Chilling new exhibition about Bedlam goes behind the scenes at Britain’s notorious asylum for the insane
The "secular hell" that has inspired hundreds of horror films and books
CHAINED to the wall, restrained by straitjackets and considered lunatics: these are the conditions the inmates of Bethlem Psychiatric institute faced on a daily basis.
A new exhibition, gives visitors an insight into life in the hospital known as "secular hell."
Built in 1247, the Bethlem hospital is London's oldest mental institution, that still operates today.
Infamous in its time, it has inspired numerous horror books and films across the years.
The exhibition tells the real-life stories of patients battling troubling mental illness that led them to believe they had spikes sticking out of their body or those that feared the empty between letters in words.
It also informs visitors of the person that took to rolling down hallways "like a stone" or slithering up stairs, because they imagined that their body would break if they moved.
Researched by Eva Kot’átková, these haunting stories are all featured in the new exhibition.
Amongst the testimonials, of life in the hospital that was dubbed "bedlam" and "secular hell," there are also drawings, pieces of artwork and plans of patients and officials.
Some of these come from James Norris, a patient who was chained to the wall by his neck for over ten years, only released when he was discovered by visiting officials.
Embroidered letters to Queen Victoria are also amongst the preserved artefacts.
They were created by a woman who had delusions of an affair.
These intricate plans were drawn by James Tilly Matthew.
Despite the precision and detail in these plans for the new building of the asylum, he was described as an "incurable lunatic" by asylum staff.
Created when the hospital was forced to move location, one of three times , James' plans show his aspirational vision of an institution where patients could be given green spaces to walk around, vegetable plots and care for the elderly.
The Bethlem exhibition which also shows the X-rays and straitjackets used, transports visitors back to times where mental illness was not considered a medical status, but a legal one.
Ill patients were stripped of all rights and deemed insane.
The curator of the exhibition, Mike Jay, says that Bethlem is a perfect example of societies changing attitudes towards mental health.
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“History shows us that the line between sanity and insanity is impossible to fix,” he said.
“It’s constantly shifting driven by changes in medical understanding, the law and public health policy — all of which reflect changing attitudes in society as a whole. It’s an immensely complex story but Bethlem hospital — London’s great asylum — has witnessed it all and provided us with our narrative thread.”
With reported cases of depression on the rise, mental illness remains an important issue today.
“The history of the asylum is typically portrayed as the stuff of nightmares to be contrasted with the enlightened present day,” said Jay.
“But we wanted to take a different approach by drawing out the continuities between history and the present to better understand the challenges that face us today and in the future.
“As we emerge into the present we find a world in which mental health has become everyone’s story; a preoccupation of modern culture at large. In the wake of the asylum we no longer believe that mental health can be quarantined from the world yet each of the asylum’s incarnations has left its mark.”
The exhibition, which is open from September 15th 2016 to January 15th 2017, also includes plans for a completely different sort of asylum where people have access to tree houses, kittens and bakeries called "madlove."
There are numerous interactive exhibits such as a a twitter bot known as .
Barbara Rodriguez Munoz, the Wellcome Collection curator has said that the exhibition was designed to re-think what asylums should look like in the modern world.
“Through the rise and fall of the mental asylum run a series of recurring questions that we struggle to address: The balance between biomedical and psychosocial approaches to therapy, the tension between protection and restraint and the conflict between keeping a safe haven from the world or reintegrating people from society,” she said.
“We believe that understanding these pendulum swings in the history of mental health can give us clues to navigate the world that has succeeded it.”