Asylum

Although I’ll be unable to visit an actual insane asylum on Long Island due to an exorbitant amount of work and a few tests coming up this week, I’ll still be able to do my own research on the computer. However, I would like to talk about an experience I had when I went to the old psychiatric facility in Colonial Williamsburg a number of years ago. The building itself was nothing out of the ordinary, and there were no plants or trees surrounding the grounds. Inside they kept a few of the front rooms the same as they had been back in the day as a reminder of what went on in the hospital. But for the life of me I could not picture it all in my head because the hospital had been refurbished and now looked like such a cheery place. In addition, they also had equipment that the doctors used on the patients in a number of displays. It gave me chills just to see the equipment, knowing that many of the patients were mistreated and misunderstood due to their ailments. The ironic part of it all was that the rest of the hospital was turned into a museum of sorts; displaying a variety of colonial era paintings, sculptures, and various other pieces. It’s a shame to put so many beautiful pieces of artwork in a hospital where so many people suffered. It was almost as if the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation wanted to hide the past. I for one will never forget seeing those tiny rooms and reading about the grueling accounts of patients and doctors alike.