This was not a psychiatric asylum. It was a tuberculosis sanitorium.

Remember that this was a tuberculosis sanitorium, where small children and adults died from TB. The sanitoriums are no longer needed and disintegrate because man has found a cure for the disease, if we choose to use it. The architectural elements and miscellaneous objects probably remain because memories of the dead and dying are not pleasant, and we don't want to return there to pick up unimportant material objects. If we let the disease once again take hold, these sanitoriums may take on new meaning.

Food for thought.