A review by p0tat0
Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals by Christopher Payne

4.0

This was a really beautiful and unexpected volume of photographs. Given the cover image, I was expecting that Payne would be highlighting a sinister side of mental hospitals but in reality it was quite the opposite. In the brief introduction and afterword, Oliver Sacks and Christopher Payne focus more on the civic pride felt by communities hosting grand mental hospitals and the sense of purpose that these vibrant hospitals afforded their patients. My only complaint is that the photographs left me wanting to know so much more about the lives lived in those spaces.