Asylum ~ Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals
Published in Documentary Blog
Skip to 1:03 for talk (Toured 70 Hospitals in 30 States)
For more than half the nation's history, vast mental hospitals were a prominent feature of the American landscape. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, over 250 institutions for the insane were built throughout the United States; by 1948, they housed more than a half million patients.
Sick: A Documentary
Published in Documentary Blog
This is a documentary about the mental health institutionalization of youth. It was completed as part of the social justice program at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It explores mental health institutions in the context of Irving Goffman's 'total institution' and looks at parallels between the institutionalization of youth in mental hospitals and the prison system.