When most people think of asylums, they think of a horror movie like Gothika or one of the various ghost hunting reality shows. Perhaps they also think of a horror novel like ASYLUM by Madeline Roux or one of the D.C. comic book villains being sent to the ridiculously easy to escape Arkham Asylum. Fear has permeated many of our perceptions about mental health treatment due to the harshness and cruelty of the past. Like many others, I have someone I loved who spent time in an asylum back in the earlier part of the 1900s. She rarely spoke of her repeated trips for “treatment” that included involuntary incarceration, electroshock therapy, and even a forced abortion. Richer families would send their loved ones for a visit to a home for “convalescent care” where they lived with other women and helped with the chores around the home until they were “better”. My curiosity about how mental health treatment has evolved (and thankfully it HAS greatly evolved and improved!) led me to a phenomenal nonfiction book entitled DAMNATION ISLAND by Stacy Horn. DAMNATION ISLAND is a horrifying yet, unfortunately, true chronicle of Blackwell’s Island – a dumping ground for anyone the city…