Remnants Of Children

what is there to say?

How eerie. I find this picture stirring, like unfinished business.

Wow, this picture is rather disturbing, isn't it? It makes me want to go and rescue that poor Teddy.

Is that an LP of Martin Luther King speeches?

Kind of shocking at the "personal" aspect of it all. Makes me really wonder what kind of people "Chris" and "Tyrone" really were.

My thoughts exactly. Like where are they now and how are they doing. i'm sure its safe to say they are beyond teddy bear years...but how did the rest of their lives turn out?

i wonder what would they say from their pasat if they saw this once again.

I wonder why things were just left like this...I mean,it's not like it was abandoned in a hurry,like Pompei or something.
Yea,makes you wonder who these people were,if they had some kind of joy in their lives despite the misery in these hospitals.I hope they had.

Makes me wonder whatever happened to Chris and Tyrone.

It's sad ... I wonder how the rest of their lives turned out, not just Chris' and Tyrone's, but all the children that were there. But, what I think is most disturbing of all, is the lack of love, it's like their childhood was just tossed aside, no one cared enough to keep these little mementos.

Why the hell didn't the bear go with its owner?

For the past 10 to 20 years at facilities like these they have consistently bought LOTS of leisure materials - not just one per person like in Oliver Twist where the kid is always crying for more. :-) As a matter of fact, sometimes they have so much of this stuff that the safety officer comes and makes them get rid of some of it because there is so much that it's a fire hazard for exiting the building. Just because YOU love the little stuffed bear doesn't mean that the little stuffed bear was a particularly loved personal belonging of anyone in particular. It might have been just one of the many toys and materials that were set out for all the folks to play with. Whenever someone moves out we have to take every single thing they have ever owned and account for it by inventory. You may see some discarded art projects or communal books people used, but they are very strict about getting peoples' personal belongings out with them or there is hell to pay.

As far as everyone being without love, what an odd thought. Just because someone lived in an institution doesn't mean they lived without love. Some did, most didn't, but that's sort of like normal life, isn't it? Some of us get dealt the good cards and get swell and loving families and live like Paris Hilton and others of us end up with Norman Bates' mother as a close relative.

P.S. As a former school teacher, if parents kept every trinket and art project their kids made that I sent home with them they would need an extra house just to store all that crap. :-)

Not to be too critical, but lynns writing reminds me of the nurses in that damn mental hospital I was in. Always had a perfect, beurocratic, and PC answer to everything. Sure, it is easy to look at everything from a cold and clinical standpoint, but lets try to think about things from the perspective of the patients, afterall, THEY are the ones who really matter in these situations, not the staff, or the taxpayers, but the patients, who have no say in their wellbeing or lives while being inplaced in these institutions. This is a very harrowing and disturbing image.

Hmm Lynne usually makes very good points but I can see Vivekas view on this aswell.I don't think either is right or wrong.

The point is to look at BOTH sides instead of wallowing in pity or excusing it all.

Enter one Knight in Shining Armor. Add one soap box. Working with the MR/MH population is difficult. Patience is a must, as well as the need to be alert in some cases. AS with ANY population, you may have to deal with violence, threats upon your person, and verbal and physical abuse. Being handicapped should not make you a pariah; there is violence in both worlds. Also, not everyone who works with these folks is abusive. Where I worked, client abuse was not tolerated. Granted, things in the past used to be bad for MR/MH people, and they WERE treated poorly, but things have come a long way in the field. Normalcy is what the State screams on a continuous basis. Which is great on paper, and goes a long way in protecting clients' rights. But, I have "lived" cases where some of my people were coddled and treated like gold to the point that it was ridiculous. They wanted for nothing and were rarely held accountable for their actions (and some of these were high-functioning adults). That is not normalcy.

Aw, {Twug}

:-)

This is scary, I had the examt same jogging bear growing up as a child.

This picture is really really depressing

I agree with viveka, lynne seems intent on sticking to the book and I believe looks through these images with very different eyes from the rest of us. I find that fascinating, that she can see such an image and think not of the loss and sadness of it all, but just 'fire-hazard crap thats left behind.' Being a school teacher doesn't give you the insight into whether or not these patients had love, but only the patients themselves. Lynne's comments appear to be as regulated and sterile as the tiles in the pictures.

Mmmm Kay! NOT!

That's me - just a piece of crap! :-) Thank you, soul of a serpent - you are aptly self-named.

Hey - I have a funny thought. Maybe I should work in one of these places to see what it's like. Maybe I'll have a more realistic expectation of what's out there. Maybe I'll learn some pity. Maybe I'll learn to feel sorry for everybody. Maybe I'll learn what's it's like to spend time in a hell hole like this where all these poor, pathetic unloved people just need someone to come and give them a big warm hug, where staff treat them badly and steal their little fuzzy dogs and stuffed bears and then when they throw these people out, they leave their cherished toys behind - just one last cruelty as they spit on those who leave.

Sounds better than the truth - and there's lots more to wallow in. And now there's someone to feel superior to - those cruel staff and the cruel institutions. While folks sit in their nice houses and petition against "those people" moving into their neighborhood and vote against increased taxes so "those people" can have staff who are paid more than a mere pittance and so "those people" can have a better life. Easier to poke at the people who took care of them and kept them alive than to do it yourself.

I am positive you are one of the people who took all the special ed kids under your wings when you were in school and made sure no one ever made fun of them. I am sure you are out there now donating your time and energy to making their lives better, rather than just sitting in front of your computer and feeling superior to those of us who actually do this work. I think you may be looking at the wrong side of the keyboard when you use the term "sterile".

Hey now, ~Me isn't a piece of crap and you aren't either! :D

The problem is perception. If 9 out of 10 nurses are caring, loving, and give their all to their patients, but 1 is bad, you will remember that 1, not those 9. In reality 9 out of 10 is being conservative. I would bet that maybe 1 or 2 out of 500 are really bad people, but those are the only ones you hear about. Every nurse I've met (and I've been crazy my whole life, so I bet I've met more than you) has truly cared, and given their all to help their patients. These aren't people who go off to work for their 8 hours, then go home and forget all about work for the night. These are people who really give a shit about their work. They do their hardest to help people who really don't want help, and are willing to fight back for no reason. Can you even imagine what that's like?

Oh, and these "poor innocent people" who are locked up against their wills? Chances are, if they are in their, it is for their own good. Sometimes people can't be trusted to make good decisions for themselves, so someone else has to step in. Would you leave a deaf person in a room with a fire alarm that didn't flash as well as make noise? Some of these people would hurt or kill themselves, either intentionally or accidentally, if they were left on their own.

I guess it just comes down to living in the present, which too few people are willing to do. Were there abuses in the past? Sure, there were probably a lot. But those days are over. Now we are smart enough to watch and prevent abuse, and to keep those people who would be abusive away from people who would easily be taken advantage of.

And as for sticking to the book, I would be willing to bet that Lynne bends or breaks the rules if the rules interfere with her ability to treat a patient. Again, not to abuse the patient, to help the patient, because she cares about them.

Sorry for thread-jacking, but I can't stand people who are too stupid to see what is right in front of their faces. To make up for it: Motts, this is magnificent. As you can tell, it definitely provokes an emotional response, which is the point of all good art.

Ack! I didn't mean that ~Me was a piece of crap, just ME! Damn you, ~Me, you sure make all this corn-fusing! 8`-)

Anyways, Sketch, thankee kindly. Yes, I do get in trouble for bending the rules on a very regular basis. There is a major irony in bureaucracies doing "people" work. There is a way to run a large organization and there is a way to run a "people" organization, and they do not target the same goals. To be a "people person" in a bureaucracy means you have to fight every day, but it's a good fight and an honest fight - it's a fight to get the needed resources to the people who truly need them and to fix the bureaucracy to work for the same goals. You do that and you're a winner all around.

In my humble piece of crap opinion. :-)

I am a piece of crap...for I ain't changing me name for nobody not even you dear Lynne, Sorry.

Omg, this is so beautiful but so sad. Atleast the kids had something to do and now we can remember them.

I think Lynne got a bit too much stick for her comments, all she was stating is the facts, Motts photography can stir up all kinds of emotions he has a great talent in doing this it gets us all thinking what happened to patients staff ect, thats part of the wonderful world of urban exploration. I can look at a picture like this and see various angles like, how sad where did they end up, OR, they didnt give a shit about their personal items anyway, the things Ive seen kids throw away and not care for and im not talking rich priveliged brats either, thats the wonderful thing, think what you want to think we havent all got to think the same.

Oh my gawd. I hava a bear (I got it when I was born, and I still have it) who looks just like the one on the picture! Only the colors are different...

I always find scary things like this... I mean, toys left by children.

It seems that the little owner of this green teddy has just forgot his stuffed friend on the table and will soon return to catch it...

What always buzzles me in these is the stuff that gets left behind. I mean, if I was to abandon a place I would clean and empty it, not just leave everything to where I last needed it.

I just have one question....why do people always think that the people who lived in these places were mistreated? That the staff was cruel and made the kid leave his bear. " NO! you can't take your favorite bear with you. It will stay here forever and one day someone will take a picture of it laying where you left it and people all over the world will see it and they will know how horrible your life is! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The kid who left this behind more then likely forgot it within a week. How often do you have to tell your "normal" child to do something? We have put toys away and then taken them out 2 years later and the kids think they are new. If the kid who owned this bear cried over it, I am sure it wasn't for very long.
Lynne, I love reading your posts. They give us a great insight.

The thing I am wondering about is the bra/bikini top laying on the table....What's up with that???

Em . . . . Well, I am guessing you are going to have to ask Dr. Sketch about this . . . . =8-o

Sorry, I was in surgery, doing a very delicate panty removal... So, um, what was the question? :D Right, right, ok, the bikini top (probably not a bra, doesn't look like there is enough support) was probably left behind long after this place closed... I imagine that two younger people were in there fooling around, somebody walked in, they bolted, forgetting this relic to sit undisturbed until now. But that's my over-active imagination going; anyone else wanna take a shot?

your talking about [name removed per site policy] right the one that got shut down due to diseases and such cuz if you are that place is so haunted...

There are several ways to look at a picture. Art or reality. Looking at that picture with an art eye i have different feelings than looking just as a reportage on a newspaper. That's the difference. Lynne you are right, but it's beautiful to let ourself go on the wings of fantasy given by a picture. Otherwise it'd better to take a look to a medical enciclopedia, with no emotions or feelings. Of course we also have to know what's fantasy and what's reality :-)

"Fantasy" is one thing. Making assumptions about what happened in these places and then stating them publicly can be a disservice to the people who lived there and to the people who worked there. There is enough that is emotionally charged about having a psychiatric disability without turning it against the people who lived there and their staff. That is a form of abuse in itself, by caricaturizing the people involved and making assumptions without really learning about them.

There's a lot of pain and sadness involved in cancer wards (and a LOT more death), but you don't get the same comments from people with the lookie-loos and few people are chasing around looking for orbs on deserted cancer wards because it's a little more clear that it's bizarre and tasteless and intrusive. If people would turn it around and think about what it would be like to have been on a cancer ward and then years later find out that people are running around where you received treatment, looking for ghosts and making assumptions about "the cruel people who did that God-awful archaic torturous chemotherapy on those poor pitiful wretches" it might make it look a little different. People think it's OK to intrude on the privacy of people who had psychiatric problems but are generally a little more reticent to stare at someone who had an arm amputated or who lost a child in childbirth. It's not quite a double standard, but it's danged close.

But what the heck do I know? :-)

re to Lynne:
As i said before you are right. I'm not a ghost hunter and i don't see haunted things on every corner. I'm here cause i love photography and i have a deep respect about the people who lived in those places. I'm italian, but my wife is from NJ and her father died of cancer on 2000 after pain and sufferings and she has been always by his side till the end, she took care of him at home alone, i know what it means. This is just to bring some light on my thoughts. Other than this, i love to enjoy these wonderful pics. :-)

I could name some people that aren't FIT to be parents so the kids would probably benefit being away from them. I think when a child is very little, they show so much love and want so much attention that any misbehavior, on an adults part, they are easy to forgive. You don't realize ALOT of things until you get older.

lynne.... dont you think that art is in the eye of the beholder, as a former mental health student i can understand your point of veiw on this subject matter..... but the history of mental health practice IS one of the nastiest sides of medicine and horrid and terrible thing DID occur, granted this was often the result of incredibly low funding and low staffing combined with a lack of understanding on how to treat patients, regardless, it did happen. The best we can do is to learn from the past, admit that mistakes were made and work towards better care for those who require it........ and whos to say the teddy bear wasnt a beloved chum to some child?

My post was written a month or two back when I still had enough energy to try to deal with peoples' negativity and lack of attempt to see that there was also a positive side to the field, both historically and presently. I have spent many hours hoping to get people to see a more rounded picture and not a one-sided picture, such as is commonly portrayed in the media and only attended to by most of the public if there is something gruesome or terrible involved. Like everything else, the field has changed as our knowledge base has increased.

However, I admit that I have had so many people try to argue me out of this larger more objective viewpoint that I don't care anymore. Yes, we have had so much in the way of "art is in the eye of the beholder" here that I might as well join along with the rest of the people. So I offer this as my humble part toward apologizing for trying to paint a larger, more hopeful picture of where we have been and where I hope to see us going. I will now stop trying to be objective and will start demonizing the entire field and admitting that there was never anything good that happened ever even one time no I'm not kidding what a bunch of evil-doers bad bad people shame on you all.

Yes, that cute little bear belonged to some perfectly fabulous child who would have been fine if he had not been kidnapped by the bad institution staff http://www.opacity.us/...ows.htm#comment_5907 (or placed there by an obviously unloving family because who but a pervert would abandon their child to such a hellhole? http://www.opacity.us/...ib.htm#comment_5334.) This child was starved and forced to work out in the "torture room of weight reduction," http://www.opacity.us/...ss.htm#comment_27916 and then they dangled the teddy bear in front of him, sneering that he would never see it again.http://www.opacity....ange_bathroom.htm#comment_27931

Then they did experiments on him - hideous, unspeakable tortures that we can only dream of.
http://www.opacity.us/...ub.htm#comment_31014 http://www.opacity.us/...ame.htm#comment_8435

Then they put him in a hydrotherapy bath for weeks at a time, full of ice cold water and ice cubes.
http://www.opacity.us/...py.htm#comment_13309
http://www.opacity.us/...te.htm#comment_16897

Then when his little body could hold on no longer, they probably burned him in the crematorium that was handily attached to every single residential facility that was ever built ("just in case").
http://www.opacity.us/...ts.htm#comment_34248
http://www.opacity.us/...ck.htm#comment_34808
http://www.opacity.us/...nt.htm#comment_19205

And with all those hand-dandy coffins lying about, they could just zip him away with no one the wiser.
http://www.opacity.us/...raw.htm#comment_1713

Yeah, I guess you are right - art IS in the eye of the beholder.

My heart has been broken, my hopes shattered. My life seems pointless.

CAS,

I know. [sob] I feel the same way. [heavy sigh] The only thing that keeps me going on, bravely, is the sheer terror that if somehow I break down, they will haul me away to a psychiatric facility. And you know what THAT means. It means that there is (apparently, from all the creative writing posts I have had the extreme pleasure of reading) an extremely high chance that I will:
1- be kept away from society against my will for long periods of time for no discernible reason.
2- be locked up in seclusion for long periods of time at the whim of cruel staff (mostly those "fast-assed lazy nurses").
3- be starved.
4- be forced to use the torturous machine of jiggling weight reduction.
5- be stuck in a small room with only a slot in the door near the floor, forced to stick my fingers out, looking for nonexistent human warmth and contact.
6- be put in hydrotherapy for weeks at a time in ice cold water after they dump trays and trays of ice cubes in it.
7- be shocked.
8- be lobotomized.
9- be given a "chemical lobotomy" in the way of massive oversedation, mostly as a form of experimentation, partly as a means of keeping me tranquil and zombied out.
10- be given no privacy when bathing or using the bathroom.
11- be forced to sleep in a large crib.
12- have my fuzzy teddy bear taken away from me as a particularly cruel form of abuse.
13- be cremated if I die there (and I probably will, given all the horrors I have described above).
14- be compelled, after I die, to roam the halls of the deserted asylum I last lived in, only in the shape of a fat white blob (not too different than how I currently look, at least), caught on photos only when a piece of lint happens to fly by or a drop of water gets on someone's camera lens - mistaken at times for the orb of Radical Ed's beer instead of the tortured soul I will be.

But worst of all, they will force me to read comments like the ones I previously quoted and they will try to brainwash me that these were the only pieces of reality that ever existed and that any other beliefs I might have had were just delusions - the ramblings of an overactive and demented mind.

And I will be released only when I come out of there thinking that everything is black and white.

CAS - help! They are trying to make me (gasp - choke - sputter) "NORMAL"! AAAAEEEEIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!! Run for your very life, my friend! =8-o

As a Teddy Bear collector I find this picture fairly unsettling. The poor thing, abandoned except for the passing photographer or miscreant. He just cries out to you! "Where is everybody?" "Someone tie my shoe and hood!" "Where is my girl/boy at?"

On another note, I like the craft projects. I wonder if they were going to paint these pieces and hang them outside their doors or off of the end of their beds (wards). It was a very creative idea that I intend to share with my sister who is an elementary art teacher.

woah.... hang on a minute.... im not demonising the staff in institutions.......99.9% of all mental health staff work incredibly hard on stupidly low pay and do an almost impossible job every single day simply for the love of it, im not arguing with that...... get off the soap box for just a second eh? i agree with a lotta what you say.... just not all of it. Go back and read all that again, i wasnt being in the least bit hostile towards you sorry i said anything now since you verbally ripped me a new arsehole.

and further to that.... where did i mention all that paprnormal crap? or mention any previous methods of paitent care by name? in fact.... ur post is pretty nippy isnt it?...... go rip the arse out of some of the people on this comments board who talk rubbish in every single post

Wasn't ripping you a new one - however, yours was the comment that tipped me by suggesting, as many others have (see above) that perhaps I should adopt the view that "art is in the mind of the beholder" when so many people already view the entire field through a filter of "creative art." That was my point. If you look at the comments I was pointing out, THAT is where the "creative art" is. Those were written by people who don't have a clue about how these places work or used to work, and now they all have something to say, and almost every bit of it negative. I don't want to be THAT creative - I just want to point out what has happened - the bad stuff AND the good stuff. Most of the times that I have tried to pull us all back to reality I have gotten:
1-) asked to look at this as "art".
2-) told that I am cold and sterile.
3-) told of a story that happened to one person that obviously means that everything I have said must be false.
4-) told that if I can't see it there way I must be one of the Nazis.

Sorry if you were in the way when I exploded, but I am also tired of being picked at for telling about reality - what it's like to live and work here - and it grieves me repeatedly to see the lives of the people who live(d) and work(ed) here reduced to someone's "artistic fantasy."

fair play.... just remember im not the one slagging you off at every turn. I was only expressing an opinion, and i was under the impression this site was an artistic record of the abandoned building.... i obviously got the wrong end of the stick

Opinions are great! Just make sure that they are educated to prevent people from becoming offended from them. This site is for artistic records of the past, however Mr. Motts allowed people to comment below so that they can share their personal experiences and knowledge with others. You were not dealt the wrong end of any stick; you simply tipped an already shaky scale.

I hope this exchange does end now to prevent people from running away from the site.

it does indeed end now, it wanst my intention to offend anyone at all..... but im pretty sure its the last time i post anything

don't leave feewhl you have a right to express an opinion like every1 else on this site stay mate

lynne-
i have spent many years in places like this, and i know that the staff get treated like shit, its fucked up, but you have to look at both sides. you are defending yours. as someone whose parents left them in the care of places where stuff like the lack of privacy, food deprivation, sexual, emotional and physical abuse did in fact happen at the hands of state paid staff in facilities (and not tens of years ago either- its going on to this day, just much more hush hush), you have to understand that while there are good people out there (as I'm sure you are) defending yourselfs and martrying your self is not going to stop the abuse thats happening still to kids. See? I like this web site because it exposes things that happened to defenseless people in institiutions, but as the photos are old and the buildings condemed and decreped, its easy to put it out of your mind as part of history. My suggestion to you Lynne is to get off the defense of yourself and your field and people will quit attacking. This needs to be seen for what it is. A horror, and while to you it may not be so horrific, to others it is extremely damaging, and there's a lot of work to be done.
-M

Well it works both ways. You are given the opportunity to say what you experienced. Some of us who work/worked in the MH/MR field also experienced things and often not what most people want to hear. The problem I have with certain comments, and I think Lynn agrees is people tend to imagine what things were/are like, not necessarily how they actually are. And since the workers are usually the targets of some posters, naturally we're going to try to give you a different perspective. Whether you choose to accept it is your choice.

Dude! Is that a bra back there that I see?! Between the yellow bag and 'Tyrone'

OMG lynne, you are funny. This whole thread is very interesting. I enjoy seeing everyone's opinion, and it is true many of us on this site do not know what its like to be in a place like that or what its like to work there. Myself being an artist, though I have to say, only an effective artist can provoke feelings like what i see here. Kudo's to motts. Its not everyday you see art move people

The first thing that came to mind here was, creative use of paper (the names) and what the heck is a bikini top doing in the above part of this photo?

softer side of this place

Softer? I think not.
Look at the darn picture.
Peeling paint, children's names, an old newspaper about Martin Luther King and a bra.
Softer now?

This image hits me hard. i'm just thinking about that poor bear; how for most of his lifetime he had all these kids playing with him, possibly learning to tie their own shoes by tying his shoes, being his "friend" if only for a few hours, and now stuck in this building and feeling alone. i suppose it's because i've always had this weird belief that stuffed animals have souls... my favourite book is "the velveteen rabbit." that explains a lot, doesn't it?

There is an article about Martin Luther king under that junk. You could at least taken that lol

Your pictures sure do elicit feelings & comments. I'll just say........thanks for documenting everything like you do......

These kind of pics just depress me, to think that parents shipped their kids off to these places only so the kids would die sooner than they would at home. >.<

Hannah,

That isn't what happened. :-)

Hmm... i see that nowadays, most of the staff are indeed very caring etc, but maybe when this place was open, they werent treated as well.

People's perspectives are interesting, aren't they? I look at this picture and think "How nice. The children had toys to play with and someone that cared enough to do art projects with them." not "OMG, how could a parent lock their children up in such a place." If a child had a mental disorder, wouldn't it be more cruel and neglectful to NOT get them the help they need from professionals with the education and experience to help them versus a parent w/o the knowledge allowing them to deteriorate further?

Poor teddy, I just want to give him a hug.

i read a comment up there that said these are not peronal objects, im sure chris and the other children would not agree

i strongly believe those are personal objects.
i wonder, everytime i see such things...how come they left those there, just like that?

Guess what kiddos ... for today's art project we are all going to shit our names out on a peice of carboard.

i want to know who the kids were that made these, and perhaps who the bear belonged to. i wonder if they remember leaving this stuff behind? or if they did it on purpose for someone to find?

i guess i'll never know.

like thay will be back one day!!

What a sad place to live for a child. I shudder to think of WHY they were even institutionalized.

I'd go even more insane if I was in one these places.

Rebbnix, I had the same impression you did looking at this. While there was documented abuse at this particular facility, this photo (in my opinion) shows that there were some positive aspects. Art projects are great for kids -- and who doesn't love teddy bears? :)

Lynne. You are so genuine... Can I be your daughter please :D

nooooo!! the tears come back to me!!!! great photo by the way. really hit a nerve.....

could this be things left behind by the staff? or there kids, this is the kitchen area