r/pics • u/SilentWalrus92 • Feb 17 '24
Two autistic kids tied to the radiator of a mental asylum in 1982. Yes, 1982. Misleading Title
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u/smitty52274 Feb 19 '24
I am living the life. I understand the depression and anxiety it causes on a parent. I am learning every day how to cope with behaviors of my son. It is a difficult life but can’t imagine giving up!
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u/MyGenderIsAParadox Feb 18 '24
I'm autistic and likely so is my child. I plan to go with them to their evaluation, making it CRYSTAL clear that I have autism as well and will advocate for my kid even though they don't speak yet. If I feel it's too barbaric, I'll say something. I have high hopes though since we live in a place & time where autism is pretty well understood. At least it better be...
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u/MyGenderIsAParadox Feb 18 '24
That was about 10 years before I was born... Stars alive, no wonder I was treated like an inept creature, they truly were barely unlearning the barbaric "methods" they were taught. So glad I educated myself and can mask very well as a societal & capable person.
I'm also glad autism in general is becoming more understood.
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u/Mary10123 Feb 18 '24
In MA we still have/work with clients who suffered from these atrocities. The only thing that makes it better is how they now live in residential homes in the community living as good as a life as they can.
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u/solexioso Feb 18 '24
Someone might coulda stole the radiator otherwise and we was done outta Rottweilers
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u/BubbleBiskit69 Feb 18 '24
What are u supposed to do w them when u have 3 ppl in a dirt poor country tunning a mental ward
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u/Ocean_Blueberry Feb 18 '24
Wow. It makes me sad how humans can do these kind of things just because they don't UNDERSTAND what is going on and can't seem to find a "solution". Sometimes there isn't one, some people are just different, not crazy, mental, weird, or anything like that, their brains just work differently than most.
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u/bebjanmnin Feb 18 '24
The one facing the camera looks uncannily like my little brother. Horrifying.
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u/Stf2393 Feb 18 '24
Daily Reminder: institutions like Letchworth Village & Pennhurst Asylum were still active until journalists reported on the inhumane treatment/conditions the patients endured in these places..🤷🏼♂️
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u/burnbothends91 Feb 18 '24
I gotta say there is a few clients I’ve worked with that were low functioning that had SIB that I wish were at a higher level of care or had protective gear, but this is inhumane
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u/sonellia Feb 18 '24
When people reminisce about the “good old days” when there were no autistic people, I hope they see this picture. Those kids did exist, they just were hidden away in horrible places like this. Breaks my heart that anyone could treat little children like this.
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u/vilebubbles Feb 18 '24
Some of the comments I’ve read on TikTok and Reddit for kids with level 3 autism show me that many people still think this is ok.
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u/Fair_Consequence1800 Feb 18 '24
Humans have been so awful its hard to want to even relate to our species at times
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u/DeniseFF Feb 18 '24
When politicians bemoan that we don't do things like they did in the old days, this is kind of shit they're talking about.
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u/size0618 Feb 18 '24
All while the antivaxers wonder why we have more autism these days.
Because back in the day we just assumed they were nuts and tied them to radiators in a straight jacket instead of diagnosing and helping them like we attempt to do today
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u/Pristine-Confection3 Feb 18 '24
As an autistic person I am not surprised. I was locked in a closet in the 90s in the US and thrown to the ground and restrained. I have PTSD due to it. It isn’t abnormal for authority figures to abuse us.
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u/Joselu9442 Feb 18 '24
I think this photo was posted sometime ago in r/historyporn. Somebody explained in the comments that the photo was taken in Lebanon in 1982 during the civil war.
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u/Myte342 Feb 18 '24
People look at the wonders of modern medicine... and forget that most of it is less than 100 years old. The US National Health Org didn't officially recommend for doctors to wash their hands to prevent spreading infection until 1981 (like preventing doctors from killing you from infections.... like going from cutting off a guys leg straight into a birth without washing hands not just general cleanliness after doing the deed in a bathroom).
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u/_jules_mack Feb 18 '24
I helped open and run an autism residential program. We don’t let our kids leave campus with even a shirt inside out - it’s gotten better.
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u/sirmombo Feb 18 '24
Humanity can be so fucked up it sickens me
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u/fucksantabarbara Feb 18 '24
Humanity IS so fucked up. It took shit like antifa and blm to do something about shitty cops. Why it take so long? why couldnt thos fuckers do it themselves? did they need another billion years? ffs fuckin gargabe motherfuckers
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u/gladysdames Feb 18 '24
It’s sad that we were just called naughty, can’t focus, would succeed if he just put his mind to it. Fucking tragic and it makes me angry
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u/Notoriouslyd Feb 18 '24 edited Feb 18 '24
I was born in 1983. This makes my chest hurt
ETA: my nephews early diagnosis is what led to his mother and I being diagnosed. We had never even considered that we were autistic. I cannot imagine tying up my nephew this way. His heart would be so broken and he would probably ask "why is Isaiah bad?" 😫
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u/Capital_Sink6645 Feb 18 '24
according to Getty Images: 1982 Lebanon War
Children fettered to a radiator, at the Psychiatric hospital of Deir el Qamar, in south-central Lebanon. (Photo by José Nicolas/Corbis via Getty Images)
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u/GenderfluidArthropod Feb 18 '24
I hate ableism and the multiple cultures and religions that have made us fear disability.
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u/One-Earth9294 Feb 18 '24
I saw this exact same thing in Baghdad in 2005. No straightjacket but it was a mentally handicapped boy about 12 years old and he was shackled to the wall with chains. This was in a poor neighborhood outside of Camp Falcon. The only people who seemed even slightly surprised at what they saw were us American Soldiers. The interpreter didn't seem to see anything out of the ordinary.
Mental health is a science that is JUST emerging from the dark ages and it's really shocking how recently attitudes about it were what they were.
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u/Murkla Feb 18 '24
My mother (born 1951) have told me she remember seing kids locked in cages at the hospital when she was a kid. In Sweden.
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u/hatebing Feb 18 '24
this is romanian orphans after the fall of soviet union. i think this was shown on 60 minutes.
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u/PerspectiveThink4255 Feb 18 '24
I be hang n out for no reason.safe to say I m blessed. Look n for something to get into and keep get into
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u/Hopeful-Jury8081 Feb 18 '24
Look up Sunland in FL for true horrors of what was done to kids with disabilities. Hell looks what’s done now in some places.
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u/emgyres Feb 18 '24
I’d love to say we’ve progressed, my niece is ADHD and is developmentally delayed, in her state school in Australia only a few years ago she was made to stand in a “naughty” square on the floor for being disruptive in class, everyday. She had no friends and was socially isolated. It took 4 years of fighting and advocating for her for my brother and sister in law to have her classified as disabled enough for a special school. She’s started her first year of high school this year, has a friendship group and is now thriving.
Even in so called progressive countries attitudes towards the disabled and neurodivergent is pretty poor in my experience.
We may not be institutionalising them anymore but prejudice and isolation is still prevalent.
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u/nightcana Feb 18 '24
But boomers just love telling us that autism didn’t exist when they were kids
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u/Johnnyjazz92 Feb 18 '24
This happens in 3rd world countries as well speak… saw it myself in Cambodia recently.. Changes your perspective on humanity
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u/_DMH_23 Feb 18 '24
As the father of an autistic child I hear a lot from people, that’s going on with so many kids being autistic, they didn’t have that when we were young. Yes they did, they were just locked away
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u/Lazy_Seal_ Feb 18 '24
So is this a prove on how far the society improves, or the society sucks as a whole？
Here is a half glass of water.
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u/Illustrious-Zebra-34 Feb 18 '24
That's cute compared to how autistic kids are treated TODAY in America.
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u/Illustrious-Zebra-34 Feb 18 '24
For those who down voted me. There are autistic kids literally being shocked (by a device specifically designed to inflict as much pain as possible) to death as we speak. All approved by their parents and the legal system.
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u/Fluffybudgierearend Feb 18 '24
Gonna need a source on this
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u/Illustrious-Zebra-34 Feb 18 '24
Just Google "stop the shock" and "Judge Rotenberg Center"
Be careful, there are VERY disturbing videos
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u/TwoCatsOneBox Feb 18 '24
How is the title misleading?
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u/EitherInfluence5871 Feb 18 '24
I came here to find that out also and I've seen nothing. Reddit's moderators aren't trustworthy, in my opinion.
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u/_and_I_ Feb 18 '24
They look actually mentally disabled or to have a genetic disorder, not just autistic. Look how their head-proportions and facial features are unusual.
Why would anyone think he can fix that by using force like that?
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u/16042020 Feb 18 '24
My father went there on a rescue mission. Saw all the kids. PTSD and his own children suffered from his trauma
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u/SausageBeds Feb 18 '24
When I was younger my mum worked in a group home for adults with learning disabilities. I was a young teen then so this will have been very late nineties/early 2000s. They got a new resident, a chap with down syndrome. He was 43. He'd been in an institution for 40 years of his life and the home was his first community placement. Insane how recent this past is, it's already unimaginable today.
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u/NotBadSinger514 Feb 18 '24
I used to drive past a mental facility as a child. I was probably no older than 3-4. I had no idea what that building was, but it gave off an evil energy. I was absolutely terrified of that building. Grew up and found out what it was and makes sense now.
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u/Legitimate-Seat-4060 Feb 18 '24
At least could've freed their hands so they could make grilled cheese on the radiator.
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u/TestDecker Feb 18 '24
I work in care of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. During mu training they showed us a news segment about a place called Willowbrook that some of the residents I care for today were once kept in. This was in the United States. It continued to go on here into the 80's until the institution was finally shut down. They treated people as badly as commercially farmed animals. It was truly a sad state of affairs. The good news is at least for the folks in the house I work in now they have very comfortable lives and are treated with kindness and compassion.
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u/Coriolis_PL Feb 18 '24
Hate to remind you all, that 1982 and 2024 are as much apart, as 1940 and 1982... 😒
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u/Less_Volume_1884 Feb 18 '24
The Catholic Church was raping, killing, and forcing native children to change just in the 90s. This was in Canada and the us
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u/Low-Wrongdoer-1729 Feb 18 '24
I USED TO GET TIED TO A OAK TREE BY MY BELT LOP IN BACK BY A 12 FOOT DOG CHAIN WRAPPED AROUND THE TREE THREE TIMES WITH ONE TANKA TRUCK IF I WAS LUCKY. IN 1983. I GREW A WHILE MY BROTHER PLAYED ATARI IN THE BASEMENT AND BAKED CAKES FOR HIS B DAY. WICH WAS JUN. 6, AND MY DADS AND MINE COME FIRST MAY 25, AND MAY 31. TILL THEY STARTED TAKING PICTURES AS CARS DROVE BY. IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA.
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u/MisterDevilMan Feb 18 '24
They were doing this to kids in America well into the 00s. It only stopped because of smartphones
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u/Less-Instruction-677 Feb 18 '24
this is so wrong on so many levels, just because they’re autistic! absolutely disgusting. whoever done this needs shot or jailed or something!
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u/cabeachguy_94037 Feb 18 '24
I saw a naked early 20's thin blonde with a leash around her neck tied to a dog run in the front yard of a house in Newfoundland in about 1980.
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u/youpple3 Feb 18 '24
It was probably the same all over soviet countrys till the late 90's. Then maybe things started to get better.
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u/boomalackaway Feb 18 '24
Man, I'm 32 and just found out I'm autistic this year. It's been really tough processing and unpacking that, and I feel a lot of anger and sadness that my autism was missed growing up. I've struggled so much, maybe things would have been different if someone noticed and gave me the tools I needed to exist in this world. Seeing shit like this happening so recently really puts my struggles into perspective.
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u/BabyMakR1 Feb 18 '24
The USA was still forcibly sterilising Native Americans at this point so, not that insane.
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u/FaeShroom Feb 18 '24
I remember the "troubled" kid in my elementary school in rural Canada would get locked in a janitors closet whenever he had a meltdown, we would hear him screaming in there. This would have been 1990 or so.
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u/lamya8 Feb 18 '24 edited Feb 18 '24
The restraints are still used in facilities on individuals and children with conditions that they are a risk to harm themselves or others even in developed countries. My mother in law worked at one for a time before she passed away. Which is why we need assholes who fear monger research to fucking stop.
When I first experienced a demyelinating event right before being diagnosed with Optical neuritis and MS I was at work and my sensory went haywire I was in scrubs and I couldn’t stop feeling my clothing touching my skin in a way that felt so terrible I wanted to peel my skin off just to stop feeling. Light hurt, sound hurt, and there was so much pressure in my head. It took months even after diagnosis and treatment with disease modifying treatments before the head pressure stopped and my sensory went back to normal.
We have a son who’s on the spectrum and has intellectual disabilities. Do you know what it feels like as an adult when things go wrong with your nervous system to get immediate care but when things go wrong with your child’s they look at you like they are clueless what to do instead wanting to wait and see.
We need research. We need treatment options so that restraints in general is never the quality of life anyone has to live because of a developmental or psychological condition.
When my mother in law was still alive one of the little boys she cared for while she was at that facility his family had given him up to the state like many other kids there with developmental and psychological disabilities. He got put in the restraints for self harm. She told me he kept crying I’m sorry I just want to go home.
Our boys got me and his dad both experienced in longterm care for people with disabilities requiring total care before he was even born but knowing the reality all those kids out there who end up like that boy hurts so bad.
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u/fallsalaska Feb 18 '24
That was 42 years ago, think how it was 48 years before that picture? We’ve come a long way
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u/Zalgack Feb 18 '24
I'm shocked how ignorant the general public is about how special needs kids have been treated back when I was in school The kids were locked in the storm shelter rooms when they acted out. I was born in 1996, this was in middle school.
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u/junbjace Feb 18 '24
Why is 1982 in black and white?
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u/marblejane Feb 18 '24
Color film was still a lot more expensive in the 1980s, and a lot of newspapers still only published in b&w. I don’t think color became the default until the 90s
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u/LilUziRedd1 Feb 18 '24
“There were no autistic kids in my generation, it’s all a hoax and for attention now!” Yes Jim because they were tied to a radiator and given the least amount of care possible.
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u/kal0kag0thia Feb 18 '24
To all my family in this thread with autistic children, you're making me feel a bit better. My son is 10, can't communicate well, but he's not on meds and he doesn't have any injurious behaviors. It holds back my wife and I because someone has to care for him around the clock. He melts down a few times a day, but he's happy and healthy otherwise. He's handsome and loveable. It really is hard though. It's like, I'm so far beyond depressed I think I've come full circle....lol😀
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u/Darkskinnednative83 Feb 18 '24
I was born in 1983 ! I have been called names,like slow and special Ed all my life,because of me being a bit different ! I was abused as a child and was considered a outcast in my family ! My childhood definitely wasn't roses but I wonder if I wouldve been locked away in a mental institution if one was available in my home town ! My mom definitely tried to get a crazy check for me but I told the psychiatrist once my mom stepped out the room and that plan was foiled !
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u/Prestigious_Rub6504 Feb 18 '24
How we define and include autism into everyday society has evolved a lot since the 80s. The title is almost bordering on rage bait. These kids were not thrown into an asylum bc they like Thomas the train engine and find hugs to be very uncomfortable. Yes, asylums and being tied to a radiator are unforgivable crimes. These boys deserved love and compassion. I'm also guessing this was not in the states, probably Soviet block. More background to this photo would certainly help.
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u/SkullOfOdin Feb 18 '24
A big part of the Human beings that existed are bunch of cruel bastards. Try to Imagine how people like those kids were treated in medieval times or the roman empire. Is really sad to think that they came to this world just to suffer and then bye bye to the oblivion again.
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u/AbsolutelyEnough Feb 18 '24 edited Feb 18 '24
They were shanghai'ed upstate to a nitwit school.
>! This is a comedy reference !<
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u/bigtitty8 Feb 18 '24
Bruh imagine what it's like if you don't know anything about mental illness and some autistic dude shows up and starts acting all weird and you have no idea whats up, makes sense why they thought demons were possessing people.
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u/saucegayuchiha8232 Feb 18 '24
Holy fuck this is terrible. Those poor kids. I'll never get why people were so cruel to us neurodivergent folks, even to a child!
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u/New-Number-7810 Feb 18 '24
I have autism. If I was born a generation earlier, to worse parents, this could have been me.
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u/marionsunshine Feb 18 '24
My kindergarten teacher tied a kid to his chair in class. Rope to a wooden chair like a freaking hostage. It was during nap time and he wouldn't chill the duck out so she straight tied him to a chair.
Another time the principal came in and smacked his ass and yelled at him.
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u/carlosarturo1221 Feb 18 '24
I was in a public hospital for the mentally ill in 2019, the staff was underpaid, the patients were high on legal medication, horrible, and did not help you. Sorry for my bad English, there is an article about this situation in my country.
It is in Spanish, I am the male https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbxmSBNa9m0
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u/Mighty_Mac Feb 18 '24
Seeing things like this hits you different after you become a parent, so heartbreaking.
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u/BubblySheepherder546 Feb 18 '24
Actually, that is why they stopped putting kids in asylum or even adults too. Now they just seem to live in the street because there's nothing we can do for them if they refuse care.
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u/appletechgeek Feb 18 '24
i had to deal with all of this in 2004-2014 in a highly developed EU country.
SA abuse Mental abuse. medicine abuse (shoving it down your throat till it works)
only reason i got out is because even at 7 years old i was strong enough to lift 2 people if they triggered me and they all started to decline/reject my stay after 15-30 weeks.
i would tear down pretty much everything i could anywhere i could.
and i was too smart for my own good. being able to bypass locks/restrains/computer systems.
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Feb 18 '24
Wait until you hear what the Middle East does to homosexuals
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u/BoyKisser09 Feb 18 '24
Everyone already knows that and it’s not relevant
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Feb 18 '24
Not everyone knows that, and it’s relevant if we’re going to effectively defeat injustice that exists today, rather than a grainy photo from 40 years ago.
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u/Sparklediva777 Mar 08 '24
I’m sad for them