Sunday, September 2, 2012

Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane and Other Research

I hope to get back into writing mode this week.  *Fingers crossed*

While not writing over the last few weeks, I've been plotting and outlining several stories.  Maybe that counts.  In one of the novels, which I outlined during a parent orientation, the main character does some time in a mental institution in Kentucky in 1940 just before they stopped doing electroshock therapy.

I found several pictures of the mental hospital, Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane, which has since been demolished if my sources are correct.  The site with the best picture, the one I wanted to post, says the information is copyrighted and that consent must be obtained to reproduce it.  And it lists no email address or phone number that I can find to request this information. 

It looks like the picture that I so desperately want to post here was taken from a book that's out of print.  I hope the web site (that won't allow me to reproduce the picture) got permission from the author.  There are three used copies of the book available on Amazon for just under $100, which seems a bit pricey. 

Here's the link if you want to see the picture and/or read the background information.  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kyjeffer/CentralState/CentralStateHospital.html

The story will not be an ode to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Only one chapter will be set in the mental hospital, although the character will be plagued with mental illness throughout the second half of the book.  How she and her family cope with it will be the fun part to write I think.

Mostly the stories I intend to write in this series are about how people in rural Appalachia survived during a period where things were unbelievably difficult.  The more research I do, the more I realize how easy I have it.  And the more I see how I actually have a lot of things in common with my ancestors. 

As I dig through the history of this time period (1830's through 1940's) and region, I think I'll post some of my research here.  Hopefully I'm not the only one that finds it to be intriguing.

15 comments:

  1. Research counts as writing if it moves your book or story along. (IMO)

    That's a creepy looking place in that old photo, maybe it's those pointed towers. For another institution check out the Georgia State Hospital, aka Milledgeville Asylum. The history of these places and the people who work in them could fill many books.

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    1. The Georgia hospital looks much less creepy on the outside at least. I agree about the stories and history of these places. I think it's facinating.

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  2. I think it sounds incredibly intriguing! I work in the mental health and rehabilitation field. There is a mental hospital here where I live, and it looks very...frightening. As if, when you look at it, you just would prefer not knowing what goes on behind those walls.

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    1. And yet I can't help but peek through the window. :/

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  3. Your story sounds more and more fascinating!

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    1. Thanks, Alex. I'm very excited to start writing it.

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  4. Research is sometimes the best part of writing. And, yes, staring out the window and thinking counts as writing too, it's not just the tappity-tappity on the keyboard. :)

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    1. Then I've gotten lots of work done this summer instead of exactly nothing. :)

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  5. It does sound a fascinating premise...looking forward to hearing more!

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  6. I've heard lots of stories in my family handed down from my grandparents and great grandparents about that time frame. I love reading about how they dealt with the difficult times.

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  7. This all sounds incredibly cool! Too bad about the info on the pic.

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  8. This sounds like fascinating research. One hundred bucks is pricey and I wouldn't buy it either. I wonder if there are other sources...

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  9. Your research from 1830's to 1940's sounds exciting and different... you never know what information is waiting to be discovered... and how it will influence your story as you go along...

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  10. Sounds like a great time period and subject! I do like old, crumbling asylums too. There's one on the est side of Manhattan, on an island that is reduced to a scaffold. I always stare at it as I drive by, and imagine who might've stayed there and why.
    Catherine Stine’s Idea City

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  11. You need to watch American Horror Story in October. The whole season takes place in an insane asylum.

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