On May 6, 1946, Life magazine published "Bedlam 1946," an exposé of two ... stigma of court commitment and incarceration in an "insane asylum." The first of these was opened last November ...

Conditions in institutions for the insane and feeble-minded had advanced little since the time when “Bedlam” was first contracted from “St. Mary’s of Bethlehem,” an English asylum.