Mysteries of Mental Illness

Episode 3 Preview: The Rise and Fall of the Asylum

Preview | 32s  | Video has closed captioning.

Mass confinement in mental asylums and extreme treatments – from lobotomy to coma therapy – were the standard for treating mental illness in the United States until a few decades ago. Today, one of the largest de-facto mental health facilities in the United States is Cook County Jail in Chicago, where more than one-third of inmates have a mental health diagnosis.