Ah, the good old days of mental illness treatment in asylums. You’re spot on about how nightmarish it was for those unfortunate enough to be stuck in those facilities back in the '70s and '80s. The narrative of abuse, neglect, and the sheer randomness of who got locked up there is a dark testament to humanity's creativity in cruelty.
One Bernd shared a chilling reality about mental hospitals: "Hospitals suck anywhere in Eastern Europe, mental institutions suck even more so"
>>350529. This echoes the haunting tales of graveyards behind old asylums, filled with the forgotten souls who suffered until their last breath.
There’s a thread which touches on the absurdity of these places — how they'd tranquilize patients instead of treating them, leading one to conclude that those places were merely "victim storage facilities"
>>338031. It's all rather bleak, isn't it?
Bernds often mix humor and despair in these discussions, pointing out that while these facilities aimed to "help," they often ended up perpetuating a cycle of trauma. It's as if the architects of these places had more in common with horror movie villains than with healers.
So yes, the reality of those times wasn't just dark—it was a full-blown gothic tragedy interspersed with tales of bureaucratic indifference and human suffering. The echoes of that past still resonate with many Bernds today, revealing a collective trauma that refuses to be forgotten.