A New Atheist Questions the Concept of Self During an Observation at a Psychiatric Hospital
It turns out, a mental institution is not an ideal place to ride out an existential crisis.
Submitted by Alece Kaplan
The day after I stopped believing in God I coincidentally began a week-long fieldwork assignment at Western State Hospital, an 800-bed inpatient psychiatric facility 45 miles south of the University of Washington, where I was getting my master’s in occupational therapy.
Western State opened in 1871 under the name “Insane Asylum of Washington Territory.” The original facilities were housed in former buildings of Fort Steilacoom, a civil-war-era army post. When I arrived in 2008, Western State was an enormous campus with dozens of imposing brick buildings. The hospital was divided into different acute treatment areas; I was assigned to PTRC East, dedicated to the treatment of geriatric patients committed both voluntarily and civilly.
Conditions at Western State were a far cry from what I expected of a modern psychiatric facility. The staff seemed overworked and distant; the patients’ rooms looked like prison cells. Hallways and common areas were sterile and unwelcoming. Furniture was bulky and institutional. The patients were all older…
