Throughout human history the desire to understand the functioning of the mind have mostly been met with an inability to do so.   Some ancient cultures drilled into people’s skulls in order to relieve problems, other mental afflictions have been explained over the centuries as some sort of supernatural involvement where the intervention is a religious, not a medical.   Even up until almost the modern day, the understanding of the functioning of the brain has been poorly understood.   The inventor of the lobotomy procedure was awarded the Nobel prize but was then later shot and murdered by one of his lobotomized patients.   Electro-shock therapy was used and thought quite effective up into the 1980s though it had only limited results.   So it is not surprising that when it comes to mental health that people view those in the profession of providing it as unreliable.  

One of the mainstays of film noir fiction is that of the insane asylum, a place where the mad tear at the walls and scream into the dark hours of the night.   Is this a fair assessment?   Certainly there is some reality in this, after all the word “bedlam” comes from the New Bethlehem ( -> bedlam) hospital in , one of the first mental health institutions.     In comics there is one insane asylum famous above all others, and that is Arkham.   Is it fair to depict Arkham as a dark foreboding place (almost castle/Gothic like in most depictions) where the mentally ill go to suffer without chance of rehabilitation?   In my opinion, no.   While it is true that psychology and psychiatry have traditionally been pretty soft when it comes to being scientific, there are definitely advances in these fields in recent years which go beyond their traditional sphere.   By investing more research into neuroscience the disciplines have gained a greater depth and understanding than they had before.   Curative psychology more so in the modern day involves more than tying someone is a straight jacket and throwing them in a padded cell until they stop screaming.  

Modern day asylums are actually very capable of dealing with a multitude of modern day mental ailments, but they are still rarely depicted that way.   Is it time for a change in comics?   It would be interesting to see but probably no change is coming.   As long as the asylums are grim places in people’s collective minds, they will stay that way in our favourite stories.       

To be fair now, most asylums in comics must also double as maximum security prisons, so the foreboding atmosphere is at least partially justified.

I've worked at a mental institution and it's a very stressful job. There are a lot more of them than us, lots of people to keep your eyes on, and they can snap on you in an instant. It's happened to us, nurses, and other patients frequently. If one snaps it isn't a problem, but it multiple patients did we would be in serious trouble. We take them down while the nurse gives them a shot in the butt and put them in a padded room under observation. Mostly patients are prescribed drugs and sent on their way after a few days. It's a temporary fix. Once they stop taking the meds it's right back to square 1. In my opinion the doctors aren't really helping.

IRL ones are actually alright... but TV and movies etc make them appear to be worse, so that people don't want to go there

Really cool post...Arkham I do not believe, is as dark as it is depicted, I mean they helped Harley...(for a day) might right something better later just got home and doing homework...>.> Okay time to add to my short little post. I honestly wished Arkham looked more like a creepy hospital than an old Italian church, while the concept still does work it would add a step towards modernization for our outdated asylum.  I bet one of the main reasons that they have kept arkham so screwy looking is to make it seem worse for us as readers, to understand why the villains would be so dead set on not going to Arkham. If Arkham looked anything like the asylums near where I live, I would not care have as much if Batman locked me up in their to get help, but going to a creepy and disturbed looking building would give plenty of motivation to stay out and continue my crim spree. I am probably just pointing out the obvious..ramble...ramble..rant...rant 

Its a trope that really needs to be subverted more. Inverted even. Still, I do enjoy the whole generic, twisted, horror presentation we get with so many of them. Anyway, could get some really nice scenes out of them, if presented not as outwardly dark. 

Sure, the look can change to accurately reflect today's asylums with their white-walled, sterile hospital look, but I think Arkham's look specifically is kind of a tradition by now. And I've been to mental institutions IRL, they can still be pretty horrific places.

I don't think so.

To be perfectly honest the look of Arkam is the one thing I really do like about the Batman. In Marvel they have these futuristic high security prisons that are constantly broken out of, but Arkam has a personality all its own. Its a throw back to when prisons where built like fortress/castles, it adds to the whole Gothic horror motif that is presistant in Batman comics. I don't think asylum in comics or movies need to mirror those you see more often IRL, because in most movies that revolve around the asylum, the building itself is just as much a character in the movie as the main character. Much like the Amyatiyville Horror house, Arkam, or the Shutter Island prison.