MovieChat Forums > The Snake Pit (1948) Discussion > Conditions of the hospital - on second v...

Conditions of the hospital - on second viewing

posted 10 years ago by NancyDPA
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I remember watching this movie on TV many years ago, and was very disturbed by it. However, I just watched it again on TMC, and had an entirely different perspective. I have absolutely no experience with mental illness, but it seemed to me watching again that considering the time that Virginia was in the hospital (the 1940's), she was actually treated fairly well.

Does anyone agree? I recently read about a former mental institution close to where I live that was opened in 1908 as an "Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic." It was finally closed in 1987, after a class action suit was filed against the institution. The conditions were deplorable, it was over-crowded and under-staffed, and patients were neglected, abused or drugged, and there was virtually no rehabilitation.

I understand that the book was autobiographical, so most of what was in the movie was based on a true story. She was lucky to have a caring doctor, and certainly to have a husband who stayed with her.

I think the worst thing that might have happened to the patients was lung cancer -- there was someone smoking in every scene!

Thoughts?

[–] janiegun619 10 years ago

I just watched this movie for the first time. I must admit that the hospital treated the patients fairly well. I think this because the patients did not seem to be maltreated, just given specific punishments (or "treatments" as they called them back then) for disobeying or acting out.

Even though some of the consequences for their actions can be seen as abusive, at the time, it was all they knew of to attempt to treat the patients.

[–] NancyDPA 10 years ago

I think that was the biggest issue, that they didn't know how to treat the patients. The shock treatments seem pretty brutal, but I believe they still use that today. The nurses were not very caring or understanding, but they were nothing compared to Nurse Ratched!!