The Dark Origins of Modern Psychiatry

Before they were hospitals, mental asylums functioned more like prisons designed to hide the mentally ill from public view. These grim institutions prioritized locking people away over providing any medical care.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, society often viewed mental health struggles as a permanent failure of character rather than a medical condition. Asylums were built in remote locations to ensure patients remained isolated from the rest of the world. Conditions inside were frequently horrific, marked by overcrowding and neglect rather than therapy. It took centuries of reform to transform these warehouses of suffering into the medical psychiatric facilities we recognize today.