Medical Malpractice - What were the mental asylums like during the 1940-50s?

What were the mental asylums like during the 1940-50s?

Im doing some research but I can't seem to find enough information on mental asylums. I need info such as , daily routine, treatments, atmosphere and more.

Public Comments

Horrible. But they still are. Horrible. Lately I was reading a recent article on an asylum where people are still treated very badly.
Makes me sick even thinking of it even mental asylums now are looney!!!!!ask around here a few have been!:)
Try looking up Kings Park Psychiatric Center in Kings Park, NY. They mistreated there patients very bad. And all the buildings are still standing. Been there a few times, its in a state park now. Pretty creepy. Heres a few links, the last link as alot of facts and data.... http://www.opacity.us/site3_kings_park_psychiatric_center.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Park_Psychiatric_Center http://citynoise.org/article/8894 http://www.hospital-data.com/hospitals/KINGS-PARK-PSYCHIATRIC-CENTER-KINGS-776.html
Prison.
I had a relation who was committed to an asylum in the 50s. She was allowed visitors and really there was no reason that she should have been there. I was in my twenties then and my abiding memories are of the nurse/warders having large bunches of keys and being locked in every time I saw her. To be honest I felt the regime was worse than prison (of which I have experience ), the difference was that my poor relation had never committed a criminal act .Google Cane Hill Asylum , it is still taking inmates .
There were experiments in frontal lobotomy. A prefrontal lobotomy. Lobotomy' means cutting a lobe of the brain. Like other brain operations, frontal lobotomy was associated with risks of severe brain damage . The were also doing Electroconvulsive therapy ECT also known as electroshock, is a well established, albeit controversial psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. I would guess in those days, it must have been hell for the patient. days