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Asylums of the past may be controversial, but there are lessons we can learn from them.

Art therapy, nature-based-therapy, and physical-activity-based therapy were all featured in historic asylums.

Asylums reimagined for today could be more democratic and involve patients in decision-making.

This year, I taught a brand-new class on the history of the psychiatric asylum with my colleague, Dr Hannah Proctor. "Bedlam and Beyond: The Controversial History of the Asylum" is a seminar-based class where students explore why asylums emerged, what happened in them, and why they began to shut down during the second half of the 20th century. During the course of the year, we also discuss a whole range of controversies, including why people ended up in asylums, how they were treated, and whether asylums were a force for good or ill in society.

For the most part, people view asylums with suspicion. They are often depicted in film and television as places where unusual or evil things occur, providing the setting for many horror films. But, as we learn in the class, that was not the entire story. Asylums were a product of the Enlightenment and were founded in the hope of improving the lot of the mentally ill, many of whom were homeless, imprisoned, or kept at home in varying conditions. Most asylums were state-funded, marking one of the first examples of public healthcare. And numerous forms of therapy, including sport and physical activity, music, art, and creative writing, as well as time in nature, were offered to patients as forms of moral therapy. All of these approaches to improving mental health are acknowledged today as being beneficial.

We wanted to encourage the students to........

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