Patients unfortunate enough to be in psychiatric hospitals tend to remember them with a shudder. However, today's asylums for the mentally ill are just a paradise compared to what happened in such institutions a few decades ago. The few surviving photographs testify: in that era, mental hospitals were a real branch of hell on earth!

The restrictions on freedom were much stronger than now
At a time when effective and harmless sedatives did not yet exist, doctors used simple and effective, but extremely painful, and often dangerous remedies to calm patients and prevent them from harming themselves and others. Ropes and handcuffs, locking up for days and weeks in cramped closets or even in boxes - everything went into action. Such remedies often further intensified the patient's psychosis instead of really calming him down - however, the medicine of that time was most often unaware of this.

A perfectly 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, intemperance, excessive religious zeal, association with bad company, as well as reading novels and using tobacco. Compulsory hospitalization was also subject to those who were hit by a horse in the head with a hoof, who had been in the war, or whose parents were cousins ​​and sisters. A narrow list of several dozen testimonies leaves no doubt: each of us, somewhere in 1890, while in the United States, could easily have ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Patients treated with whipping machines
These machines were used a hundred years ago in psychiatric clinics to alleviate the symptoms of illness in the mentally ill. Sticks of solid weight were beaten all over the patient's body from the back of the head to the 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.

Doctors really considered masturbation to be the cause mental illness
A few decades ago, doctors were firmly convinced that masturbation can cause insanity. They quite sincerely confused the cause with the effect: after all, many patients in psychiatric clinics, unable to control themselves, engaged in masturbation from morning to night. Watching them, the doctors came to the conclusion that masturbation causes illness, although in fact it was only one of the symptoms. However, in the old days, patients in psychiatric clinics in without fail they put on such bulky and uncomfortable aggregates so that they could not masturbate. Walking in them was uncomfortable and sometimes painful, however, despite this, the patients of the clinics lived in them for weeks, and sometimes for years.

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

Steam cabins were also considered a sedative
These boxes are not cages, but special soothing steam cabins. late XIX- XX century. Despite the awesome appearance There was nothing particularly terrible about them. In fact, these were similarities to modern single sauna barrels, which today can be found in many spas today. Doctors believed that such a steam room calms 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 dressed, which turned the pleasure of the sauna into slow torture.

Women were more likely to be psychiatric patients than men
Sending a woman to a psychiatric hospital a few decades ago was much easier than sending a man. For this, the already mentioned diagnosis “hysteria” was most often used, under which anything could be adjusted, even resistance to a rapist husband. Reading was considered another risk factor: it was believed that it unequivocally leads a woman to insanity. Many of the fair sex spent years in psychiatric hospitals only because, according to hospital documents, they were caught reading at 5.30 in the morning.

Psychiatric hospitals of former eras suffered from overcrowding
With such a huge number of indications for hospitalization, it is not surprising that all psychiatric hospitals of the past suffered from an excess of patients. They coped with overpopulation without ceremony: they stuffed people into the wards like herring in a barrel, and in order to fit more, they took away beds and other "excesses" from the wards, giving patients the freedom to settle down on the bare floor, and for greater convenience, they also chained them to walls. Modern straitjackets against such a background seem to be a model of humanism!

Children lived in psychiatric hospitals for years
In the old days, there were no special children's clinics, so small patients - suffering, for example, mental retardation or persistent behavioral disorders - ended up in the same clinics as adult patients, and lived there for years. But, even worse, there were many healthy children in the mental hospitals of those times. Here lived the children of patients, medical staff, single mothers who had nowhere to go with babies, as well as children left without parents. All this horde of children was raised mainly by patients: the medical staff simply did not have time for this because of the heavy workload. It is easy to guess who these kids grew up with.

Doctors regularly used electric shock as a remedy.
Electroshock therapy, when a current is applied to the patient's head high strength, and is now sometimes used in psychiatric clinics, but only in the case of global disorders, when the patient has, as they say, 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, but only delivered to patients unbearable pain. The famous mathematician John Nash, who suffered from schizophrenia, was subjected to electric shock in American psychiatric clinics back in the 1960s, and later recalled this experience as the worst in his life.

Trying to treat with a lobotomy, doctors turned patients into vegetables
Back in the middle of the 20th century, many psychiatrists considered lobotomy a real way to rid a patient of schizophrenia or a syndrome obsessive states. This operation looked terrible: the doctor inserted a kind of ice pick through the corner of the patient's eye and, punching through the thin bone of the eye cavity, with a sharp movement, blindly dissected the nervous tissue of the brain. After the operation, the person lost his intellect, his coordination of movements suffered, and blood poisoning often began due to non-sterile equipment. And yet, lobotomy was considered a panacea for schizophrenics for decades: for example, in the United States in the early 1950s, about 5,000 lobotomies were performed a year.

You could get into a psychiatric clinic because of non-traditional sexual orientation
The fact that a wrong sexual orientation was considered a mental illness a hundred years ago probably does not surprise anyone. It is amazing how doctors infer sexual preferences when deciding whether to take a patient to the hospital! So, in one case, she spent several years in a clinic for the mentally ill only because she loved to wear trousers and fiddle with technology. There are cases with several women when they were recognized as mentally ill due to too low sexual appetite: asexual ladies in those days were considered closet lesbians, believing that a normal woman in her right mind had no right to simply reject her husband!

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

Doctors who treated the psyche knew almost nothing about her
A hundred years ago, doctors knew almost nothing about the functioning of the human brain, so their treatment was more like cruel experiments on people. Patients were doused with ice water, drilled into their skulls, parts of the brain were removed, not because the doctors were confident in the effectiveness of these measures, but only in order to understand whether they worked or not. Not surprisingly, the death rate in psychiatric clinics of a hundred years ago was perhaps a little lower than in plague hospitals.

Abandoned mental hospitals today - objects for gloomy excursions
It was only in the 1970s and 1980s that the Western world began to abandon the practice of mass hospitalizations of patients in "houses of sorrow" 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 answer for themselves. Well, the buildings of the former psychiatric clinics today are the most popular objects for young extreme people who search every corner here, looking for traces of the era of the bloody dawn of psychiatry, which lasted several decades.

Not everyone knows, but in fact there are a lot of mentally ill people in the United States. Basically, most of them are kept in prisons instead of psychiatric hospitals.

There are three largest prisons for the mentally ill in America - in New York, Los Angeles, and Cook County in Illinois. It holds 11,000 prisoners undergoing treatment for mental illness. For comparison, the three largest public psychiatric hospitals in the United States have only 4,000 beds for patients.

This is a huge problem for the United States because prisons are not the best environment and opportunities to help mentally ill people and are not getting bigger.

(Total 15 photos)

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1. Photographer Jenn Ackerman was given permission to photograph the Correctional Psychiatric Ward in Kentucky.

2. The prison has a block where prisoners often have to be restricted in their movement for their own safety.

3. The facility employs licensed mental health professionals, but also regular corrections officers.

4. The unit for the mentally ill started with 13 beds in 1998 but grew to 150 beds in 2008. This prisoner curled up in a ball without a blanket.

5. This prisoner talks to himself 23 hours a day. Prolonged isolation can exacerbate mental illness.

6. Anthony Rosario stares wide-eyed from the block where he spends 23 hours a day.

7. This prisoner looks at the sun in a narrow window.

8. Prisoner Jonathon Ponder laughs through the cell window.

9. Correctional officers often help the mentally ill. “It's a fine line between mental health and security."

10. This prisoner must wear a mask so that he does not spit on correctional officers and doctors.

11. Employees clean and search the cell after the prisoner tried to harm himself.

Trips

Traveling, as well as uploading pictures to these same social networks, are considered fashionable hobbies.

Everyone wants to get as many cherished "likes" as possible, so the most interesting and provocative photos are posted in Instagram.

However, some bloggers, in their desire to stand out, simply go too far and go to extremes.

Here are the craziest, most dangerous and even deadly Instagram photos that will make your blood run cold.


The most dangerous photos

1. Rachel Brooke Smith



The blogger shocked her followers by doing yoga on the edge of a skyscraper in New York. Someone will say that this is too much, but ... after the iconic shot, the number of subscribers to her Instagram account has increased dramatically for the girl.

2. Vika Odintsova


Vika Odintsova shocked the world with her crazy photo shoot in Dubai. In the literal sense, she hung in the air, holding only one hand of the photographer.


It seems that the girl is not afraid of anything in this life and absolutely trusts her partner ... Vika was driven to this madness not so much by the search for thrills as by the desire to become famous.

3. And this is Oleg Cricket and his crazy games with death



This guy has nothing to fear either. He risks his life for a spectacular photo.

4. Harry Gallagher



Harry Gallagher became popular thanks to his attacks on the tallest buildings in the world. In this photo, the guy hung on the roof of the second largest skyscraper in London.

There are a number of other equally spectacular shots, from which the blood runs cold.

5. James Kingston (James Kingston) and fearlessness on skyscrapers



The guy took this picture while on top of the second largest building in Ukraine.

crazy photos

6. Jack Morris (Jack Morrison)



7. Angela Nikolaou


Angela Nicolaou defied the public by climbing to the top of a spire in Tianjin, China, and took a spectacular photo that amazed the world.

And this is how a girl walks along the edge of Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong.


And this is another dangerous photo famous blogger.


8. Adrenaline junkies and their games with death



The Moscow bridge, 120 meters high, attracts thrill-seekers, despite numerous warnings from the city authorities about the danger.


9. Photos on the rock of Pedra da Gavea (rock-monolith in Rio no Janeiro)



Instagrammers take unnecessary risks for the sake of beautiful photo. Every year, Pedra da Gávea attracts millions of tourists from all over the world.

But only the most desperate daredevils risk climbing the edge of the cliff and take a spectacular photo.


The protrusion above sea level is 842 places. Despite this, great amount extreme people decides on a crazy photo shoot on the edge of a cliff.

10. Kjeragbolten, a huge stone sandwiched between two rocks


Kjeragbolten, the most dangerous stone in the world, is located on one of the mountain plateaus of Norway. This wonder of nature is a popular destination among tourists.


Every year, thousands of daredevils climb this rock to take a beautiful picture.


Read also:Top crazy attractions for tourists, from which the blood runs cold

11. Rock Wedding Cake in Australia



Another place that tourists flock to like honey is a rock called Wedding Cake.

Few people pay attention to the prohibition signs that call for keeping a distance from such a dangerous place.

Moreover, this is a very popular place for extreme photo shoots. Many people dream of making a couple of breathtaking shots here.


But experts warn: the rock can collapse at any moment. But that doesn't stop anyone.

12 Potato Chip Rock in San Diego County, California



Roughly the same thing can happen with the rock Potato Chips. However, the daredevils who risk climbing it for the sake of a spectacular photo do not get smaller from this.


This is one of the most favorite places for instagrammers who climb the very ledge of the rock for the coveted “like”.

13. The famous Trolltunga in Norway



The so-called Trolltongue ledge in Norway rises above Lake Ringedalsvatn at an altitude of 700 meters.

It is also one of the most famous places for extreme photo shoots.


Why don't daredevils and adventurers from all over the world get up here. Some carefully hang their legs over the abyss that opens below.

Others decide on more extreme stunts, and in pursuit of thrills, as well as a spectacular shot, hang over a huge gaping abyss with all their weight.


In 2015, a girl died here after falling off a cliff. The local guide says: next death- it's just a matter of time.

14. Yosemite Park



in the American national park Yosemite also has a place for thrill-seekers and just avid Instagrammers to roam.


15. Huashan, China



Huanshan is called the most dangerous trail in the world. Indeed, climbing the mountain is associated with many dangers.

According to rumors, about 100 people die here every year, although official statistics there is no mortality.


However, this does not stop extreme people who rush here in a frenzied desire to get thrills, as well as add a couple of crazy photos to their piggy bank.

16. Valentin and Roman and a crazy photo shoot in Preikestolen, Norway



An incredible shot on the cliff of the giant Preikestolen rock was presented on their page by Valentin and Roman, known on Instagram under the name Twintheworld.

And here are the daredevils themselves:


17. Murad and Natalie Haussmann

Bloggers Murad and Natalia Osmann travel around the world making beautiful pictures and tagging them with the famous FollowMeTo hashtag.

This picture was taken on the edge of a skyscraper in Las Vegas.


And this picture is from their photo shoot in Dubai.


18. Victoria Falls



Despite the real danger posed by Victoria Falls, the flow of tourists who flock here does not dry out.


There are cases when, having slipped on the edge, a person fell off a cliff and died in a stormy whirlpool.


However, brave daredevils, risking their lives, continue to take photos in danger zone roaring waterfall 120 meters high.

All these pictures are, of course, beautiful, spectacular and bewitching. But maybe it's not worth taking such a risk just for the sake of "likes" and admiration of followers on social networks.

After all, in the end, you risk your life, which you have one.