%s1 / %s2

Playlist: Portfolio

Compiled By: Michael Paul Mason

Caption: PRX default Playlist image
No text

Inside the Glore

From Michael Paul Mason | 13:48

An otherworldly visit to one of America's most bizarre museums, the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, MO.

Tranquilizerchair_small It's been called "one of the 50 most unusual museums in the country," but the word unusual doesn't cut it. The Glore Psychiatric Museum is a testament to man's failed attempts to understand mental illness.

Inside the Glore, we're taken on a bizarre yet vivid ride into the history of psychiatric treatment. We bear witness to unusual treatment protocols, ranging from restraint cages to human-sized gerbil wheels. In the terrible contraptions, we also sense an oddly persistent theme--man's terrible failure to adequately care for the mentally ill.

After venturing into the Glore, we meet Rolf Gainer, a psychologist, who discusses our current system of mental health treatment, and speculates about the future of treating mental disorders.