The themes and the goals of the three museums are the history of psychiatry, the promotion of mental health and the role of prevention, information and awareness of the data relating to mental health, and the social inclusiveness and fundamental right to mental health sanctioned by the EU. These museums use permanent and temporary exhibitions as powerful catalysts that call into question what is normal and what is abnormal.
The project, titled A Lifelong Exploration of the European Mind, is educating people and causing them to examine their prejudices about mental health. This project includes a module that uses interactive tests developed by the Het Dolhuys and the Museum Dr. Guislain, which have been installed at these museums. The Museo Laboratorio della Mente decided to install an Ames Room in the museum.



A second module includes a 15-minute video titled Mind the Gap, with clips from the archives of the three institutional partners. The video's text is in the original language. The film has English subtitles and is being shown in the three museums .
Click on the icon to watch the film on this website: the film has been divided into two parts, we recommend watching the film starting with the fist part.
The film documents a number of interventions in the field of mental health and demonstrates, through the diversity of the health systems in Belgium, Italy and Holland, common practices in community-oriented psychiatry.
Remember that Italy is the only country in the European Union that has closed all its psychiatric hospitals (Law no.180/1978), placing all care, treatment and promotion of mental health in a community context.
In the course of working out this project, a number of interviews were conducted of visitors to the three museums to demonstrate the stigmatization and prejudices that still exist with regard to mental illness. In this way the three museums hope to create a shared educational space for a permanent dialogue on the theme of mental illness and "diversity" for the purpose of eroding all forms of intolerance toward those suffering from psychological disturbances or who are at a psychological disadvantage. The exchange of ideas among the three different countries and their different approaches to the theme of mental health have been useful in meeting these goals. There was also a desire to shed light on the historic and cultural factors influencing opinions and beliefs about mental illness in the European context. To this end the Het Dolhuys has made patient testimony available. The Museo Laboratorio della Mente has drawn on its audiovisual archives to document the development of the treatment of mental illness, beginning with the work of Franco Basaglia of the Italian mental health laboratory. The Museum Dr. Guislain concentrated on the treatment of mental illness from a historic perspective. As a result of the content and methods of the Italian deinstitutionalization process (often simplistically confused with just getting rid of psychiatric hospitals), and to the ongoing criticism of the rationalistic problem-solution paradigm as it is usually applied in psychiatry, it quickly became clear that the Museo Laboratorio della Mente would not be able to participate in the proposal to create a module with interactive tests like those produced by the Het Dolhuys and the Museum Dr. Guislain.


The comparison of such different approaches has been fruitful and helped establish a solid European network of psychiatric museums. This network has contributed to the support and implementation of EU policies to promote mental health, sensitizing citizens to topics around mental health and building throughout Europe a framework for cooperation and sharing of good practices. The results of this project will be presented during the 2nd International Conference on Psychiatric Museums and the History of Psychiatry, 29-31 October 2009, Prague, Czech Republic.