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Watch ASYLUM, a film that takes a detailed look at the history of St. Elizabeths hospital in Washington, D.C. to debate the question of whether deinstitutionalization has proved an overall failure, leaving more patients homeless than are mainstreamed into society, and if the time has come to reintroduce the asylum as a place of therapy and benign confinement. Following the screening, filmmaker Sarah Mondale and Museum curator Sarah Leavitt discuss the complex and controversial history of the mental institution in the U.S. Presented as a complement to the exhibition Architecture of an Asylum: St. Elizabeths 1852-2017, which will be on view prior to the program. DIR Sarah Mondale. USA, 1989, 60 min. 

$5 Members | $5 Students | $10 Non-members. Pre-registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability.

Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. Registration is for event planning purposes only and does not guarantee a seat. Online registration for Museum programs closes at midnight the day before the scheduled program.

The Museum's award-winning Shop and Firehook Café are open for one hour prior to the start of the program. Shop and Café hours are subject to change.

Photo: Patient on Rocking Chair, 1985. Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.