The Glore Psychiatric Museum

We made it to St. Joseph today; it's supposed to be the last warm day for awhile, so we grabbed the opportunity for a motorcycle ride. We did sort of a whirlwind tour of some museums; on Sundays, they're all only open from 1 PM to 5 PM, so that limited us, since we always strive to get home while it's still daylight when we're on the bike.

The most interesting of the museums we saw today was the Glore Psychiatric Museum.

It's unbelievable how inhumanely the mental patients were treated all through the 1800's, and even on through the 1900's; really, they were punished for behavior over which they had no control, as if they were criminals. Less than ten per cent of them ever got out once they were commited.

I found a website three pages long that tells, in words and pictures, some of the things Cliff and I saw today; if you're interested, click HERE.

You can click on any of these pictures to make them larger.

One poor lady had swallowed all these things over a period of time. She died on the operating table.

This is the hollow wheel; evidently people thought it was good for patients to tread this thing endlessly, like a hamster in a wheel.

Oh sure, that's gonna help a mentally ill lady.

Or this.

Unbelievable.