Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri

Glore Psychiatric Museum

More exhibits display mannequins that show examples of the unspeakable treatment received by the mentally ill, such as burning at the stake; douching tubs, where patients were drenched with ice cold water; electroshock therapy; hydrotherapy, where patients were kept in water for hours on end, and a mannequin in a fever cabinet. Back in the old days, fever cabinets were used in the treatment of syphilis. Lined with rows of high wattage light bulbs, the treatment was utilized to elevate the patient’s body temperature, intending to kill the virus and cure the syphilis.

Also featured is a “Tranquilizer Chair” where patients were said to have sometimes been strapped into for as long as six months. While sitting in the chair, patients were subjected to all manner of treatments such as bloodletting with leeches or a knife, placing of their feet in scalding hot water, or more ice cold water dousing.

The Fever Cabinet was used to try to "sweat"

syphilis out of a victim. April, 2005, Kathy Weiser.

You'll also see the Lunatic Box, used during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Here, violent or “out-of-hand” patients were placed in standing position in the coffin like box until he or she became calm. In total darkness, these men and women would be made to stand for hours in their own excrement until their attendants decided they were controllable.

Patients were often strapped to a Tranquilizer Chair for

as long as six months. April, 2005, Kathy Weiser.

The Lunatic Box was used during the 8^th and 19^th

centuries. April, 2005, Kathy Weiser.

More displays reveal several former patients’ unique disabilities. In one glass case is an arrangement of more than 1,400 metal objects, including nails, screws, pins, bottle caps, bolts and buttons swallowed over the years by a woman who was discovered eating a tasty nail in 1929. Though this patient with a compulsive need to swallow metal objects obviously survived the effects of the metal in her stomach, she died on the operating table, when the objects were removed.

Another display shows a television set stuffed with hundreds of letters and notes written by one of its patients. Evidently, in 1971 a male patient was seen inserting a piece of folded paper into the working television and the hospital’s electrician was called. When the back was removed from the set, more than 525 folded notes and letters were found that included the writings of the delusional patient.

Yet another exhibit features more than 100,000 cigarette packages that a former patient collected, believing that he might redeem them for a new wheelchair for his ward. When, the hospital discovered his ambition, they purchased a wheelchair for the facility and dedicated it in his name in 1969.

Continued Next Page

Thousands of cigarette packages collected by a former

patients of the asylum, April, 2005, Kathy Weiser.

More than 1,400 metal objects were removed from

a patient in 1929, April, 2005.

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