Summary

• Mental health treatments have a dark history, with controversial therapies and abuse in old asylums around the world.
• Some haunted asylums, like Taunton State Hospital in Massachusetts and Haven Forest Asylum in Maryland, were known for their horrific treatment of patients.
• Many abandoned mental asylums around the world now serve as attractions for dark tourism, allowing visitors to explore the haunting history of mental health care in the past.

From mood and personality disorders to trauma and substance use, mental health is still a fragile and vague area that even psychiatrists cannot fully understand; an area subjected to numerous social stereotypes and stigma. Sadly, in the past, society did not recognize the importance or reality of mental health, so many patients, families, and staff suffered; not only did people with mental health issues struggle to cope with their everyday lives but also many of them were essentially locked away (and, in a number of cases, subjected to neglect and abuse).

Though mental health treatments have improved over the last few decades, abandoned asylums are like haunting ghosts that tell stories of dark times, experimental treatments, and terrifying violence. Insulin coma therapy, electroshock treatment, straitjackets, lobotomy; the list of controversial therapies goes on and on. Note that madness was considered mainly female, and many mothers with illegitimate children and even immigrants were simply dumped and forgotten in historic mental asylums. Some of these old asylums and hospitals are now abandoned places that are open to the public to explore (respectfully, of course).

For those with a curious mind and an interest in dark tourism, here are a number of creepy asylums around the world that look like torture chambers (and there are many more - such as Eloise Asylum in Michigan - that could have made the list). Most of these have long since closed down; however, sadly, some are still in operation.

UPDATE: 2024/01/24 21:02 EST BY AARON SPRAY

Learn About More Of The Worst Mental Asylums In History

There are many haunted mental asylums around the world. Many are in the United States, but there are many abandoned mental asylums with chilling tales found all across the globe. This list was updated and expanded with even more of the worst mental asylums in the world with dark, chilling histories.

12 Taunton State Hospital, Massachusetts (Originally The State Lunatic Hospital)

The haunted ruins of Taunton State Hospital are steeped in chilling stories

The Taunton State Hospital (State Lunatic Hospital) was one of the worst insane asylums in the US; it was the second state asylum in Massachusetts and was built when mental health was not well understood. It was first built in 1854 to accommodate around 250 patients, but it was later significantly expanded.

Over the years, a number of disturbing tales of some of its patients have been heard. It housed hundreds of psychiatric patients and even a couple of infamous serial killers, namely Jane Toppan and Anthony Santo. Unfortunately, innocent patients like veterans with brain injuries and people with Tourette's, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's were brought to the facility. Even women suffering from panic attacks, anxiety, post-partum depression, and even fatigue, were admitted.

Electroshock, solitary confinement, and even lobotomies were common at the facility. Patients at Taunton's not only suffered abuse and horrendous treatments but were also subjected to pseudo-sciences like phrenology, with some of these "sciences" continuing into the late 1940s. Today, the hospital, not to be confused with the new, modern-day hospital of the same name, is in ruins and is mostly demolished.

• Established: 1854
• Closed: 1975

11 Haven Forest Asylum, Maryland

Haven Forest Asylum is now abandoned and a popular destination for urban explorers

Though Forest Haven in Maryland was built as a symbol of progress and a place with music and art therapy programs, the facility slowly became a synonym for horror, violence, neglect, and abused rights, transforming into one of the worst mental institutions in the US. Even people with learning disabilities and physical problems were dumped and forgotten there.

As time went by, the facility focused less on treating people with physical and developmental disabilities; rather, it became a solution for removing them from the sight of the public. It wasn't just those with disabilities who were sent here, either; stories tell of women who were sent here for the crime of being left by their husbands.

Eventually, a class-action lawsuit, Evans, et al. vs. Washington, alleged the inhumane treatment at the facility violated patients' constitutional rights and brought to light the horrendous abuse they faced. A judge ordered the facility's closure in 1991 due to hundreds of suspicious deaths, sexual abuse, and medical incompetence, finally closing the door on what was perhaps the worst mental hospital in America at the time. Though this is one of the many abandoned sites that nature has taken over, the pain remains.

• Established: 1925
• Closed: 1991

10 Severalls Asylum, England

Severalls was one of the most chilling asylums in England, where patients endured padded cells and frontal lobotomies

One of the worst facts about mental health treatments in the past is that mental illnesses were considered a female problem. Many patients, mainly women, were subjected to experimental treatments and trial-error practices. And when we talk about patients, let’s not forget that victims of abuse and pregnant women without families were also considered mad. That was especially the case at Severalls in England. Although many patients here were shell-shocked soldiers after WW1, a number of women were sent to this asylum if they had been raped or gotten pregnant out of wedlock.

This was not a place where patients were sent to recover, and it had locked cells, padded cells, and even areas for experimental treatment such as frontal lobotomies - experiments that were common from the 1930s to the 1960s. However, these continued as late as the 1970s in some mental hospitals.

In recent decades, the derelict Severalls asylum became popular with visitors until the 120-acre site was sold in 2016. After this time, much of it was demolished to make way for over 1,000 homes.

• Established: 1913
• Closed: 1997

9 The Eastern State Hospital, Virginia

The Eastern State Hospital was the first of its kind in the United States and still operates at a new location in Williamsburg

The Eastern State Hospital was the first public facility in the United States built solely for the mentally ill. In fact, it predates the United States as it was built in 1773 in Williamsburg (then the capital of the Colony of Virginia). Sadly, the old hospital was rife with human rights violations and testimonials of mistreatment. Like many other mental facilities in the 18th and 19th centuries, the hospital wasn't focused on treating patients but instead isolating them from everyone else at a time when human sanity was determined via legal trials, not by medical professionals.

During its time, the facility had a terrible history of subjecting patients to horror and abuse. It had 24 cells with barred windows and reinforced doors, along with straw-filled mattresses, chamber pots, and iron shackles. At its peak, it had around 2,000 patients, many of whom were forced to wear straight jackets and remain chained and confined away in solitude. Reports say that some even were made to lay in coffin-like cribs stacked atop one another. There were even two dungeon-like cells underneath the first floor of the hospital.

Today, the old Eastern State Hospital is one of the top attractions in Colonial Williamsburg. At its peak, it had around 2,000 patients.

• Established: 1773
• Closed: 1990

8 Hart Island Lunatic Asylum, New York

With more than 1 million people buried on Hart Island, the asylum is not the only reason it is haunted

Many desperate women in the 19th century were shipped to Hart Island's Lunatic Asylum, one of the most hopeless places in the US (note that mentally unwell men were classed as "insane", whereas women received the title "lunatic", hence the facility's name).

The facility was built on the infamous Hart Island in NYC and was used for different purposes, such as a prisoner-of-war camp, a tuberculosis hospital, and a quarantine zone during the yellow fever epidemic. Note that today the island is used as a burial ground and is considered by some to be one of the creepiest cemeteries around the world.

• Established: 1885
• Closed: The island was slowly abandoned from 1967-1977

7 Danvers State Hospital, Massachusetts

Straitjackets, electroshock therapy, lobotomy, missing patients, and other horrors occurred here

If you think that the Hippocratic Oath can stop doctors at mental hospitals from committing outrageous acts, think twice! The past of the Danvers State Hospital, Massachusetts, now converted to cozy apartments, is haunting.

Overcrowding at the hospital became a huge problem; as time went by, patients were forced to walk naked, live in their own filth, and endure terrible treatments, such as shock therapy, straight jackets, lobotomy, and isolation. Shockingly, in 1939, the facility had 2,360 patients, 278 of whom died at the hospital that same year.

Fast forward to the 1980s, the time when the hospital was near closure, a number of patients disappeared (allegedly 115 teenage patients, to be precise). When questioned, staff apparently claimed the missing had been "assigned to new doctors", and nobody knew of their whereabouts. The missing patients were never found, and they remain a mystery today. The hospital was later closed in 1992 due to mental health budget cuts.

• Established: 1878
• Closed: 1992

6 Willard Asylum For The Chronic Insane, New York

One of the most haunted abandoned hospitals in New York State

Though the Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane was initially designed to improve patient care and satisfaction, it became one of the worst places in the US and perhaps a dark contender for the worst mental asylum in the world. Patients were simply dumped there. Even entire buildings were devoted to electro-shock therapy, and patients were also forced to endure freezing ice baths to “calm” them. An estimated 50,000 patients were admitted to the asylum throughout its operation, but almost half of them died there.

Years later, experts found hundreds of suitcases of people waiting for freedom - freedom that never came. Today, it remains one of the darkest places in America, and the facility's cemetery is the resting place of many thousands of bodies, all buried in unmarked graves.

• Established: 1869
• Closed: 1995

5 The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, West Virginia

The haunted corridors and rooms of this asylum are a favorite for ghost tours

Surrounded by green fields and aromatic trees, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was supposed to be a safe place for patients, including children. Nevertheless, with the increasing number of patients stigmatized by society, the situation worsened.

Hundreds of patients were forced to live in freezing rooms, while others were locked in cages to free some space. Many were also forced to undergo controversial treatments, such as solitary confinement, shock therapy, lobotomies, and more. The grounds are said to be haunted still today as a result of the number of people who died at the asylum. Today, visitors can take ghost tours of the site.

• Established: 1865
• Closed: 1944

People can visit the asylum today on a history or ghost tour, which starts from $35 per person.

4 The Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy

One of the most haunted asylums in Italy, and visitors can explore it today

The ruins of the Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra in Italy remind people of darker times. People were sent there not only for minor emotional problems but for political crimes. Patients were subjected to controversial treatments, such as insulin therapy and electroshock. In the 60s, the hospital became one of the largest in Europe, with two toilets for every 200 people.

It is just one of many abandoned and eerie sites in Europe that people can visit today and is open from 10 am daily.

• Established: 1888
• Closed: 1978

3 Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea

The Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital proves there are haunted asylums all around the world

No doubt asylums across the globe are creepy enough to inspire horror movies. The abandoned Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital in South Korea, for instance, was one of the scariest mental hospitals in the world, so much so that it inspired one of the most successful Asian horror movies ever made.

According to stories, many patients at the hospital mysteriously died, which eventually led to the hospital being shut down. Some people believe that the hospital owner murdered these patients and was accused of keeping them hostage.

• Established: 1982
• Closed: 1996

2 Psychiatric Hospitals In Ghana

Ghana is a fairly stable and democratic English-speaking country, but patients with mental disabilities are treated poorly

Though mental health treatments have improved over the past decades, the truth is that many mental health patients are still targets of abuse and neglect, which is especially the case in Ghana.

Patients in Ghana, for example, reportedly spend ages shackled together in inhumane living conditions. Alarmingly, even people with substance abuse can be sent to a mental health institution.

• Location: West Africa

1 Federico Mora Hospital, Guatemala

Sedated, shackled, and neglected patients and ongoing violence made this the most dangerous hospital in the world

Though mental care services are much more developed today, the reality in many places across the world is scary. In Guatemala, for instance, patients at Federico Mora Hospital are not only neglected but abused by staff.

According to BBC, the Federico Mora Hospital is perhaps the worst mental hospital in the world in the modern day, where patients are shackled, sedated, and ignored. In 2014, the hospital had 340 patients - including 50 violent and mentally disturbed criminals.

• Established: 1983
• Closed: Not applicable; it's still in operation