Honestly, I am a bit mixed about the museum. The building and the courtyard are beautiful, and the museum does portray the absolute dread of having to stay in this significant place, at the birth of psychiatry: this development represented frontier medicine and this exhibition shows the abuse and hefty dose of stigmatisation that still exists. What I do miss however, is more explanation about the various mental illnesses that are defined and removed from clinical books and how they initially manifested in this new frontier of psychiatry and psychology. There is perhaps a slight suggestion made by the museum that it was and is perceived that mental health issues are entangled with certain types of artistic expressions. This is currently shown with the outsider art exhibition and the artistic expressions shown, all made by people who are mentally disturbed in one way or another

Very unassuming museum on the outside but a fascinating collection, and respectful treatment of the subject matter, in a beautiful (and historically relevant) building. Temporary exhibition (on fashion) was more interesting than the permanent collection, which could do more to contextualise the items. Guide was a bit unintuitive to use.

A very interesting museum on mental health. They have very nice exhibitions. At the time of our visit there was the very interesting exhibition on the influence of mental illness on art by way of dance. It had some nice art pieces and lots of footage. There was also an exhibition of photos and video work on addiction which was very high quality. The permanent collection on mental health and on the facility itself is also good, but lacks context and information. The permanent art collection of “non professional” artists or artists who have turned away from the art world, is curious, but less interesting than the other collections. The buildings are the former mental asylum, which gives extra value to the visit. We experienced the staff as a negative point: they were clearly bored and gave the impression of being inconvenienced by the visitors. Some were downright rude, which was a shame.