Scary places for the brave. Closed psychiatric hospitals around the world (90 photos)

By and large, a hospital is a creepy and unpleasant place. After all, we are talking about large, sterile, intricate bullfights where people who are near death end up. We are not talking about psychiatric hospitals, at the sight of which a person feels horror, fear and shock.

In any case, there are certain reasons why many horror films based on true events are filmed in old abandoned hospitals. Similar buildings can be found all over the world, and many of them are truly nightmarish and have their own history. Here are the worst hospitals you shouldn't visit.

Royal Hope Hospital (Florida, USA)

Located in St. Augustine, Florida, USA, Royal Hope Hospital was originally a Spanish military hospital (from 1784 to 1821), but was later demolished. A replica of the same hospital was subsequently recreated to house the wounded during the war. Many claim that the hospital is located on an ancient Indian cemetery...

As you might expect, due to the history of this hospital being built on sacred grounds, this site is one of the most visited in Florida. In an abandoned surgeon's office, reports were found about creepy equipment for experiments on people, and visitors who were in the room said that they saw the bed move and felt something pass by. Despite the fact that the building does not stand out in any way by its appearance, many people who believe in spirits really consider this hospital a mystical place.

Sanatorium "Tranquille" (Canada)

The Tranquille Sanatorium is located on Kamlpoos Lake in Columbia (Canada). The sanatorium began its work even before its owner decided to help patients with tuberculosis. It was converted into a full-fledged hospital in 1907, and was intended to care and treat patients with tuberculosis. Thanks to the hospital's activities, more than 4,000 patients were cured, but the hospital was closed in 1950. After the closure, there were rumors that people were seeing staff or patients in the empty hospital building, but these rumors were later proven to be true.

Later, the hospital was reopened as a hospital and training center, but then closed again forever, this happened in 1985. You can see the former sanatorium in some films, such as the movie The A-Team, as well as several television shows. Over the years, there have been reports of mysterious floating orbs inside the building, people who visited the building experienced inexplicable feelings of sadness, anxiety and sharp changes temperature. There were also rumors about mysterious voices, the ghosts of a nurse who was allegedly killed by a patient.

SaiYingPun Psychiatric Hospital (Hong Kong)

Built in 1892, this hospital is located in Hong Kong. The hospital is a famous high-rise building, which was nicknamed the “ghost house” due to numerous stories of mystical incidents that were observed even by the builders of this building. Initially, before World War II, the building was used as living quarters for medical personnel. The house was later rumored to have been captured by Japanese soldiers and used as a punishment facility. Later, the building became a psychiatric hospital (the only psychiatric clinic in all of Hong Kong), which later transformed into a psychiatric outpatient hospital and operated until 1971.

You will never believe all these mystical rumors if you see it today, because this building is currently the headquarters of several charitable organizations. In the 1970s, a girl was often heard crying in an abandoned building and loud sounds coming from the 2nd floor, and someone was talking about a mysterious devilish man who sometimes appeared on the 2nd floor.

NoctonHall Hospital (England)

Unlike most other hospitals, NoctonHall began its history as a magnificent manor house built before the First World War. Afterwards, the building was used by the American authorities as a hospital for wounded soldiers. By unknown reasons, the building was abandoned in 1995. And to this day they are constantly trying to set fire to this building.

Exists a large number of stories about a ghost that looks like a young girl crying. It is said that a woman can be found in a certain bedroom at 4:30 in the morning. People also say that this is the ghost of a maid who was raped and killed by the son of the owner of NoctonHall, even before the estate became a hospital.

OldChangi Hospital (Singapore)

Built in 1935, Old Changi Hospital was known as one of the most visited places in all of Singapore. At that time it was built and served as a hospital for air force personnel and was later used by the Japanese as a prisoner of war camp. The building was later used as a torture chamber.

Later, when the building was already abandoned, ghosts were regularly reported, believed to be victims of the Japanese. At this time and to this day, the building is the site of supernatural incidents and is the subject of many television shows; journalists constantly come there to film something mystical. Visitors to the abandoned hospital said that they returned from this place with frightening stories about strange noises and ghosts that did not leave them even after leaving the building.

Ararat Madhouse (Australia)

Today this madhouse is known as "Aradle". It opened in 1867 under the name Ararat and was one of the largest and most famous clinics in all of Australia, despite its horrendous treatment methods. Throughout its life, this hospital cared for patients with mental disorders, tens of thousands of patients were housed there. Ararat has also become home to some dangerous psychopaths.

The hospital operated for 130 years, during which time about 13,000 patients died there, which is perhaps why this place is one of the most visited in all of Australia. The madhouse was closed in 1998, but surprisingly the building was back in operation three years later, under the direction of the North Melbourne Institute of Technical and Further Education, as a campus for the Australian College of Wine. There are still ghost sightings in the building, and there are even tours of special parts of the former hospital, including the morgue.

Severalls Hospital (England)

Mental hospitals are one of the most terrifying, nightmarish places that inspire people with various mystical stories about ghosts. The Severalls Hospital, located in the city of Colchester (England), is no different from other similar places; this hospital was known as a place of execution, how should I say, experimental forms. But one day, a rumor appeared about “treatment” procedures being carried out in this place. In addition, there are many proven facts that patients who were separated from their families after illegal births or rape were kept here.

The hospital was opened in 1913. as a psychiatric hospital, and completed its work in the early 90s. The hospital was finally closed in 1997, and since then it has been subject to constant, brutal acts of vandalism. Most likely, the building will remain untouched for a long time until the authorities decide to do something with it. However, Ghostbusters frequent guests in this place, they especially often visit the morgue.

Athens Psychiatric Hospital (Ohio, USA)

The Athens Psychiatric Hospital, located in Ohio, began operating in 1874. Over the years, it changed several names and operated until 1993. By 1950, the hospital had already treated more than 1,800 patients. The hospital became famous for its notorious lobotomy procedure and the presence of dangerous criminals. Over time, the hospital changed its name to "The Ridges".

The mystery of this place is largely due to the lack of information about the content of patients, strict control with a special permit from the state of Ohio. Also, about 1,900 people were buried at the base of the building, their headstones marked with numbers, even without names. Eventually the former hospital grounds were given to Ohio University.

There is one fact that only adds to the mystique of this place - the disappearance of the patient in 1978. Her body was found a year later in an abandoned ward, and even decades later, stains from the body are still visible on the floor.

Taunton State Hospital (Massachusetts, USA)

Located in Taunton, Massachusetts, Taunton State Hospital was built in 1854 as a mental hospital, which has some interesting and horrifying history. One of the most famous patients of this hospital is Jane Toppan, a serial killer who confessed to committing 31 murders while working at the same hospital as a nurse.

It is rumored that some doctors and nurses took patients to the basement and used them for satanic rituals, and it was later noted that both patients and staff experienced feelings of anxiety and were afraid to even approach the basement door.

Beechworth Madhouse (Australia)

This hospital was originally known as MaydayHills and was also a sister hospital to Ararat Hospital in Australia. Beechworth Asylum operated for 128 years and closed in 1995. Both Beechworth and Ararat hospitals were opened in the same year, due to a lack of space in other hospitals. In terms of capacity, Beechworth could easily accommodate about 1,200 patients.

Like all the hospitals presented above, this place is rich in its mystical history. People who visited this place talked about mysterious disappearances and murders at Beechworth; also, when opening the first laboratory for experiments, they discovered a huge number of cans with various parts human bodies. After a fire in 1950, all the banks mysteriously disappeared. In total, almost 9,000 patients died within the walls of this hospital, including a young girl who jumped out of a window.

Neurosurgeon Walter Freeman earned $85 thousand by piercing several thousand human heads with an ice pick. Freeman treated mental illness this way, charging only $25 for each operation. Freeman's method was called lobotomy. Another mental health advocate, Dr. Henry Cotton, made a fortune by cutting out life-saving measures for mentally ill people. important organs. The methods of psychiatry often caused horror among contemporaries, but they were replaced by others, sometimes even more terrible.

Kirill Novikov

Real Bedlam

In August 1925, the small but prosperous American town of Trenton in New Jersey was buzzing like a disturbed hive. Behind last years The townspeople were accustomed to being proud of one of the main local attractions - the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, which was famous throughout the country. Under the leadership of Dr. Henry Cotton, the hospital achieved amazing results: about 85% of mental patients made full recoveries. By at least, Cotton’s subordinates named exactly this figure. But now everything has changed. Newspapers vied with each other to write about the horrors of the Trenton Asylum. The patients were brutally beaten and then forcibly dragged onto the operating table. At first, the unfortunates' teeth were pulled out, and then one internal organ after another was removed until the poor fellows were taken to the grave.

A New Jersey Senate commission headed by Senator William Bright worked in the city, and during the hearings new facts were revealed. Soon a rumor spread throughout the city that Dr. Cotton himself had gone mad. People saw the director of the clinic run out of the commission meeting room without an umbrella and raincoat, although it was cold raining, and started running down the street. When they found him, he had difficulty understanding where he was, and was generally in a state close to insanity. Some felt sorry for the eminent doctor, others believed that his place was in prison, if not in the electric chair. A big psychiatric scandal was in full swing. It seemed that the commission had every reason to put an end to Dr. Cotton's monstrous practice. Unfortunately, the nightmare only took on even more terrible forms over time.

Mental illness has always baffled society for two reasons. Firstly, it was not clear how to treat the sick, and secondly, funds had to be found somewhere for their maintenance. In the Middle Ages there were not so many officially recognized madmen. In an era of universal religiosity, no one was surprised if someone had visions or if someone heard voices. Various mental deviations were interpreted either as manifestations of holiness or as demonic possession. And yet, some people were considered mentally ill and placed in places where they could not harm themselves or others. Most often, the insane were kept in monasteries and monastery hospitals. Thus, in Paris, from time immemorial, crazy people were sent to the Hotel-Dieu, the oldest hospital in the city, founded in the 7th century, where monks cared for the sick. They didn’t know how to treat madness in those days, just as they still don’t know how to treat it now. Compassionate monks simply tried to alleviate the suffering of patients, and they usually succeeded.

The sister of the future US President Rosemary (pictured in the center) did not think about the reputation of her family before the lobotomy, and after the lobotomy she stopped thinking at all

In 1247, the Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded in London, which initially served as a home for nuns of the Order of the Virgin Mary, but already in next century began accepting mentally ill patients. Later, Londoners shortened the name of the priory to one word - Bethlehem, which soon became Bedlam in other languages. Thus was born one of the first insane asylums in Europe, the very name of which later inspired horror. At the beginning of the 15th century, only six patients were kept here, and their life, apparently, was not so bad. But already in the 16th century, the number of insane people began to grow rapidly. Rapid changes in society, paid for by the rapid impoverishment of the masses, drove many crazy, and Bedlam soon turned from a quiet almshouse into a kind of prison. The number of patients rose to 31, some of them kept in chains. According to a contemporary, the unfortunate people constantly screamed, howled and rattled their chains, so that the noise they made “was so great and terrifying that even a reasonable person could lose his mind.” But it was much easier for the medical staff to deal with shackled patients. Similar institutions arose in the Dutch Harlem, the Spanish Toledo and many other European cities, and the rules were approximately the same everywhere.

The more sick people became, the more expensive their care became. In the 16th-18th centuries, rich people tried to keep their crazy relatives at home, so Bedlam and similar institutions turned into prisons for the poor, which were of no use in workhouses. Financial difficulties were solved mainly through savings. Food was meager, and there was often no clothing at all. The sick were not dressed even in winter, since the doctors of that time were sure that madness reduces a person to the state of an animal, which means that crazy people cannot be cold, just as sheep or wolves cannot be cold.

Some hospitals tried to make money. The enterprising administration of Bedlam succeeded most in this matter. According to legend, harmless insane people were given a special license that allowed them to beg and were released onto the streets of London. The patients were served quite well, and soon there were more begging “bedlamites” than the patients themselves, since many London beggars began to pose as crazy. In the 18th century, Bedlam opened its doors to visitors. For just one penny you could admire the madmen, and few Londoners could refuse such entertainment. The first paying visitors to Bedlam were English aristocrats, followed by simpler townspeople. On the first Tuesday of every month, Bedlam was free to visit. In 1814 alone, 96 thousand people visited the famous madhouse, thanks to which Bedlam became self-sustaining.

"The Hungry Dead"

Methods of healing the sick were as numerous as they were ineffective. IN medical reference books XVII-XVIII centuries can be found wonderful means against mental disorders: “Human hair is good at precipitating hysterical fumes if you burn it and give it to the sick to sniff... Fresh human urine... is good against hysteria.” There were verified folk remedies. So, in Scotland there lived a strong farmer named Gregory, who undertook to treat all forms of mental disorders, and his fame resounded throughout Europe. The French doctor Philippe Pinel wrote about this to Gregory: “His method consisted in the fact that he imposed the most difficult agricultural work on the insane, using some as beasts of burden, others as servants, and in the end, raining down on them a whole hail of blows for the slightest attempt at disobedience brought them to complete obedience." Obedience was considered synonymous with recovery.

There were more scientific methods. The authoritative scientist and poet Erasmus Darwin, whose grandson later created the theory of evolution, believed that the best remedy for mental illness was sleep. But how can you get a mentally ill person to sleep as much as they need? Darwin proposed using something like a centrifuge that would spin patients very quickly until they lost consciousness, and with it, insanity. The American doctor Benjamin Rush, better known as one of the founding fathers of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence, became seriously interested in the rotation method. Rush tried to “treat” patients on a rotating chair, but had little success.

And yet the 18th century gave the sick hope for a better life. During the Age of Enlightenment, doctors appeared in different European countries who believed that it was necessary to at least remove the chains and shackles from the sick, and even stop beating them. The first to receive a humane approach were, of course, rich patients. For some of them, enlightened doctors began to stage complex psychodramas with the participation of actors. A contemporary wrote about a wealthy Frenchman who convinced himself that he was already dead, and on this basis refused to eat. For his sake, a whole performance was staged: “A group of people, pretending to be pale on their faces and dressed as befits the dead, enters his room, sets up a table, brings dishes of food and begins to eat and drink in sight of his bed. The dead man, tormented by hunger, looks at them ; they express surprise that he does not get out of bed, and convince him that the dead eat, in any case, no less than living people. He easily applies this custom."

Soon, humane treatment began to extend to the poor inmates of insane asylums. In the 1780s, the doctor Vincenzo Chiarugi, who headed a hospital in Florence, banned putting patients in chains. During the same years, in Paris, the manager of the La Bicêtre shelter, named Jean-Baptiste Poussin, committed a similar act. During the French Revolution, Philippe Pinel followed Poussin's example. chief physician the famous Salpêtrière hospital. The ceremonial liberation of the insane from their steel shackles was touted as a truly revolutionary act.

Since then, the method of “moral healing” began to spread in Europe, when the mentally ill were not tortured, but exhorted. It seemed that cruelty and barbarism were forever a thing of the past. But this was not the case at all.

The word "bedlam" became synonymous with disorder, but the order that reigned in the London madhouse allowed the administration to earn crazy money

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images/Fotobank

Dr. Cotton's method

In the 19th century, the number of mentally ill people began to grow rapidly. Even rich people began to end up in insane asylums more and more often, and the reason for this was technological progress and new investment opportunities. One of the first rich people who could not withstand the scientific and technological revolution was the London tea merchant James Matthews, who found himself in Bedlam at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. The unfortunate man claimed that he was being pursued by a gang of spies skilled in “pneumatic chemistry” and armed with a “air loom.” The spies irradiated him with invisible rays, sent magnetic fields that interfered with blood circulation, and clearly sought to destroy England. Another story happened with a French landowner who was driven crazy by the possibilities of the world market. The landowner, without saying a word to anyone, went to Paris, where he sold almost all his securities, then went to Hungary and bought 500 horses, came with them to Swabia, where he acquired a large estate and placed his herd there. After this, the businessman returned home and completely forgot about all his investments.

If the growth of business activity drove the rich crazy, then the poor and "gentlemen mediocre"lost their minds en masse. The French psychiatrist Paul Regnard wrote at the end of the 19th century: "The characteristic ailment of our era is an exaggerated love of success and power, the desire to achieve them at any cost and an exorbitant thirst for greatness... Business fever, sudden the accumulation and disappearance of great fortunes has produced a kind of mental boiling... as a result of which the weak must perish with greater ease than in former times."

Regnard described many cases where poor people went crazy, dreaming of mountains of gold. One woman, for example, collected a whole bunch of old newspapers, believing that they were all shares of the Suez Canal and bank notes. She fancied herself a countess. The former lawyer imagined himself as the owner of 12 billion horses and hoped to one day plow all of France with the help of 30 thousand lions that were caught for him in Africa. Another patient claimed that he earned 10 thousand francs an hour giving drum lessons, and a third was constantly afraid that his head would be cut off, because his spine was made of pure gold.

Rapid progress, the destruction of the usual way of life, stultifying factory work and hopes of getting rich overnight drove thousands of unfortunate people crazy. If in 1827 in England there were 166 patients for every madhouse, then a hundred years later there were already 1221, while the number of institutions increased. In particular, many mentally ill people appeared after the First World War, because not every psyche could withstand the horrors of trench warfare. In the first post-war years, 417 thousand people were kept in psychiatric hospitals in the United States. Something had to be done with all these patients, and then innovative doctors appeared on the scene, offering miraculous methods of mass cure. This was a golden time for Dr. Henry Cotton and his ilk.

Henry Andrews Cotton was born in 1876. Not much is known about his youth, but there is no doubt that he received an excellent education. Cotton studied in Europe with Alois Alzheimer himself, and then trained in the USA with the best psychiatrists in his country. Dr. Cotton's career has been meteoric. Already at the age of 30, he headed the Trenton hospital and soon began to put into practice the advanced ideas that arose in his head.

Cotton believed that virtually all mental illnesses are caused by infection. He considered the teeth to be the main source of infection, because they cause gums to become inflamed, and the gums are located close to the brain. The doctor publicly expressed the hope that “one day there will come an era when all dentists will understand that it is necessary to do not what patients want; it is not necessary to save diseased teeth, but to pull out every single one.” Therefore, the Trenton patients first had their teeth mercilessly removed. If this did not help (and it usually did not help), the doctor came to the conclusion that the infection was hidden somewhere else. Insidious microbes could hide in the tonsils, gall bladder, large intestine, stomach, ovaries in women and testicles in men. All this had to be removed surgically. The patients screamed, resisted, begged for mercy, but no one listened to them: they were crazy.

The fate of the patients who underwent such treatment was unenviable. So, in 1922, Julia Thompson, a young woman suffering from severe depression, was brought to Trenton. Two days after Julia's arrival, she had her tonsils removed, and nine days later she underwent a "standard total colectomy," meaning her colon. Over the next six weeks, the patient had 16 teeth pulled out, after which she began to “react more actively to others.” Julia was discharged home, but eight months later she became depressed again. This was not surprising, since her mother died. And yet the unfortunate woman was returned to Trenton. Julia tried to pretend that everything was fine with her, just to convince the doctors that she no longer needed to have anything removed. Of course, they didn’t believe her: crazy people are so cunning. Julia tried to fight back, but the orderlies were stronger. Surgeons dug into her abdomen again and she died eight days later from post-operative peritonitis.

Meanwhile, Cotton reported on the fabulous successes of his method. He traveled to conferences, spoke at banquets, wrote articles in reputable medical journals and everywhere talked about 85% of the sick being healed. Awards and honorary degrees rained down on him like from a cornucopia. Money also flowed like a river. The Trenton Asylum was owned by the state, so Cotton and his staff lived on their salaries. But the clinic also accepted commercial patients who paid for themselves or, more often, their relatives paid for them. There was no end to those wishing to place their loved ones in a wonderful hospital. In 1921, Trenton had 2,033 patients, of whom 317 paid for their care. Among the patients were relatives of the rich and famous. Thus, Yale University professor and famous economist Irving Fisher placed his daughter Margaret, who suffered from schizophrenia, there. Cotton prescribed surgery on her cecum, and the girl soon died.

In 1924, some members of the board of trustees became concerned about the state of affairs at the hospital. They turned to Johns Hopkins University for help, and the luminary of medicine at that time, Dr. Meyer, sent his student Phyllis Greenacre to Trenton. A female doctor arrived at Cotton's hospital and began checking local statistics. The result horrified her. Greenacre processed data on 100 random patients, of which, as it turned out, only 32 recovered. 35 people did not improve, and 15 died. It also turned out that mostly those patients who were not treated or were almost not treated recovered, but all those who died managed to be under the knife of Dr. Cotton and his colleagues. In addition, Greenacre discovered that the statistics were kept very sloppily. Doctors either did not know how to count correctly, or deliberately overestimated the percentage of those who recovered. Greenacre concluded that, overall, only 8% of patients recovered in the hospital, 41.9% did not improve, and 43.4% were sent to the cemetery.

Soon the New Jersey Senate created a commission to investigate the situation at the Trenton Asylum. By that time, complaints had been received from the relatives of several deceased patients, so the commission had something to do. As it turned out, some patients died without even making it to surgery. Their bodies were covered with bruises and abrasions, which the orderlies attributed to falls, fights between insane people, and similar reasons. The commission was inclined to think that these patients were simply too eager to fight for their lives, not allowing themselves to be taken to the operating room. Cotton was so frustrated with the progress of the investigation that he lost control of himself and threw a tantrum at the commission meeting. For some time he was in prostration, but in the end he pulled himself together and ordered to pull out several of his teeth. Having lost this source of all illnesses, Cotton returned to life and began to fight with redoubled energy for his good name.

Too many eminent doctors at one time supported Cotton's method, too many scientific reputations would have perished if Cotton had been convicted. Medical luminaries and even politicians began to put pressure on the commission. As a result, the investigation was slowed down, and Dr. Cotton returned to his terrifying practice with the aura of a winner. Phyllis Greenacre was prevented from finishing her research and was suspended from her work in Trenton. Cotton headed the hospital until 1930, when he retired honorably. Perhaps if Henry Cotton had been convicted in 1925, the mentally ill would have been able to avoid the horror that was brewing in the depths of medical science.

Ice pick

Soon after Cotton's failed conviction, several new treatment methods were added to the world's psychiatry. In 1927, the Austrian doctor Manfred Sakel, while injecting insulin, accidentally put a drug addict, a patient, into a coma. diabetes mellitus. When she woke up, the woman said that she no longer needed drugs. Zakel decided that mental illness could be treated by putting patients into an induced coma, and his method seemed to have some results. At least the patients immersed in a coma did not make any noise, and after emerging from the coma they behaved quite quietly for some time. Subsequent studies showed that such therapy does not produce a noticeable effect, but great harm she didn't bring it.

In 1933 in Budapest, a young doctor named Ladislas Meduna concluded that schizophrenia and epilepsy were in a state of “biological antagonism.” In other words, schizophrenics do not have epilepsy and vice versa. Meduna decided that if a schizophrenic were to have an epileptic seizure, the schizophrenia would not be able to bear the proximity of the disease it hated and would go away. The doctor began inducing seizures in patients by injecting various drugs and eventually settled on Metrazol. The patients were stabbed with such force that 42% of those treated suffered spinal injuries, including fractures. Schizophrenia, of course, did not go away anywhere, but the patients were in a state of shock for some time and were simply incapable of delirium. However, they were usually also incapable of thinking sensibly. When choosing between coma and metrazol shock, clinics usually chose shock because metrazol was cheaper than insulin. Thus began the victorious march of shock therapy, which promised patients considerable trials.

In 1938, Italian doctor Ugo Cerletti learned that pigs that are shocked at the slaughterhouse do not actually die until they are stabbed to death. If the pig is allowed to lie down, it will rise again, but will behave calmer than before. After a series of experiments with animals, Cerletti decided to run a current through the brain of one of his insane patients. A 400-volt discharge did not make the patient an acceptable member of society, but it did noticeably reduce his aggressiveness. Cerletti's colleague, Dr. Lucio Bini, suggested that current could be used instead of metrazol, and soon the revolutionary technique went to the masses. Electroshock turned out to be even cheaper than metrazol, and therefore doctors around the world began to give it preference. Sometimes electric shock really helped - in cases of severe depression and catatonia, but its use quite often led to partial or complete loss memory. Some patients even liked it.

Somewhat earlier, in 1936, the Portuguese Egas Moniz developed a method he called leucotomy. The neurosurgeon performed trephination of the patient's skull and cut white matter, connecting frontal lobes with the rest of the brain. The operation led to irreversible changes personality of the patient, and sometimes led to him falling into a vegetative state. And yet, in 1949, Moniz was awarded the Nobel Prize.

If Moniz considered leucotomy as a last resort in hopeless cases when the patient was in terrible agony, his American admirer Walter Freeman thought differently. Shortly after Monisha's first operation, Freeman performed his own leucotomy, cutting through the white matter of a Kansas housewife. After this, the doctor decided to put the procedure on stream. He renamed leucotomy to lobotomy, and he himself became the first and only surgeon to practice this advanced method of treatment. Freeman promoted lobotomy as a means of removing the "emotional component" from mental illness. Indeed, many of those operated on no longer experienced any emotions.

Shock therapy enthusiasts have introduced a method of treating people that was previously used in slaughterhouses to kill pigs.

Photo: Gamma-Rapho / Getty Images / Fotobank

In the first two months after the success in Kansas, Walter Freeman and his assistant James Watts performed 20 lobotomies, and by 1942 they had performed more than 200 operations. In 1941, lobotomists received the order of their dreams - they were invited to work in the house of the Kennedy clan, which already in those years had considerable influence. The then head of the clan, Joseph Kennedy, had a daughter, Rosemary, who was a year younger than her brother John, the future president of the United States. 23-year-old Rosemary was willful and sometimes quite aggressive. At night, she often ran away from the Catholic boarding school where she studied in order to have fun in cheerful companies. In a word, Rosemary discredited the family’s reputation and sooner or later was bound to become the source of some scandal that could ruin the political future of the clan. Freeman and Watts promised Joseph Kennedy that the operation would solve all the problems, and they kept their word.

During the operation, Rosemary remained conscious while Freeman and Watts talked to her, delving into her brain. Freeman asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer and sing God Bless America, and she obediently recited and sang until she was silent forever. Since then, Rosemary Kennedy has behaved exceptionally well, as befits a vegetable. She lived until 2005 without learning about the tragic fate of her brothers. In 1958, Joseph Kennedy wrote to the director of the clinic where his daughter was admitted: “I am very grateful for the help you provided. In the end, the solution to the problem with Rosemary played an important role in allowing all the Kennedys to continue to pursue their life’s work.” In general, the customer was satisfied even with this result.

Freeman and Watts continued to do their thing. In the 1950s, Freeman developed a new lobotomy method that made the process even faster and cheaper. He took an ice pick, put it against the bone of the eye socket, hit the handle of the knife with a hammer and, breaking through the bone near the eye, entered the brain. A slight twist of the knife, and the frontal lobes ceased to cause any concern to the patient. New technology horrified Watts with its clumsy simplicity and cruelty, and he left the case. But the cheaper operation made lobotomy accessible to the masses. Freeman now charged just $25 per procedure. He traveled around the country in a car he nicknamed the Lobomobile, gave lectures, taught clinic staff his art and, of course, pierced the skulls of the unfortunate with his ice pick. His career as America's chief lobotomist ended in 1967. During this time, Freeman managed to work in 23 states, performing about 3.4 thousand operations.

Thanks to Freeman, lobotomy in the USA at one time was perceived almost as a panacea for everything mental disorders. Even naughty children were treated with its help. So, Howard Dally fell into the hands of Freeman at the age of 12 years. He was lucky - he did not become a vegetable. Moreover, he later wrote a book about his childhood experience called "My Lobotomy". After the operation, Dally could not study normally or work productively; for many years he could not take control of his life and almost drank himself to death.

Much has changed in the world of psychiatry since Freeman retired. Dr. Cotton's barbaric methods have long been condemned and become a thing of the past. Electroshock is now used only in extreme cases, when other methods do not help, and only with the consent of the patient, if, of course, he is capable of making decisions. In addition, patients are usually given an injection that relaxes the muscles so that the cramps do not damage the bones. Lobotomy has virtually ceased to be used since the 1970s. And yet, the fear of psychiatric clinics, where people find themselves face to face with medical staff armed with the latest advances in medicine, is firmly rooted in the public consciousness. In the West, since the 1960s, an “anti-psychiatry” movement has been developing, which fights against straitjackets and other symbols of classic Bedlam. But as long as people continue to go crazy, something has to be done about them.

Many tourists strive to see the most beautiful and outstanding places on the planet, which make their heads spin and their souls begin to “sing.” What about the scariest places in the world? They not only make the body tremble, but also provide food for the mind. Are you ready to tickle your nerves by imagining your own stay there, at least for a moment?!

The most terrible places in the world

Paris catacombs

Everyone knows fashionable Paris with its expensive boutiques and delicious cheeses, but few people dare to go down there. catacombs, similar to an endless labyrinth of death. The remains of several million people are stored under the ground where tourists step. The spectacle involuntarily makes you think about the transience of life... Today, more than 2 km of passages are open to the public.

The Island of the Dolls in Mexico is on the list of places where suspicious travelers should not go. It is also not recommended to take children to this place. And it’s unlikely that a child will want to visit an island where hundreds of old, not the best looking dolls are hung on the trees. They were collected by an eccentric hermit in memory of a drowned girl (in order to calm her soul). By the way, he himself, after some time, also drowned...

Mütter Museum, USA

One of the most terrible places in the world is the Mutter Museum in the USA. Exhibits of various human pathologies are stored here. Where else can you see a corpse that has turned into adipose wax in the ground, or a three-meter human intestine?!

Not everyone has the courage to visit a psychiatric hospital, much less an abandoned one! A Brazilian artist has turned a dysfunctional mental hospital in the Italian city of Parma into an art piece. The dark figures on the walls represent the spirit of the tormented patients. The spectacle is depressing and, at the same time, impressive.

Japanese Suicide Forest (Aokigahara Jukai)

The Japanese Suicide Forest (official name: Aokigahara Jukai) ranks first in popularity among those wishing to commit suicide. Despite the fact that there is video surveillance in the forest and signs are posted everywhere asking you to think about your loved ones, people continue to die there. There is a high probability that you will become the tourist who stumbles upon the next corpse...

The witchcraft market in Togo amazes with the variety of exhibits sold. Local residents continue to believe in the magical power of things. Here you can buy the skull of a large horned animal or a stuffed predator, all kinds of potions (the composition of which you can only guess), as well as other equally terrifying things.

Slums of Mumbai, India

Exotic Indian style is not only about the freedom-loving beaches of Goa. Anyone who has once visited the slums of Mumbai runs the risk of returning here for a long time. nightmares. More than a million Hindus live in the slums and make a living by sorting garbage. Tons of waste are brought here every day, and people, mixed with rodents, scour the garbage cans. Complete absence sanitation and any conditions for normal existence will shock any tourist.

Ghost town Pripyat, Ukraine

Another creepy place is the ghost town of Pripyat, in Ukraine. It seems to live its own life, although it was empty back in 1986 after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Sometimes the wind comes into play with the dilapidated swing, filling the surroundings with squeaks that excite the imagination. Today the exclusion zone is open to the public, so test your strength nervous system Anyone can.

Patients who were unlucky enough to visit psychiatric hospitals tend to remember them with a shudder. However, today's mental hospitals are simply a paradise compared to what happened in similar institutions several decades ago. The few surviving photographs testify: in that era, mental hospitals were a real branch of hell on earth!

Restrictions on freedom were much stronger than now
At a time when effective and harmless sedatives did not yet exist, doctors, in order to calm patients and prevent them from harming themselves and others, used simple and effective, but extremely painful, and often dangerous means. Ropes and handcuffs, being locked for days and weeks in cramped closets or even in boxes - everything was used. Such drugs often further intensified the patient’s psychosis instead of truly calming him down, although the medicine of that time most often had no idea about this.

A completely healthy person could end up in a psychiatric hospital
At the end of the 19th century, the list of indications for hospitalization in psychiatric clinics in the United States included the habit of masturbation, immoral behavior, incontinence, excessive religious zeal, association with bad company, as well as reading novels and using tobacco. Those who were hit in the head by a horse's hoof, who had been in war, or whose parents were cousins ​​were also subject to forced hospitalization. A compact list of several dozen testimonies leaves no doubt: each of us, somewhere in 1890, being in the United States, could easily have ended up in a mental hospital.

Patients were treated using whipping machines
These machines were used a hundred years ago in psychiatric clinics to alleviate the symptoms of the disease in the mentally ill. The heavy-weight sticks beat the patient all over his body from the back of his head to his heels: the doctors hoped that this would make him feel better. In reality, everything happened just the opposite - but, again, the doctors had no idea about this yet.

Doctors actually believed masturbation to be a cause of mental illness
Just a few decades ago, doctors were firmly convinced that masturbation could cause insanity. They quite sincerely confused cause with effect: after all, many patients in psychiatric clinics, unable to control themselves, engaged in masturbation from morning to night. Observing them, doctors came to the conclusion that masturbation caused the disease, although in fact it was only one of the symptoms. However, in the old days, patients in psychiatric clinics were required to wear such bulky and uncomfortable units so that they could not masturbate. Walking in them was uncomfortable and sometimes painful, but despite this, clinic patients lived in them for weeks and sometimes years.

Women in psychiatric clinics were forcibly subjected to "vaginal massage"
Surprisingly, while masturbation was considered dangerous for men, women were prescribed it as a remedy for the treatment of hysteria. This diagnosis could be given to a woman for anything - from irritability to sexual desires. The so-called “vaginal massage” was prescribed as treatment, that is, massage of the vagina using special device bringing the patient to orgasm. Of course, no one asked the patients’ permission, and yet, given the situation in mental hospitals, there was by no means a worse, albeit useless, method of treatment.

Steam cabins were also considered a sedative
These boxes are not cages, but special soothing steam cabins from the late 19th - 20th centuries. Despite the daunting appearance, there was nothing particularly scary about them. In fact, these were similar to the modern single-seat barrel saunas that can be found in many spas today. Doctors believed that such a steam room calmed violent patients. This method of treatment could even be called pleasant, if not for one “but”: as you can see in the picture, patients were put in boxes fully clothed, which turned the pleasure of the sauna into slow torture.

Women were more likely to be patients in mental hospitals than men
It was much easier to send a woman to a mental hospital several decades ago than it was to send a man. For this purpose, the already mentioned diagnosis of “hysteria” was most often used, under which anything could be fitted, even resistance to a rapist husband. Reading was considered another risk factor: it was believed that it definitely leads a woman to madness. Quite a few representatives of the fair sex spent years in psychiatric clinics only because, as hospital documents stated, they were found reading at 5.30 in the morning.

Psychiatric hospitals of previous eras suffered from overcrowding
With such a huge number of indications for hospitalization, it is not surprising that all psychiatric hospitals of former times suffered from an excess of patients. They dealt with overcrowding without ceremony: people were crammed into the wards like herring in a barrel, and in order to fit more, beds and other “excesses” were removed from the wards, giving patients the freedom to sit on the bare floor, and for greater convenience, also chaining them to walls. Modern straitjackets against such a background seem to be an example of humanism!

Children lived in mental hospitals for years
In earlier times, there were no special clinics for children, so young patients - suffering, for example, from mental retardation or persistent behavioral disorders - ended up in the same clinics as adult patients and lived there for years. But, what’s even worse, there were a lot of healthy children in mental hospitals of those times. The children of patients, medical staff, single mothers who had nowhere to go with their babies, as well as children left without parents lived here. This whole horde of children was raised mainly by patients: the medical staff, due to their heavy workload, simply did not have time for this. It’s not hard to guess who these kids grew up to be.

Doctors regularly used electric shock as a treatment
Electroshock therapy, when a high current is applied to the patient’s head, is still sometimes used in psychiatric clinics, but only in cases of global disorders, when the patient, as they say, has nothing to lose. But half a century ago it was used all the time, including as a sedative. In fact, electric shock did not calm anyone down, but only caused unbearable pain to patients. The famous mathematician John Nash, who suffered from schizophrenia, was subjected to electric shock in American psychiatric clinics back in the 1960s, and subsequently recalled this experience as the worst of his life.

Trying to treat with lobotomies, doctors turned patients into vegetables
Back in the mid-twentieth century, many psychiatrists considered lobotomy a real means of ridding a patient of schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorder. This operation looked creepy: the doctor inserted something like an ice pick through the corner of the patient’s eye and, piercing the thin bone of the eye socket, sudden movement blindly dissected the nervous tissue of the brain. After the operation, the person lost his intelligence, his coordination of movements suffered, and often blood poisoning began due to unsterile equipment. And yet, lobotomy has been considered a panacea for schizophrenics for decades: for example, in the United States in the early 1950s, about 5,000 lobotomies were performed per year.

You could end up in a psychiatric clinic because of your non-traditional sexual orientation
The fact that incorrect sexual orientation was considered a mental illness a hundred years ago probably does not surprise anyone. It is amazing how doctors inferred sexual preferences when deciding whether to take a patient to the hospital! So, in one case, she spent several years in a mental hospital just because she liked to wear trousers and tinker with technology. There are cases of several women when they were considered mentally ill due to too little sexual appetite: asexual women in those days were considered closet lesbians, believing that normal woman no one in her right mind has the right to simply reject her husband!

Both a lack and an excess of religiosity led to a mental hospital a hundred years ago
A hundred years ago in the United States, a person who refused the help of a therapist or surgeon for religious reasons (as, for example, fans of Scientology do today) had every chance of going to a psychiatric clinic instead of surgery. But the lack of religious feeling was also fraught with ending up in a mental hospital: there are several cases where people spent more than one year in houses of grief just because they openly declared themselves to be atheists.

Doctors who treated the psyche knew almost nothing about it
A hundred years ago, doctors knew almost nothing about the functioning of human brain, so their treatment was more like cruel experiments over people. Patients were doused with ice water, their skulls were drilled, and parts of their brains were removed, not because doctors were confident in the effectiveness of these measures, but only in order to understand whether they worked or not. It is not surprising that the mortality rate in psychiatric clinics a century ago was perhaps slightly lower than in plague hospitals.

Abandoned mental hospitals today - objects for dark excursions
Only in the 1970-80s western world began to abandon the practice of indiscriminate hospitalization of patients in “houses of mourning” and cruel and ineffective methods of treatment. In the 1970s, psychiatric hospitals in the United States and Europe began to close en masse. At the same time, there were many real patients on the street who were not able to take responsibility for themselves. Well, the buildings of former psychiatric clinics today are the most popular objects for young extreme sports enthusiasts, who scour every corner here, looking for traces of the era of the bloody dawn of psychiatry, which lasted several decades.

Abandoned buildings always make a depressing impression. This applies doubly to abandoned psychiatric hospitals. Just the thought of the suffering endured by people in these houses of sorrow makes one shiver with fear. The editors of HistoryTime will tell you about the most terrible abandoned mental hospitals of our time.

Denver Psychiatric Asylum - Denver, Massachusetts

This clinic was opened in 1878. It was originally designed for 450 patients, but by 190 it housed about 2,000 people at a time. Patients suffered from cramped conditions and were subjected to cruel and senseless treatments, including lobotomies and electric shocks. The hospital was closed only in 1992.

Talgarth Psychiatric Hospital - Talgarth, Wales

Talgarth Hospital opened in 1903. Initially, it was an ordinary clinic, but after the First World War it was repurposed as a hospital for the insane. This was one of the few clinics where patients were treated with occupational therapy - they themselves grew vegetables for the hospital table, thereby diversifying their diet. The hospital has been closed since 1999, and today is a popular tour destination for explorers of the city's slums.

Trenton Psychiatric Hospital - Trenton, New Jersey

Opened in 1848, this hospital became a real house of horrors after Henry Cotton became its head physician. He firmly believed that bacterial infection can cure mental illness. Therefore, he massively subjected patients against their will to cruel mutilation operations. Patients had their internal organs removed - gallbladder, parts of the intestines, testicles - without giving them antibiotics and waiting for the infection to take over the body. Dozens of people died in cruel torture just to prove the barbarity and senselessness of such an approach. Shortly after Cotton's death, the hospital was closed.

Norwich Psychiatric Asylum - Preston, Connecticut

One of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the United States included three dozen buildings and accommodated more than 3,200 patients. It has been closed since 1996, and today is a local attraction - the main haunt of Connecticut. Local residents have repeatedly stated that they saw white spots floating in the air and ghostly faces looking out from the windows of abandoned buildings.

Pennhurst Hospital - Spring State, Pennsylvania

Opened in 1908, just four years later this hospital was catastrophically overcrowded, and until its closure, patients suffered from overcrowding. Her main patients were children - not only those who suffered mental illness, but also dumb, blind, with physical deformities and deviant behavior. In the late 1980s, the hospital was closed after a scandal in which hospital staff were accused of violence and abuse of patients, as well as of forcing sick children to take psychotropic drugs. They say that ghosts are often found in the ruins of the hospital.

Metropolitan Hospital - Norwalk, California

This hospital, opened in 1927, is notorious for the murder that took place within its walls. In 1978, a patient named Melville Wilson killed patient Anne Marie Davy with a cleaver, dismembered her body and buried the parts in several places on the hospital grounds. He kept Ann's teeth as a souvenir. It was from them that the killer was discovered. This terrible incident caused a lot of noise, and as a result, the hospital was closed in 1992.

Topeka Psychiatric Hospital - Topeka, Kansas

Since the hospital opened in 1872, its patients have lived in squalid conditions, constantly subjected to physical and sexual abuse by staff. This, however, became clear almost a century later. Information about the cruelty of the hospital staff caused a storm of public outrage, and as psychiatry began to turn towards patients in the second half of the twentieth century, the hospital was closed as a legacy of the previous cruel era. The hospital has an abandoned cemetery where more than 1,000 patients of this house of grief are buried.

Trans-Algeni Psychiatric Hospital - Weston, West Virginia

The hospital was opened in 1864, and after 15 years it was already serving 717 patients. Not only patients with mental illness were treated here, but also alcoholics and drug users. The hospital became notorious for its unsanitary conditions and disgusting living conditions, which is why it was closed in 1994. Today, amateur ghost hunters come here six times a week for excursions: they say that its walls are full of ghosts.

Magdalene Psychiatric Hospital - Cork, Ireland

This hospital has been in operation since 1765. Initially, it was intended for “fallen women” - priestesses of love and simply women who led a dissolute lifestyle. However, it soon turned into simply a women's psychiatric hospital. For two centuries the hospital functioned quietly and calmly. However, in 1993, on its territory...