Title: The Forgotten

While radiologists typically focus on medical imaging, this single photograph provides a powerful glimpse into a past, and primitive, part of the larger field of medicine. The Georgia Lunatic Asylum (later renamed Central State Hospital) opened in 1842 in the southern town of Milledgeville. This vast facility of 200 buildings over 2000 acres, became the world's largest psychiatric asylum and housed 13,000 patients at its peak occupancy. Patient care approaches consisted of lobotomies, straightjackets, insulin shock, and early forms of electroshock therapy. Today, many of the buildings of Central State Hospital are empty yet preserved with haunting reminders of the poor facility conditions endured by those who lived there. Within the property is Cedar Lane Cemetery, where numbered grave markers coat the hillside to acknowledge the 25,000 inmates who died there. More of the Dr. Meltzer's work can be seen at: http://carolynmeltzer.com/.