demanding elected officials enact gun legislation.

National School Walkout

Students from a Brooklyn, NY high school demanding elected officials enact gun legislation as part of a broader national student walkout on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, FL shooting.

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