Central State Hospital

Central State Hospital for the Insane was, until the 1990s when it closed, Indiana's oldest and most famous insane asylum. Lobotomies, shock therapy, heavy sedation and eugenics were all administered to individuals suffering, or imagined to be suffering from mental illness. Syphilis was prevalent in the population of patients, the disease causing serious brain lesions and mental cognitive degeneration. At central State, cadavers of wards of the state were used for medical school training and research, hence the autopsy facilities and morgue found on the premises.