Intentional Legal and Ethical Lapses of Asylum Scandals

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Asylums were meant to help people, but they quickly became the antithesis of their inception. Reading through Patricia Lubeck’s Asylum Scandals: Abuse, Torture, Corruption, and Murder in Minnesota’s State Hospitals, you see how these institutions had become houses of horrors.

Asylum Scandals by Patricia Lubeck gives a glimpse of the chilling reality that the author uncovered. These were not borne out of mistakes or accidents. These came from intentional cruelty and a broken system that allowed and, in some cases, encouraged terrible things to happen.

Intentional Legal and Ethical Lapses

Lubeck’s book focuses on the history of two of Minnesota’s oldest mental hospitals, St. Peter and Rochester. From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, these places turned into hells on earth, unleashing nightmares upon people who struggled with mental illnesses and some who didn’t.

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Harsher in Hindsight

When these hospitals first opened, they were vaunted for being righteous institutions, necessary for the holistic development of the mentally ill and for their integration within broader society. No longer would these people be treated inhumanely. Of course, these noble goals quickly fell apart.

The buildings meant to heal became like prisons, and the staff who were supposed to help often ended up hurting people. It wasn’t a sudden downfall; it was a slow slide into darkness caused by several major problems.

How Things Went Off the Deep End

The first signs that things were not going to end well were the fact that these hospitals were overcrowded. Their initial scope had been to be a safe haven for a small number of patients and grow from there, but the reality was that they were quickly filled in and far too much. There was little space for anyone, and the claustrophobia that developed among both patients and staff quickly became a debilitating factor for the hospitals’ continued upkeep. They were just one of many, crammed into dirty wards without basic comfort or privacy. Letting so many people in without enough resources wasn’t an accident; it was a choice that put numbers over human decency.

Exacerbating the situation was the lack of trained staff. Most of the hospitals’ wards and orderlies weren’t medical professionals. They were not even, at the baseline, kind and courteous. On average, they were overworked and ignorant of mental illnesses themselves, unaware or apathetic on how to properly care for their charges. So, when things got tough, they often resorted to punishment instead of help. Without proper training or anyone watching them, it was easy for them to cross the line from keeping order to causing harm. Not training these workers properly was a huge failure that led directly to abuse.

Perhaps even worse was the corrupt leadership in these hospitals. Lubeck’s book shows that the very people in charge often used their power for personal gain or to stay in control rather than helping the patients. Money meant for care disappeared, resources were wasted, and nobody was held accountable. When the people at the top are dishonest, the whole system rots, and the patients suffer the most. This was a deliberate betrayal, not an oversight.

Personal Horrors Revealed

Lubeck shares actual stories from patients—brave people who somehow survived unimaginable suffering. These aren’t just vague accusations but specific accounts of abuse, neglect, torture, and even murder. Patients faced “treatments” that were pure torture, like powerful water sprays that felt like drowning, crude electric shocks that caused immense pain, and lobotomies performed without care for the person. These weren’t attempts at healing; they were often punishments or dangerous experiments that caused lasting harm. Daily life was often filled with physical violence, a lack of basic needs, and constant fear. Words like “filth and carelessness” barely begin to describe the truly awful living conditions.

The accounts of murder, whether from direct violence or extreme neglect leading to death, are the most heartbreaking part. The fact that such crimes happened, often without investigation or being covered up, highlights how much-unchecked power asylum staff had and how terrifyingly little accountability there was.

These weren’t accidents; they were intentional legal and ethical lapses from a system that didn’t value human life and allowed brutal acts to happen freely.

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By bringing these painful stories to light, Lubeck makes sure that the voices of those who suffered are finally heard. It’s a stark warning from history: we must always be watchful to make sure that intentional abuses and broken systems like these never happen again in any place meant to care for people.

Asylum Scandals: Abuse, Torture, Corruption, and Murder in Minnesota’s State Hospitals is available on this website for purchase.