Asylums were first established to care for the unfortunates of society. It was only later they acquired a negative image. In Kentucky's First Asylum, author Alma Wynelle Deese explores this issue by dissecting the inner workings of the Eastern Kentucky Asylum, Kentucky's first asylum and the second state-supported asylum to be established in the United States. She describes the people who were involved in the creation and maintenance of a medical school, law department, and lunatic asylum in Lexington, Kentucky. Using historical data, Deese presents a fictionalized narrative to explore this institution's history from 1817 to the 1990s including a chapter dedicated to 1906, a pivotal year for Eastern Kentucky Asylum. That year, four employees were charged in the murder of a patient, and this incident set the stage for the past and present history of this facility. Kentucky's First Asylum provides a historical understanding of one early asylum that became a state hospital and serves to give broader context for the understanding of the current mental health system. It provides a platform to better comprehend the problems and processes of American psychiatric care.

Asylums were first established to care for the unfortunates of society. It was only later they acquired a negative image. In Kentuckys First Asylum, author Alma Wynelle Deese explores this issue by dissecting the inner workings of the Eastern Kentucky Asylum, Kentuckys first asylum and the second state-supported asylum to be established in the United States. She describes the people who were involved in the creation and maintenance of a medical school, law department, and lunatic asylum in Lexington, Kentucky. Using historical data, Deese presents a fictionalized narrative to explore this institutions history from 1817 to the 1990sincluding a chapter dedicated to 1906, a pivotal year for Eastern Kentucky Asylum. That year, four employees were charged in the murder of a patient, and this incident set the stage for the past and present history of this facility. Kentuckys First Asylum provides a historical understanding of one early asylum that became a state hospital and serves to give broader context for the understanding of the current mental health system. It provides a platform to better comprehend the problems and processes of American psychiatric care.

The Kentucky State Hospital was utilized as a POW camp during WWII and also a psychological hospital for American soldiers. Later, the hospital was uses as a mental asylum and the treatments were often shocking and alarming. Behind the scenes look into the day to day operation of the hospital.

Reprint of the 1882 ed. published by O. L. Baskin, Chicago, with a newly prepared index.