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>This review ignores the incredibly sordid history of institutionalization in the US and why it's so strongly hated. Yes, the past of mental hospitals was bad.

>This review ignores the incredibly sordid history of institutionalization in the US and why it's so strongly hated. Yes, the past of mental hospitals was bad. But that's true of the past of everything (nostalgia notwithstanding) The problem is that modern mental hospitals aren't like the hospital of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and yet that's what the public seem to think they are. Imagine if everyone's idea of a surgical hospital was that outdated -- nobody would be willing to get surgery. But people seem to understand that surgical science has advanced and yet seem to have a problem understanding that mental health treatments have advanced too.

fzeroracer 4y ago
No, that's not true of the past of 'everything' and I highly recommend you actually looking into how the US used institutionalization to foster both inhumane experiments on people that had no say otherwise. Institutions supported only a fraction of the population dealing with mental illness and yet they frequently solved the problem by drugging people into a stupor, or turning them into a shell of who they were before. The people there knew what they were doing did not solve the problem or help the people.
- jhbadger 4y ago
  Believe me, I'm well aware of that. But I'm also aware of the past of medical treatment in general which could also be presented as a horror show. Fortunately most people understand that they won't get their leg sawn off without anesthetic if they go to a hospital for treatment for a leg infection these days.
  - haswell 4y ago
    I’m trying to understand the point you’re trying to make here. This seems like a non-sequitur, but I could be misreading/fundamentally missing something. Yes, people generally understand that medical treatments are typically not unnecessarily barbaric these days (this is not always the case, even if we at least know that when painful treatments are required, they are actually useful). What does this say about the long-standing stigmas around mental health, both about the people who experience trouble and about the process of getting treatment? It seems like a vague analogy about progress over time, but to what end? How does knowing that I won’t feel a saw cutting through my leg change my understanding of mental health, either as a potential patient or as a curious person?
    - jhbadger 4y ago
      My point is that stories of the horrors of old-timey "insane asylums" bias people against modern mental hospitals which are not like that and are often the most appropriate way to treat serious mental illness.

fzeroracer 4y ago

No, that's not true of the past of 'everything' and I highly recommend you actually looking into how the US used institutionalization to foster both inhumane experiments on people that had no say otherwise. Institutions supported only a fraction of the population dealing with mental illness and yet they frequently solved the problem by drugging people into a stupor, or turning them into a shell of who they were before. The people there knew what they were doing did not solve the problem or help the people.

jhbadger 4y ago
Believe me, I'm well aware of that. But I'm also aware of the past of medical treatment in general which could also be presented as a horror show. Fortunately most people understand that they won't get their leg sawn off without anesthetic if they go to a hospital for treatment for a leg infection these days.
- haswell 4y ago
  I’m trying to understand the point you’re trying to make here. This seems like a non-sequitur, but I could be misreading/fundamentally missing something. Yes, people generally understand that medical treatments are typically not unnecessarily barbaric these days (this is not always the case, even if we at least know that when painful treatments are required, they are actually useful). What does this say about the long-standing stigmas around mental health, both about the people who experience trouble and about the process of getting treatment? It seems like a vague analogy about progress over time, but to what end? How does knowing that I won’t feel a saw cutting through my leg change my understanding of mental health, either as a potential patient or as a curious person?
  - jhbadger 4y ago
    My point is that stories of the horrors of old-timey "insane asylums" bias people against modern mental hospitals which are not like that and are often the most appropriate way to treat serious mental illness.