The usage of the terms "mental hospital" vs. "psychiatry hospital" seems to have changed over the years, but this one is surely more of the first case, i.e. locking the most difficult ones up entirely. So have the trends, where the early 20th century applied a fairly instrumental view to psychiatric disorders. On a large scale, people were institutionalized in large units which were more like prisons. The pictures below are from the legendary "fixed pavilion" at Säter hospital, which was opened in 1912. The unit was designed for the most demanding patients and as the name implies, this was a de-facto lockup for life. It became a state-of-the-art view and over the years to come, a very large number of similar units were built over the country.

In 1967 some 40.000 patients were held in closed psychiatry care in Sweden and after a dark period of abuse to mental patients, where sterilizations, lobotomies and ECTs were carried out extensively, a gradual change in attitude could be seen. As new generations of psychiatric drugs were introduced during the 1960s which somewhat changed the approach to sedative treatments. During the 1970s, a more soft approach started to replace the older and more authoritarian views and I think it is a fair guess that when Milos Forman's film "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" hit the cinemas in 1975, the fate of the "old institutions" was set - in the public outcry of rage and the general shift in attitude in the right of the patient, the "old institutions" were doomed.

A trend towards integration of patients into the normal society ultimately led to a reform where most of the large "old institutions" were closed. Without being too cynical, it seems to have coincided with a general desire to save money in the healthcare system. Today, less than 8000 patients are held into closed psychiatry care.

This magnificent building from 1912 was emptied in 1989 and was for some reason left to deteriorate. There is a bit of a ghastly feeling when walking through these corridors, like if the walls have been tainted with the emotions being locked in for such long periods.
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