Mental Health Institutions

[Butts]

When I was a child these used to be referred to as :

Looney Bin

Nut House

Funny Farm

Are these terms really offensive to younger people today ? To me they sound more a term of endearment.

 

[jon91]

[opinion] Not necessarily offensive to younger folk. More likely to offend those who have, or have relatives with, mental illnesses.

People could be put in those places for any number of things, some not necessarily valid mental illnesses.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Most mental health patients seem to have ruder words for them.

 

[chorleyjeff]

Not offensive to younger folk. More likely to offend those who have, or have relatives with, mental illnesses.

People could be put in those places for any number of things, some not necessarily valid mental illnesses.

Not sure why the question is posted on this forum.
Do you really have a mandate to speak for all younger folk? By all means express an opinion but please don't state your opinion as fact.
Cheers
Jeff

 

[jon91]

Oh sorry, forgot to add that it was my opinion. Can't really see why you'd see someone on an online forum as having such a wide mandate but hey ho, pedants be pedants.

 

[Butts]

Sometimes I wonder if peoples views really change or just their public expression of them.

My mother was in a psychiatric hospital in the 60's/70's suffering a nervous breakdown. She was subjected to ECT and the full works.

She often used to refer to it as her term in the "nut house", and didn't take offence if others used the same terminology.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Funny Farm, Looney bin, Nut House, Looney House etc all been used in the institution I was in for a few weeks, never found it offensive myself, didn't really give two monkeys back then

 

[David Barrett]

When I was a child these used to be referred to as :

Looney Bin

Nut House

Funny Farm

Are these terms really offensive to younger people today ? To me they sound more a term of endearment.

I don't know about endearment, a good number of like references that I have heard seem more like they originated in ignorance and prejudice to me.

 

[swj99]

Someone I know still refers to anti depressants as looney tablets.

As for a mental institution, it is what it is, regardless of the names people think up for it.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

As for a mental institution, it is what it is, regardless of the names people think up for it.

Do you refer to a sports institution as an institution, or as a sports club, sports field, pitch, games field?
Do you refer to a health institution as an institution, or as a hospital, clinic, health centre?
Do you refer to a financial institution as an institution, or as a bank, insurance company, pension fund, stock exchange?

I refer to a 'mental institution' as a mental health clinic or psychiatric hospital or psychiatric unit, or, (exceptionally), as a high-security hospital.

I do remember the vast Victorian Asylums and some Convents which were filled with people whom society had strugged to accomodate - including unmarried mothers, sufferers of depression and anxiety, those with learning difficulties and many more who would live their lives there - those were 'institutions' in the sense that I still use the word.

 

[swj99]

Do you refer to a sports institution as an institution............

Come to think of it, the only time I use the word institution is when I say that insurance companies are occasionally guilty of institutional ineptitude.

 

[Butts]

I don't know about endearment, a good number of like references that I have heard seem more like they originated in ignorance and prejudice to me.

Colloquial would be the more likely source of origin

 

[Greenback]

The dropping of such terms should act as a recognition that attitudes have changed towards mental illness. It doesn't really matter whether individuals feel offended by their use or not, the fact is that such terms do not accurately reflect the way mental health services are delivered, nor does it reflect the way that those who need treatment are viewed by the people providing that treatment, or their relatives and friends.

This is probably not true of the days when such terms were in more common usage.

As has been pointed out by DaveNewcastle above, the large Victorian type asylums of yesteryear often used to contain people who did not need to be there at all. What is more, many of them were there for many years, becoming so 'institutionalised' that they were unable to cope with life outside in the end.

 

[Welshman]

As has been pointed out by DaveNewcastle above, the large Victorian type asylums of yesteryear often used to contain people who did not need to be there at all. What is more, many of them were there for many years, becoming so 'institutionalised' that they were unable to cope with life outside in the end.

How very true.

I remember just before retiring being asked to conduct the funeral of a woman in her early seventies, who had lived in such an institution for most of her life.

On enquiring why that was the case, I was horrified to find she had been jilted in love when she was 18 or so, had been sent there as a "cure" for her depression, and never came out again.

 

[Greenback]

How very true.

I remember just before retiring being asked to conduct the funeral of a woman in her early seventies, who had lived in such an institution for most of her life.

On enquiring why that was the case, I was horrified to find she had been jilted in love when she was 18 or so, had been sent there as a "cure" for her depression, and never came out again.

Indeed. It is so sad that some people had their lives taken from them due to the attitudes of those times.

However, I don't think it is right to judge the views of other times too harshly.

 

[TheKnightWho]

Indeed. It is so sad that some people had their lives taken from them due to the attitudes of those times.

However, I don't think it is right to judge the views of other times too harshly.

I think we have to be careful to distinguish between the views and the people who held them. I mean, I'm all for judging the views of yesteryear extremely harshly indeed, and many of them were totally abhorrent. I don't think many people would disagree that a lot of medieval practices were awful, for example.

At the same time, I don't want to pin too much blame on the people who lived back then that actually held said views, as they were a product of their time. They can't really be expected by us, with hindsight in our comfy armchairs, to have come up with something to fit the morality of a society many years in the future. Many of them really did believe they were doing the right thing.

 

[Butts]

I think we have to be careful to distinguish between the views and the people who held them. I mean, I'm all for judging the views of yesteryear extremely harshly indeed, and many of them were totally abhorrent. I don't think many people would disagree that a lot of medieval practices were awful, for example.

At the same time, I don't want to pin too much blame on the people who lived back then that actually held said views, as they were a product of their time. They can't really be expected by us, with hindsight in our comfy armchairs, to have come up with something to fit the morality of a society many years in the future. Many of them really did believe they were doing the right thing.

Some peoples views don't change with the prevailing wind

 

[Greenback]

I think we have to be careful to distinguish between the views and the people who held them. I mean, I'm all for judging the views of yesteryear extremely harshly indeed, and many of them were totally abhorrent. I don't think many people would disagree that a lot of medieval practices were awful, for example.

At the same time, I don't want to pin too much blame on the people who lived back then that actually held said views, as they were a product of their time. They can't really be expected by us, with hindsight in our comfy armchairs, to have come up with something to fit the morality of a society many years in the future. Many of them really did believe they were doing the right thing.

Yes, good points there, and expressed far better than my own post.