The Terrible Legacy of Danvers State Hospital

This pretty trail leads to an old cemetery where over 500 patients of the Danvers State Hospital rest, just outside of Salem, Massachusetts. The old psychiatric hospital has been transformed in modern day to luxury apartments–unless you know to follow the rocky path that winds behind the complex, it’s easy to miss. So easy, in fact, that after the hospital was closed, the cemetery was forgotten entirely until it was rediscovered and members of the community raised funds to remove the mass of plants and grass that had covered the site. There was an effort to match a name with each of the graves as well, but some of them remain unknown.

The historic informational markers placed in front of the apartment complex speak of the open air and healing power of nature that was the central approach of the hospital–offering solace from the hectic chaos of society so mentally ill people could rest and recover. The conditions that led to the deaths of so many patients are–perhaps understandably–absent.

What started as a progressive plan for healing the state’s most vulnerable citizens became a horror story after its first few successful years. More and more patients were sent to the hospital until there were not enough rooms or staff to properly care for them. Despite the overflow, the hospital was still seen as a shining example of modern mental healthcare. This made it a choice location to perform experimental procedures, including lobotomies, hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, and other “treatments” that frequently left patients in worse state than when they entered the hospital.

It’s unsurprising that eventually the hospital closed due to the terrible abuse and negligence that were taking place, though it took decades for the state to finally shut it down. Decades for patients to be tortured, experimented on, forgotten, and abused, and for the hospital to gain an infamous reputation that is now immortalized in literature and media.

H.P. Lovecraft was said to have drawn inspiration for his Arkham Sanitarium from Danvers. While not overtly mentioned by the creators of American Horror Story, the Asylum season draws clear parallels and their new show, Ratched, also bears similarities (particularly in the lobotomy experiments).

Danvers State Hospital and similar psychiatric institutions have dark histories that provide horror writers with ample, to-terrible-to-be-true content for their creative works. And admittedly, the events that went on in those institutions do make for great horror. I suspect the draw is rooted in the unbelievability of what went on in those places. In the day of mental health advocacy and emphasis on regulated, safe treatment, it’s hard to fathom the awful things mentally ill patients endured back then.

But in a broader view of history Danvers State Hospital, ice pick lobotomies, abusive psychiatric professionals, and the rest of the events that inspired Lovecraft and American Horror Story only stopped a few decades ago. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which played a major role in preventing discrimination against mentally ill and mentally handicapped individuals, was only enacted in 1990. And even now, people with disabilities are still frequently abused and taken advantage of.

We have come a long way from the days of Danvers. Legal battles have been won, treatments discovered, and mental health education has become widely available. It’s easier now to watch Ratched and see the characters as simply that–characters on a screen, instead of representations of real monsters who called themselves doctors. Someday, hopefully, those fictional stories will reflect only events of the past.

But we’re not there yet.