Asylum

My first introduction to the word was in the crazy arena, to be sure, and I still think of it that way, unless it's being used in the other context, of course, and this is making no sense, is it? It's the damn category! Friends! As in the tv show, wah, I hate that show! Sorry, Angel, I'm ranting - could you tell? But the word asylum is a good one - I love that it is so dichotomous. A place for crazy people and a place of refuge. But maybe that's the same thing, huh? Crazy people need a place of refuge, of peace, of safety, where we can go and be protected from the world and ourselves, don't we? Yeah, meet you there!!!!!

I always thought it was another name for a mental institution but I could very well be wrong.

I always think of it as a place of refuge for people who can't cope with the worries of the outside world , where people go to get away from the stresses and strains modern society put on them xxx

Asylum is a place of refuge and sanctuary. From my understanding, the "insane asylum" was SUPPOSED to be a place where the mentally ill could find refuge and peace from the voices in their heads, so to speak. Instead many of them became prisons or houses of torture. At certain points in my life, I would kill for asylum, either insane or otherwise. LOL

I definitely think of an asylum as being a place where all us lunatics are locked in and the sane boring people are locked out! Hubby is wrong, wrong, wrong this time and furthermore you can tell him so cos the bathroom is fixed now! lol xxx

The sane part of me agrees with your hubs. The insane part of me belongs in the place! LOL

what i know is a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person. that is the meaning of asylum.

It means a place where they put crazy people. You heard of lunatic asylum? That is what they used to call mental hospitals or institutions years ago. It does also mean a place of rest, but that is more in a religious connotation. In that case, it does not refer to a mental state, but someplace where you can go and meditate or it could mean an actual building or area where people are free from persecution, as in "the Jews who were being hunted down by the Nazis found asylum in the hone of some of the Dutch who risked their lives."

Actually, the word means a place of safety, as in giving asylum to political fugitives from another country. But because the word has so long been associated with the "place of safety" for the mentally ill it has taken on the meaning of a place for "crazy" people. There used to be tuberculosis asylums, too. But thankfully they now know how to treat TB safely without separating the patients from the community.

It makes me think of a place I am afraid to even visit for fear they may want to keep me. He is probably thinking of that place where muslims go...I can't think of the word but I don't believe its asylum is it? Synagogue maybe? it has the same "sy" in it.

People have diffrent interpretations of thought. As long as you all know where your coming from I would not worry about it.

It's possible to ask for asylum when you are in trouble and need someone to grant you safety. Maybe that's a basis for you husbands thoughts. Asylum to me is a hospital full psychiatric patients who walk around on a thorazine drip for the rest of their lives. I like your husband's thoughts more.

When I saw the word Asylum in your title, the first vision in my head was from the movie "12 Monkeys" With Brad Pitt. YUMMY oh side tracked anyway, when he is in the mental institute with all of the people walking around like zombies. But I also know it is a place of quite, sanctuary, and thought.

it means solitude more than anything. it can be all of these places or it can mean to take a break from. but when i see the work i think of a crazy home or detention center for people who has lost reality. insane asylum is the first thing that comes to my mind.

People fleeing their country in times of strife are given political asylum or refuge when thy arrive in another country. In times gone by a hospital for the mentally ill was called a mental asylum, a place of refuge for the mentally ill. However the connotation for a mental asylum is a loony bin a place for sickos and crazies. It's not very nice but that's how it is. We really shjouildn't make fun of those with dementia and other menatal ailments. So, your husband is correct.

MY first thought is usually a place of refuge, sanctuary. I think the connection with "crazy" people is a more recent - in terms of centuries LOL - one, and my first one is a more ancient connection. If I think in my own language the word might also remind me of a place where poor people used to send their kids to be educated or an orphanage, and as an after thought, it might remind me of politics and political refugees - we had many trying to seek such a place before the revolution. I guess it depends on what we are thinking at the moment since the word can have quite a few meanings.

Hi Angelwhispers, You are both right, it can mean either, but is most often associated with a nut house. Blessings.

Good spin on asylum on your husbands part. I associate it with crazy myself. Seems that he is looking at it from a more political standpoint which is great. I say it's a place of crazy. I am a Psychology minor in school. That would be the first thing that comes to mind. I guess it just depends on the context you are looking at the word in.

I just looked it up in Webster and you are both right. One meaning is a place of refuge and a placeof sanctuary and another is a place for the mentally ill. So you can both congratulate each other on both having won the argument lol

Well technically, it is a place of sanctuary and refuge. Like political asylum. The dictionary says, "sanctuary, place of refuge and safety, esp. for criminals, ie. political asylum, protection from arrest by another country, institutions for shelter and support of afflicted, eg. blind, deaf, and esp. insane or destitute persons." I guess it depends how it was presented in the sentence or idea. As it can have both meanings. I guess the insane asylums were built to 'protect' the crazy people, technically. It wasn't meant as a prison for them, even though that is how it seemed. If a cop takes someone to a safe house to protect them from a hit man trying to kill them, it sort of ends up like you are the one in prison while the killer runs free.