密歇根新闻广播 特拉弗斯城精神病的生活

 

Mental health treatment has changed drastically in the past century. But it wasn't that long ago that many people with severe mental illnesses were permanent residents at state-run psychiatric hospitals.

There were once 16 psychiatric hospitals across Michigan, including Traverse City State Hospital. An oral history project in Traverse City is shedding light on what life was like in those institutions.

Stewart McFerran is the man behind the Traverse City State Hospital Oral History Project, which is a collection of interviews with former hospital employees. McFerrin has approximately ten interviews completed. He's hoping future interviews will include former patients as well.

Many of these patients were involuntarily committed and forced to participate in new drug treatments. McFarren says that some patients spent decades at the hospital without ever receiving a formal diagnosis¹.

It sounded like from the interviews that I heard that a lot of the people there are in a sense warehoused. There weren't any effective treatments, and they needed to be managed and cared for, McFerran said.

Employees were young, and the hospital was understaffed. Take for example Peg² Warner, who McFerran interviewed. Warner was hired at the age of 19, right after World War II. When she entered the hospital she said she had never seen anything like that before.

The Traverse City State Hospital had a farm operation that the patients would work on. Many patients would work every day on the vegetable, dairy, and hog³ farm. Employees would organize vegetable peeling parties in an attempt to keep the work entertaining.

Activists⁴ soon demanded that the patients be compensated⁵ for their work on the farm. This request complicated the funding of the hospital. In the 1980s, there was a national movement to close state-run psychiatric hospitals, and the Traverse City facility officially shut its doors in 1986.

This post was written by production assistant Catherine Nouhan.

1 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

2 peg   

n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定

参考例句：

• Hang your overcoat on the peg in the hall.把你的大衣挂在门厅的挂衣钩上。
• He hit the peg mightily on the top with a mallet.他用木槌猛敲木栓顶。

3 hog   

n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占

参考例句：

• He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
• Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。

4 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 compensated   

补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款）

参考例句：

• The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
• I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。