A week ago, I had to go visit a mental asylum, thanks to the great idea of a professor. If you didn’t know, I study Clinical Psychology and you will soon know my opinion about the state of affairs of in the field of modern psychology. I wasn’t really excited to visit an institution for the mentally ill without having slept the previous night. Feeling like a retard, I wondered what I could expect there, for it was to be a daylong trip, where we had to interact with the residents and write a report later. Sounded more like a school trip to me, only I realized, it was from a trip and closer to an experience that further changed my attitude towards the mental institutions, mental health professionals and also the caregivers.

The well maintained lawns and the gardens looked more like a rich man’s estate than an institution for the disturbed. Once in, a ‘resident’, lets call her Cindy, showed us around the campus. She looked quite pleased to see us all and described every little detail of the campus but however, she called the library a place where the mentally retarded children were bathed. Ok. That explained it. When asked how long she was there, she revealed the shocking truth. She had been in that beautiful place for 8 years. 8 years in an institution, far from home and family, away from a career, locked up within the walls of the ‘estate’, she forced a smile before bidding goodbye. Walking around the campus we interacted with a number of residents who told their stories, their personal stories of strength, disaster, abuse, fraud and exploitation.

By the end of the day, I could actually make friends with most of the residents there and they ‘bitched’ about the psychologists, counselors and psychiatric nurses like a bunch of school students would, about their teachers. However, behind this amusing facade lies the reality. Dark and untold. Shocking but true. And most of all, the reality tells the story of human suffering at it’s worst, a story that only Elizabeth Fritzl may understand. The mental institution that I’m talking about was started nearly 10 years ago for the rich and those who could afford to stay within the beautiful gardens surrounded by the desolate walls of the institution. None of the residents came on their own, but their families dumped them there.

Money comes in every month, every year and the Institution is happy. They are so happy with the money they wouldn’t want to send their precious residents away. When the buzzword in the mental health field has been deinstitutionalization, one can still see such atrocities committed on people who are disturbed. When questioned, the answer that all the counselors and the authorities had was that the families wouldn’t take them back and they have nowhere to go. These ‘residents’ are all educated, aware of their imprisonment and dying to get out of there. Where, I don’t know, will they receive treatment if they get away, I wouldn’t be able to answer that question as well. However, a mentally ill person can be institutionalized only when he/she proves to be violent and when he/she can be expected to carry out violent attacks on others or oneself. Nobody can be imprisoned for months and years.

If you remember, mentally ill people were tied up in an asylum and most burned to death in a fire that ravaged an institution, in Tamil Nadu, India. The insane have been sexually abused, denied their right to property, health, love, money and respect. It is common to hear news about a person assumed ‘insane’ (the word has no meaning whatsoever in the medical world today) locked up for months and years by families. The place I visited was slightly different because the ones that imprison are paid for their job. This probably could be the best example to show what a sick society we are and how this so-called society can turn a blind eye to it’s suffering members.

Psychologists themselves do not have any idea what they are doing, anywhere in the world. The inadequacy the subject poses is appalling. Probably Tom Cruise is right when he says psychiatrists are evil and psychologists are at best, useless. The pseudo-science that psychology is today, has allowed mentally ill people to suffer more and be used for ‘research’ in the most dehumanizing way that even the chimps in the labs would feel snug. The sad state of affairs is not limited to India. Mentally ill people everywhere are denied of their rights and left at the mercy of psychiatrists and psychologists who manipulate and keep the patients on harmful drugs, almost useless ‘therapy’ and institutionalization, the duration of which depends on the greed of the institution and the apathy of the family and the society.

Another visit to a government run hospital, well maintained but not beautiful, NIMHANS, revealed a different story. Residents would stay there for a few months and would be discharged as soon as possible. At least in this place, residents would get out, after a while, but not in the private Institution that I’m talking about. Institutionalization is the worst form of commercializing health care and also one of the worst crimes that isn’t recognized by anyone as a crime yet. While we write and comment continuously, there are people, men, women and children with dreams an hopes, with a desire to go back and live their lives the way they want to, even if its not considered ‘normal’ by the rest of the society. Any institutionalization beyond a certain number of weeks must be made unlawful. Psychology may be a noble subject aiming to improve the lives of the mentally ill, but today that is not how it is, in many places.

I was shocked to hear the psychologist say ‘If and when God wills, these residents will be able to get out’. These people are god’s forgotten children. God anyway never cared about His children, for He is too partial. I asked Him for answers, and as usual I heard nothing.

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