History Quotes / BedlamHouse

-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', on the ''real'' Bedlam House.

->''"Another unfortunate casualty to tide of time: Insane Asylums. I lament their loss, not only as brokerage houses for the bredth and depth of human psychosis, but also I shall mourn the disappearance of the peculiar environment present ''only'' in an insane asylum: that palpable atmosphere of blistered brains and churning bowels, the odiferous deluge of freely flowing bodily humors, that gently rolling cacophony of distant sobs and screams, the muttered cursing of perceived enemies and the blissful gurgling of the lobotomized. Like a new born babe discovering the sky."''
-->-- '''Alistair Grout''', ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''

->''"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum [[FaithHeelTurn shows that faith does not prove anything.]]"''
-->-- '''Creator/FriedrichNietzsche''' [[note]]He was eventually thrown into one. Sure it's not a Bedlam House per se, but think about how low the knowledge of mental health was before.[[/note]]

->(Sung to the tune of Away in a Manger)
->''Away in a madhouse, confined to my bed\\
From visions and nightmares that filled me with dread\\
The doctor has sweetly inserted a probe\\
To [[{{Lobotomy}} sever completely my pre-frontal lobe!]]\\
Electroshock therapy, mind-numbing pills\\
They change my behavior to cure all my ills\\
I love the asylum, My own padded cell\\
I'll stay here forever for [[CosmicHorrorStory outside is hell!]]''
-->-- "Away in a Madhouse", ''Music/AVeryScarySolstice''

->'''Homer Simpson''': Be quiet or we'll put you in a home.
->'''Abraham Simpson''': You already put me in a home!
->'''Homer Simpson''': Then we'll put you in that crooked home we saw on ''Sixty Minutes''.
->'''Abraham Simpson''': ''[Pathetically]'' I'll be good.
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

->''"I'm used to the dark, but this feels like a house full of bad dreams."''
-->-- '''Garrett''' about the [[AbandonedHospital Shalebridge Cradle]], ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows''

->'''David:''' Arkham Asylum, which is apparently on top of a straight-up mesa with sheer cliff faces.\\
'''Chris''': It looks so much like ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' that I expected to see a dude in a loincloth whipping Medusa Heads.\\
'''David:''' There, we see Freeze being brought in, and he’s actually in a locked fridge with his head through the freezer door. It even has the hinges the door used to be on.\\
'''Chris''': Arkham Asylum in a nutshell. No wonder they can’t keep anyone locked up when this is the best specialized equipment that they can afford.
-->-- '''Chris Sims''' and '''David Uzumeri''' [[http://comicsalliance.com/batman-and-robin-movie-review/ on]] ''Film/BatmanAndRobin''

->''"I cannot recall a single comic in which Arkham Asylum was shown to improve someone's mental status. In fact, since [[ComicBook/HarleyQuinn Dr. Quinzel]] went insane while working there, I think Arkham's overall record is -1 people cured!"''
-->-- From a DC Universe Online [[https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/what-is-life-like-for-an-average-gotham-citizen.522175/ forum discussion]]

->'''Martha:''' ''This'' is what you call a hospital? Where the patients are ''whipped'' to entertain the gentry?! And you put your ''friend'' in here? ... But you're clever! Do you honestly think this place does any good?\\
'''William Shakespeare:''' I've been mad. I've lost my mind. Fear of this place set me right again. Serves its purpose.
-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', on the ''real'' Bedlam House.

->''Asylums with doors open wide\\
Where people had paid to see inside\\
For entertainment they watch his body twist\\
Behind his eyes he says, "I still exist."''
-->-- '''Music/JoyDivision''', [[Music/{{Closer}} "Atrocity Exhibition"]].

->''Welcome to the Carnate Institution for the [[AlliterativeList Tragically Troubled, the Impossibly Insane, and the Diabolically Disturbed]]! Are you seeking asylum, Torque? Are you looking for the answers? Well, rest assured, you have come to the right place...''
-->--'''Dr Killjoy,''' ''VideoGame/TheSuffering''

-->--''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum''

->The Bishopsgate Asylum facility is a structure as complex and as twisted as its long, dark history. Through the efforts of the hospital's illustrious lineage of [[CorruptBureaucrat corrupt]], [[BadBoss selfish]] [[PointyHairedBoss and derelict directors]], the various buildings that compose Bishopsgate form a broken world where wrathful madness boils behind a face of medical sterility. Though the current director, Dr Bridget [=McClusky=], is making an effort to restore the hospital to its intended role as a place of healing, such a renovation of spirit is highly unlikely. [[EvilTaintedThePlace Too much depravity and sheer malevolence have taken place to ever permit for such a drastic transformation of the asylum's essential nature.]]
-->--''[[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness Asylum]]''

-> ''Where better to drive a man crazy than in the madhouse?''
-->-- '''Joker''', ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight''

->''But there are many people wrongfully sent to Bedlam, where the food is dirt, the doctors are as helpful as head-lice, the nurses are gaolers and the cesspit overflows. The howls, cries and demented laughter of the "unfortunates" never ceases, especially when they are prodded and poked and doused with water. Did you know that ordinary members of the public were allowed to enter Bedlam to poke and prod all they wanted? [[DeliberateValuesDissonance It was like a day at the circus for them, a fun family outing]]. The "unfortunates" were chained and behind bars. It wouldn't do to have a member of the public assailed by an old woman who thinks she's a teapot. The visitors were charged a penny for the privilege of leering and pointing at the lunatics. And if the lunatics refused to perform, [[KickTheDog they were struck]]. The public, having paid good money for their entertainment, wouldn't be cheated.''
-->--'''Plenitude,''' ''Literature/TheLifeOfATeenageBodySnatcher''

->The madhouse of Lembrooke was built by the Physician’s Guild, not to grant succour to the insane, as the priestesses of Shallya do in their hospices, but as a home for the study of the deranged in a secluded location where only the beasts and trees would be able to hear the screams. Lembrooke was run by [[MadDoctor doctors Feder and Teer]], who were at the forefront of their field, using such [[ColdBloodedTorture forward-thinking techniques]] as trepanation to let the troublesome Daemons out through holes in the skull, thyroid removal, heated brands, and mild poisoning.
-->--''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay: Night's Dark Masters - A Guide To Vampires''

->''[[ResearchInc Váli?]] Who's asking? Yeah, I know them. When Gran had me hospitalised. Institutionalised. Amity House smelled like dead fridges. Ozone. No plants, no windows, no mirrors. So many pills, all the colours of a fake rainbow. They told me they would make the voices stop, make my episodes stop. And they were right! [[MedicateTheMedium I never heard Gaia's voice all the time I was in there]]. But it was all fun and games when the restraints came off: they would [[PlayingWithSyringes hook me up to a machine]], tape my finger to a button. Show me photos, survey maps, symbols. I tried everything. Pressing it all the time, or not at all. When I was really doped up, I'd tap out the beat to love songs. One day they just [[KickTheDog threw me out into the greasy rain]]. Didn't care who I told, [[CassandraTruth they knew no one would believe me]]. God, I couldn't believe it. Even the bad guys didn't want me. [[BrokenTears I was the wrong kind of freak!]]''
-->--'''Callie James,''' ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''

->I fear '''the prison is''' driving me mad. The doctor tells me it is '''only in my mind.'''\\
\\
'''I must''' never allow myself to '''trust the doctor. I have seen his''' notebook. He does not '''care for me. I am''' not a '''patient.''' I am an experiment.\\
\\
'''These holes in my memory'''- '''were''' they '''always there'''?\\
\\
I think '''the pills give''' them to '''me'''. Even my '''clear'''est '''thoughts''' are like an old tapestry— faded and bare and eaten through by moths and mice. '''I find myself''' staring off into space, un'''able to recall names and dates''' or even what I was just thinking about.\\
\\
'''There are''' ways. I track days scratching '''tally marks on the floor beneath my bed.''' I am running out of room, and I worry that '''one day, with the doctor’s help, I will''' not '''remember what they mean.'''\\
\\
'''Tomorrow I will get''' out. '''better''' to escape while '''my mind is strong''' than languish '''in this place'''. '''I am''' going '''home.'''
-->--''WebOriginal/TheShortestStory'', "[[https://shorteststory.com/index.php?date=2018-07-26 The Prison of Forgetting]]" (everything but the bolded text fades in and out of view)

-->--'''Roots Manuva''', "Awfully Deep"

->Welcome to the Carnate Institution for the [[AlliterativeList Tragically Troubled, the Impossibly Insane, and the Diabolically Disturbed]]! Are you seeking asylum, Torque? Are you looking for the answers? Well, rest assured, you have come to the right place...

-> Where better to drive a man crazy than in the madhouse?

->But there are many people wrongfully sent to Bedlam, where the food is dirt, the doctors are as helpful as head-lice, the nurses are gaolers and the cesspit overflows. The howls, cries and demented laughter of the "unfortunates" never ceases, especially when they are prodded and poked and doused with water. Did you know that ordinary members of the public were allowed to enter Bedlam to poke and prod all they wanted? [[DeliberateValuesDissonance It was like a day at the circus for them, a fun family outing]]. The "unfortunates" were chained and behind bars. It wouldn't do to have a member of the public assailed by an old woman who thinks she's a teapot. The visitors were charged a penny for the privilege of leering and pointing at the lunatics. And if the lunatics refused to perform, [[KickTheDog they were struck]]. The public, having paid good money for their entertainment, wouldn't be cheated.
-->--'''Plenitude,''' ''The Life Of A Teenage Body-Snatcher''

->[[ResearchInc Váli?]] Who's asking? Yeah, I know them. When Gran had me hospitalised. Institutionalised. Amity House smelled like dead fridges. Ozone. No plants, no windows, no mirrors. So many pills, all the colours of a fake rainbow. They told me they would make the voices stop, make my episodes stop. And they were right! [[MedicateTheMedium I never heard Gaia's voice all the time I was in there]]. But it was all fun and games when the restraints came off: they would [[PlayingWithSyringes hook me up to a machine]], tape my finger to a button. Show me photos, survey maps, symbols. I tried everything. Pressing it all the time, or not at all. When I was really doped up, I'd tap out the beat to love songs. One day they just [[KickTheDog threw me out into the greasy rain]]. Didn't care who I told, [[CassandraTruth they knew no one would believe me]]. God, I couldn't believe it. Even the bad guys didn't want me. [[BrokenTears I was the wrong kind of freak!]]

->The Bishopsgate Asylum facility is a structure as complex and as twisted as its long, dark history. Through the efforts of the hospital's illustrious lineage of [[CorruptBureaucrat corrupt]], [[BadBoss selfish]] [[PointyHairedBoss and derelict directors]], the various buildings that compose Bishopsgate form a broken world where wrathful madness boils behind a face of medical sterility. Though the current director, Dr Bridget [=McClusky=], is making an effort to restore the hospital to its intended role as a place of healing, such a renovation of spirit is highly unlikely. Too much depravity and sheer malevolence have taken place to ever permit for such a drastic transformation of the asylum's essential nature.

->Welcome to the Carnate Institution for the [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Tragically Troubled, the Impossibly Insane, and the Diabolically Disturbed]]! Are you seeking asylum, Torque? Are you looking for the answers? Well, rest assured, you have come to the right place...

-->-- The Creator/HPLovecraft Historical Society

->''"Do you know what they do to you in a madhouse, Maurice? You wouldn't last a day."''