American Horror Story: Insane Asylums

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Insane asylums have been around since the early 1900’s and were designed to help the mentally ill when their families could no longer provide for them and deal with their illness. Many patients were either committed for an unspecified time or a lobotomy was performed, in an attempt to make them seem normal. As time progressed, more and more patients were placed in the hands of nuns, who were charged with administration of the asylums. The nuns represented a connection to the Church, which represents love and care and would would believe they would have created such an environment. FX’s hit horror show, American Horror Story, takes hidden life situations and exploits them. American Horror Story: Asylum challenges the sanctity and ideals…show more content…
The more she drinks, the more her sexual and insane she becomes. Her alcoholism comes from her family, but that does not excuse her behavior. When things began to get out of hand her vices becomes apparent and she would drink and smoke. Both vices calm her, and are her only real scapegoat in life. This is where the line between sanity and insanity become skewed. According to Stephen King we are all insane with the things that we do by watching horror movies or riding roller coasters, but those are what keep us from being seen as insane. Sister Jude used alcohol, cigarettes, and her sexuality as her horror movie or roller coaster. Those were the things that kept her sane and in power, but alcohol would later become scarce to find and eventually her addiction would subside. She then began feeding another vice, her strong will of survival. After being locked in the asylum she began to see her life and her addictions became apparent. In the 1960’s, asylums were not the treatment facility they represented. Since little research was done on insanity, the asylum became the more recent version of crying witch. People were placed into the same asylum regardless of their illness or reason and they were all given the average medication, that in most cases would never have help them overcome their illness(Leupo). Once Sister…show more content…
She was a true reflection of the corruption in the church. During the 1960’s, there was a major sexual revolution, which Sister Jude embraced, and which created a challenge for the church. The idea of sexual fantasies with a priest, who was unholy on his own, again challenged the church, but this time included one of its members, the priest. If not for Sister Jude and her downfall, the power hungry priest might not have been swayed in his decision to get rid of her. She also was the only one to see Dr. Arden for the truly insane Nazi doctor he was. Sister Jude continuously tried to exploit his evil ways, but no one would believe her; even the mother superior wouldn’t listen to the lowly Sister Jude. She was the only one who saw how corrupt the church was becoming, so they locked her away to keep anyone else from finding out the truth about the corruption in the church and its effects on the asylums they
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