Begun as a pork-barrel project by the federal government in the early 1900s, the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians (also known as the Hiawatha Insane Asylum) quickly became a dumping ground for inconvenient Indians. The federal institution in Canton, South Dakota, deprived many Native patients of their freedom without genuine cause, often requiring only the signature of a reservation agent. Only nine Native patients in the asylum’s history were committed by court order. Without interpreters…

Book Synopsis Insane asylums have a horrific history. Originally intended to provide a place to keep away "madness" within society, asylums eventually paved the way for medical professionals to study patients with mental illness. The asylums were palatial buildings surrounded with vast landscaped grounds and beautiful vistas. Due to overcrowding, untrained staff, and corrupt administrators, these institutions gradually became places of squalor and negligence. State funding could not keep up…

A collection of creepy photos from the inside of asylums in the past.

How did doctors treat mental disorders back in the 1800s and early 1900s? You might be surprised

At the age of 23, pioneering reporter Nellie Bly faked dementia in order to expose abuses of patients in Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York City. Such investigative journalism was unusual in 1887 -- almost as rare as women reporters. Bly's subsequent articles created a sensation, exposing the rampant psychological and physical mistreatment of inmates, many of whom were not mentally ill but simply recent immigrants and other impoverished individuals without social support. Her…

First of all, being a psychology student, and by posting these pictures, Im not wanting to be disrespectful. At all! I think all human beings deserve respect and kindnesss. This is only my way of honoring those people which society wanted to make disappear, many people who probably only wanted…

Pictures taken at Bethlem Royal Hospital in London - aka 'Bedlam' - between 1856 and 1857 were supposed to help doctors analyse mental health conditions via a patient's facial expression.

Reports from the 1800s and early 1900s about the abuse of patients in insane asylums are enough to make the strongest person want to vomit. The patients were often kept in the most horrendous conditions and, in some cases, were treated far worse than any mistreated farm animal. Even worse, the asylums fought back against

The Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St. Mary Bethlehem and Bedlam, is an infamous psychiatric hospital in London. It is Europe’s first and oldest institution to specialize in mental illnesses. The hospital was founded in 1247 as the Priority of the New Order of our Lady of Bethlehem in…