A history of human experimentation and torture

The exhibition opened on 27 September 2026 on 325 Queen Street in Auckland City and for the following ten days people came through the exhibition that showed the origins of psychiatry, its eugenics programmes in the United States and Germany and the brutal treatments using electroshocks and lobotomies. Central to the display was three panels devoted to psychiatry in New Zealand showing its history of experimental treatments, its treatment of children and the torture of children in the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit.

A special event and ribbon cutting was held with guest speakers: Richard Vernall, author of the book “Running on Empty”; Denise Caltaux, psychiatric survivor activist and Paul Zentveld, Lake Alice survivor.

The exhibition attracted nearly 700 people from all walks of like, including mental health staff, nurses, artists, executives, community workers and students. Several left their impressions saying they did not know about the extent of ill treatment throughout New Zealand and around the world and how psychiatry continues to violate basic human rights with forced drug and electroshock treatments as well as violent restraints and seclusion.