Why Did We Close the Asylums?

Why did America close its psychiatric hospitals, and what happened to the people who needed them? Writer and cultural critic Freddie deBoer, author of All in Your Head: Illness as Identity, Trauma as Fashion, and the Desire to Be Disordered, explores the ideas, political decisions, and good intentions behind deinstitutionalization. From the influence of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to the promise of community care, the conversation examines how efforts to end psychiatric abuse left profound gaps in treatment—and asks what humane care should look like for people who cannot recognize their own illness.