false 6633620 1 "Payne is a visual poet as well as an architect by training, and he has spent years finding and photographing these buildings—often the pride of their local communities and a powerful symbol of humane caring for those less fortunate. His photographs are beautiful images in their own right, and they also pay tribute to a sort of public architecture that no longer exists. They focus both on the monumental and the mundane, the grand facades and the peeling paint."<br /> —<b>Oliver Sacks</b>, <i>Asylum</i><br /> <br /> For more than half the nation's history, vast mental hospitals were a prominent feature of the American landscape. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, over 250 institutions for the insane were built throughout the United States; by 1948, they housed more than a half million patients. The blueprint for these hospitals was set by Pennsylvania hospital superintendant Thomas Story Kirkbride: a central administration building flanked symmetrically by pavilions and surrounded by lavish grounds with pastoral vistas. Kirkbride and others believed that well-designed buildings and grounds, a peaceful environment, a regimen of fresh air, and places for work, exercise, and cultural activities would heal mental illness. But in the second half of the twentieth century, after the introduction of psychotropic drugs and policy shifts toward community-based care, patient populations declined dramatically, leaving many of these beautiful, massive buildings—and the patients who lived in them—neglected and abandoned.<br /> <br /> Architect and photographer Christopher Payne spent six years documenting the decay of state mental hospitals like these, visiting seventy institutions in thirty states. Through his lens we see splendid, palatial exteriors (some designed by such prominent architects as H. H. Richardson and Samuel Sloan) and crumbling interiors—chairs stacked against walls with peeling paint in a grand hallway; brightly colored toothbrushes still hanging on a rack; stacks of suitcases, never packed for the trip home.<br /> <br /> Accompanying Payne's striking and powerful photographs is an essay by Oliver Sacks (who described his own experience working at a state mental hospital in his book Awakenings). Sacks pays tribute to Payne's photographs and to the lives once lived in these places, "where one could be both mad and safe." 6828012 book 30 9 2009 Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals total:11|5:4|4:5|3:1|2:1|1:0| 11 45 57 4 5 0 false false Tue Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 22:11:48 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 15:57:27 -0700 2009 Oliver Sacks, but in many ways the images speak for themselves. Payne highlights the grand, imposing ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 19:46:28 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 19:16:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 17:35:52 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 18:52:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 10:47:39 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 10:50:15 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Dec 02 14:41:49 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 02 14:41:49 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 22 10:03:47 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 10:03:47 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 16 11:09:23 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 11:09:23 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 10 17:16:41 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 17:16:41 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri Nov 06 11:50:22 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 11:50:22 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Nov 06 08:38:04 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 08:38:04 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 11:40:50 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 11:40:50 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 08:46:17 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 08:46:17 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 07:50:10 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 07:50:10 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 06:04:39 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 06:04:39 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 31 10:51:04 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 10:51:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 10:40:18 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 10:40:18 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 10:18:20 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 10:18:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 10:11:48 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 10:11:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 28 16:16:24 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 16:21:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 28 05:19:37 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 05:19:37 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6633620