Museum the Dolhuys Asylum Haarlem is located in a former 16th-century insane asylum and it’s theme is the psyche and spirit of the human being.
The origin is around 1320, when leper and plague asylums were outside the city walls of Haarlem. It has been used for 700 years within the Haarlem health care system as a shelter for ‘dollen’ and sufferers of contagious diseases. More recently it was a crisis center and day treatment for demented elderly people.
Now it is a museum and knowledge center in the field of psychiatry and called Museum van de Geest.
In this way it shows charity and care for the weaker members of society. On the other hand, it also shows a very dark side. People who do not belong or who disrupt the social order are locked up and isolated.
The museum shows the special nature of the human mind, which is described as deviant.