If you go into the woods today...

[Headbanger]

Work frequently takes me to interesting places, Today we spent a few hours at NZ's most notorious mental hospital. It was as oppressive as I expected, Though the Government in all its wisdom let all the buildings fall into ruin, making it pretty much worthless before selling it for a pittance.

Place has been heavily vandalised, Sheep and bird shit everywhere. Gorse is over running some of the grounds.

I've attached a few pics, Just because its a place few people get to see, well,few sane people anyway. It probably helps to imagine people screaming from electroshock therapy without pain medication to get the full effect.

[98tls]

Creepy eh,if those walls could talk,fair bit of misery gone on there methinks.

[Usarka]

Fuck thanks, there goes years of therapy and repression.

[noobi]

similar to the abandoned mental hospital in kingseat
now some of it has been bought and turned into Spookers, should so the same there
Is that in Wanganui?

[Headbanger]

Couple more.

[Headbanger]

similar to the abandoned mental hospital in kingseat
now some of it has been bought and turned into Spookers, should so the same there
Is that in Wanganui?

Lake Alice, Its near Marton/Bulls.

Bad place, They electrocuted kids without any pain medication,Well after most other countries stopped doing it, Thats torture not a cure , Fucked up a lot of kids who just had slight behavioural problems.

[Hitcher]

Lake Alice. I was part of the crew that made hay there back in the summer of '78. It should be demolished, rather than remaining standing as a silent monument to crimes against humanity.

[jrandom]

I've met a few folk in my time who could do with a good old-fashioned electrocutin'.

[Headbanger]

Lake Alice. I was part of the crew that made hay there back in the summer of '78. It should be demolished, rather than remaining standing as a silent monument to crimes against humanity.

I agree, Though I do work for a demolition company.....

[naphazoline]

I agree, Though I do work for a demolition company.....

ok...that answers my question.

i was gonna say,what sort of job takes you to such a fucked up place?

[laserracer]

Hell i bet its creepy at night

[laserracer]

Anyone up for a swim in the pool around midnight........NOT

[Timber020]

We were driving in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania, looking for a place to stop and make some lunch. There was a side road that lead up an overgrown tree lined driveway to a big brick multi storied victorian styled abandoned building. Bottom windows boarded up, top ones broken with curtains being blown in and out gently by the breeze.

In big letters in front, Asylum.


Bright cheerful sunny day in summer, and we only walked half way round before we all (4 of us) felt the need to find somewhere else to have lunch. Felt like a horror movie in the making. WISH I had taken photos.

[Paul in NZ]

Hey it looks a brighter prospect than Wellington Hospital... Um - could I book Vicki in?

[slofox]

I worked in one such place in the early 70's (not L.A.). In many ways, not as bad as we all think. In other ways, much worse than we think.....'twas a strange mixture.......I would have to say that some of the loonies were more sane than some of the staff........but there were a few total nutters in there as well. One dude was caught strangling his mother who had come to visit him.....but then, there was a certain school of thought that perhaps she needed to be throttled anyway.....actually that guy used to scare shit out of me even when he was locked up......Lake Alice was used as a threat to the naughty boys in the secure ward..."you don't pull ya head in son, we'll send ya to Lake Alice!!!!" It had a fearsome rep in those days......
I never saw ECT used as a punishment or in an abusive way. I once accompanied a guy to ECT - which he had asked to receive I might add - and he was given a fast acting general for the procedure. It was used sparingly by then and only with agreement from the patient, at least in that particular hospital.
I also met a few patients who were there to beat various legal raps - like homocide for example.....one very well known accused was there after a long and arduous trial where he was lucky to get the insanity plea accepted. He used to run the entire stores section for the whole hospital....hardly a loony.
For many of the inmates I met, it was a place of security - somewhere where the world was kept at bay, somewhere where they received the support they needed. For some, a place to escape the responsibilities of life in the rat race. It was not all bad. Neither was it all good. Like I said, a strange mixture....