Medical Malpractice - Is there any truth to the crazy things that are said to go on in old asylums?

Is there any truth to the crazy things that are said to go on in old asylums?

Everything scary movie/show i watch that are about like abandoned asylums, are always talking about the crazy experiments the doctor did on the patients. I was just wondering if there's like a true story about that, or are they just reusing the same, made-up idea.

Public Comments

Do some research on Benjamin Rush. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an early reformer of asylums
no, its all a bunch of bull, if anything were to happen like that the place would be shut down quicker than you could bat an eye. nothing like that stuff in the moves has ever happened.
Maybe way back when. I'm pretty sure electroshock therapy was real. I don't know about dunking people in freezing water or putting people in torture chambers to make them sane again though. These are things that were shown in House on Haunted Hill.
If you wanna know watch the movie "One Flew over the Cookoo's Nest" and tell me whether you think mental health in "asylums" as long ago as the 60's was medieval and cruel compared to now. Two quick examples - Electro shock therapy and labotomies (brain operations that literally took away part of the brain.)
There have been some messed up things that have happened. Basically the best answer I could give is that some of it is based on actual events but some of it is completely made up.
lumbotiemes, electro shock, and the 'cold pool' where all treatments. tv trists the truth, in a way but some things tv keeps them completely true. rape was common, and also where a hospital got over crowded, staff got...well aggervated. hopes that helps