Abandoned places - Sidsjön (and the practice of lobotomy)

Jan Jörmark is a remarkable man. He has spent several years photographing abandoned places in Sweden and around the world. You should visit his website to find out about his amazing project (I hope he will translate it to English as well)

Sidsjön Mental Hospital near Sundsvall, Sweden was built 1939-1944. I think that the pictures that Jan has taken gives you an idea what is was like to be a patient there - even if the place now is abandoned.

I found an interesting work by Kenneth Ögren called "PSYCHOSURGERY IN SWEDEN 1944–1958 The Practice, the Professional and the Media Discourse". 

Kenneth Ögren concludes: "The practice of lobotomy in some mental hospitals was extensive and postoperative deaths were numerous but the Swedish National Board of Health took a defensive role and, even with the annual inspections, there was no important interference with the lobotomy question.
 

Swedish media reported mostly positively on lobotomy, underlining the promising prospects of the new method submitted by the early proponents without critical questioning or independent investigations."

It is an interesting conclusion; "a defensive role" and "without critical questioning". I come to think of a saying in Spanish "hacerse el Sueco" meaning "to act like a Swede" or "to look the other way". Perhaps it still applies to some people over here in the media and the big institutions. I don't know. But it makes me confused to read articles in Swedish media about the suicide bombs in Stockholm describing it as something "completely new" or "something we are not used to here".

It may be another kind of horror, but in what city was one Prime Minister (Olof Palme) and one Foreign Minister (Anna Lindh) assassinated within a time frame of only 17 years?
Stockholm, Sweden. - Mr Urbano

Website: Jan Jörmark