What is "asylum"

Asylum \A*sy"lum\, n.; pl. E. Asylums, L. Asyla. [L. asylum, Gr. ?, fr. ? exempt from spoliation, inviolable; 'a priv. + ? right of seizure.]

1. A sanctuary or place of refuge and protection, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege.

   So sacred was the church to some, that it had the right of an asylum or sanctuary.
   --Ayliffe.

   Note: The name was anciently given to temples, altars, statues of the gods, and the like. In later times Christian churches were regarded as asylums in the same sense.

2. Any place of retreat and security.

   Earth has no other asylum for them than its own cold bosom.
   --Southey.

3. An institution for the protection or relief of some class of destitute, unfortunate, or afflicted persons; as, an asylum for the aged, for the blind, or for the insane; a lunatic asylum; an orphan asylum.

early 15c., earlier asile (late 14c.), from Latin asylum "sanctuary," from Greek asylon "refuge," noun use of neuter of asylos "inviolable, safe from violence," especially of persons seeking protection, from a- "without" + syle "right of seizure." So literally "an inviolable place." General sense of "safe or secure place" is from 1640s; meaning "benevolent institution to shelter some class of persons" is from 1776.

n. 1 A place of safety. 2 The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place. 3 A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.

1. n. a shelter from danger or hardship [syn: refuge, sanctuary]

2. a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person [syn: mental hospital, psychiatric hospital, mental institution, institution, mental home, insane asylum]

Asylum may refer to:

Asylum is the thirteenth studio album by the American rock band Kiss. It is the first with lead guitarist Bruce Kulick as an official band member. He was the band's third lead guitarist since the departure of Ace Frehley in late 1982. The lineup of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Carr, and Kulick would last until Carr's death in November 1991, while Kulick would stay with the band until the reunion of the original lineup in 1996. In contrast to the heavy sound of Kiss's previous three albums, Asylum features a lighter glam rock sound.

Asylum is an adventure game created by William F. Denman Jr. and released in 1981 by Med Systems (later known as Screenplay) of Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the TRS-80 computer. It combines a text adventure with simple line graphics to create a first-person perspective 3D game. Med Systems had earlier released games like Rat's Revenge, Deathmaze 5000, and Labyrinth with the same kind of graphics; these games were among the earliest commercial examples of 3D games.

A sequel named Asylum II was released in 1982. The sequel was later enhanced with bitmapped graphics, color, and improved descriptions, and released simply as Asylum in 1985 for the Commodore 64. There were also editions for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and the IBM Personal Computer coded by Warren Zunino.

Asylum is a 2005 Anglo-Irish drama film directed by David Mackenzie and made by Mace Neufeld Productions, Samson Films, Seven Arts Productions, Zephyr Films Ltd and released by Paramount Classics. It is based on the novel Asylum by Patrick McGrath and was adapted for the screen by Patrick Marber and Chrysanthy Balis.

It stars Natasha Richardson, Marton Csokas, Ian McKellen and Hugh Bonneville with a cast also including Sean Harris, Joss Ackland, Wanda Ventham, Maria Aitken and Judy Parfitt.

Asylum is a BBC Books original novel written by Peter Darvill-Evans and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Fourth Doctor and Nyssa (resulting in a slight temporal paradox as the Nyssa featured here comes from a time some time after she stopped travelling with the Fifth Doctor).

Asylum is the name of two characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Asylum is a 2008 American horror film that was directed by David R. Ellis. The movie was initially planned for a theatrical release but was instead released straight to DVD on July 15, 2008. Asylum stars Sarah Roemer as a young college student who must fight to survive the spirit of a mad doctor that is haunting her dorm.

"Asylum" is a single by The Orb from their 1997 album Orblivion. The single was released in two discs and featured remixes from artists including Thomas Fehlmann and Andrew Weatherall.

Asylum is a 1985 album by The Legendary Pink Dots.

Asylum was a comic book anthology series published by Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld's Maximum Press imprint, and featured several stories in each issue, including Tales of the Beanworld, Avengelyne and others. It ran for eleven issues in the late 1990s.

Asylum is a 1997 horror thriller film directed by James Seale and starring Robert Patrick, Malcolm McDowell, Sarah Douglas, Debra Wilson, Henry Gibson, and Jason Schombing. It premiered on HBO on May 6, 1997.

Asylum is a British comedy series which was shown on Paramount Comedy Channel in 1996. Set in a mental asylum, it ran for one series of six episodes. Unlike traditional sitcoms or comedy television shows, it was to some extent an opportunity for stand-up routines by various comedians, mixed with an overall story involving much black humour. It is significant for involving a large number of British comedians, many who have gone on to work on some of the most successful comedy programmes of the 2000s. It marked the first collaboration of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who would go on to make cult sitcom Spaced. Many of the characters names were the same as those of the actors who portrayed them.

David Devant & His Spirit Wife were the "house band" for the series, performing segments in every episode, from their first album, Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous. The lead-in track "Ginger" served as the programme's title music.

The series has yet to be released on DVD.

Asylum (also known as House of Crazies in subsequent US releases) is a 1972 British horror film made by Amicus Productions. The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker, produced by Milton Subotsky, and scripted by Robert Bloch (who adapted four of his own short stories for the screenplay).

Baker had considerable experience as a director of horror films as he had tackled Quatermass and The Pit, and Scars of Dracula. Robert Bloch, who wrote the script for Asylum based on a series of his own short stories, was also the author of the novel Psycho, which Alfred Hitchcock directed as a film.

It is a horror anthology film, one of several produced by Amicus during the 1960s and 1970s. Others were Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Torture Garden, Tales from the Crypt, The House That Dripped Blood, The Vault of Horror, and From Beyond the Grave.

Shot in April 1972, the film was edited and set for release 15 weeks after the final day of shooting, premièring in July 1972 in the UK. The film had its North American début on 17 November 1972.

Asylum is a 2003 American short documentary film directed by Sandy McLeod. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

"Asylum" is an original BBC Radio 4 audio play written by Anita Sullivan and is a spin-off from the British science fiction television series Torchwood, itself a spin-off from Doctor Who. This episode aired on 1 July 2009 on BBC Radio 4. It stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones, Tom Price as PC Andy Davidson, and Erin Richards as Freda.

In ancient Greece and Rome, an asylum referred to a place where people facing persecution could seek refuge. These locations were largely religious in nature, such as temples and other religious sites.

Asylum is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Disturbed. Asylum is meant to take a fresh direction in the band's music career, while remaining consistent with the band's previous albums. Most of the lyrical content was inspired by aspects of frontman David Draiman's life prior to making the album. The album was released on August 31, 2010 in the United States through Reprise Records. A tour in support of the album, titled the Asylum Tour, started in late August 2010. Asylum is also the third consecutive Disturbed album to not feature the Parental Advisory label (although the deluxe version on iTunes is marked explicit for live versions of their earlier material from The Sickness).

Asylum debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200 chart with sales of approximately 179,000 according to Nielsen Soundscan. This is the fourth consecutive number-one album in the U.S. for Disturbed. The other two bands ever to accomplish this feat in the Soundscan era are metal band Metallica and folk rock/ jam band Dave Matthews Band. On March 31, 2011, Asylum was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Asylum is the ninth major label album release of the Japanese rock band The Back Horn. The album was released on September 15, 2010.

Asylum is a 1996 gothic fiction novel by British author Patrick McGrath. The novel is the chronicle of a story about self-obsession narrated by the point of view of a psychiatrist. It was adapted into a 2005 film directed by David Mackenzie.

Asylum is a 1972 documentary film about a therapeutic community for people with schizophrenia at Philadelphia Association Communities in London. It features the co-founders of the community, Leon Redler and R. D. Laing.

Asylum is a 2014 American horror comedy film directed by Todor Chapkanov. The movie was released to DVD in Japan on April 4, 2014 and was released in the United States on June 2, 2015. Asylum is part of After Dark's "After Dark Originals" series and stars Stephen Rea as a man who must stop his brother from releasing the forces of darkness upon the world.

Asylum is an upcoming horror video game developed by Senscape, an independent video game developer located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The game is being authored by Agustín Cordes, who previously designed the game Scratches for the now defunct developer Nucleosys. Taking place in a fictional insane asylum called the Hanwell Mental Institute, players will be able to fully explore the institute, which is partially based on elements of real asylums. The game will have "twisty storytelling" and "horrifying revelations," and an atmosphere-focused style of horror, much like Scratches.

The game was officially announced on July 9, 2010 after a previous viral marketing campaign that involved a series of online videos posted on YouTube alleged to be posted by an escaped inmate called Leonard Huntings. A fake website for the Hanwell Mental Institute was also created. The first official screenshots were posted on August 12, 2011.

On January 29, 2013, Agustín Cordes opened a Kickstarter campaign to raise , which would be used to accelerate the game's development. On February 28, 2013, it successfully raised , thus securing additional fundings to port the game to iPad and Android.

Asylum is a quarterly not-for-profit publication described by its creators as a "forum for debate about mental health and psychiatry". It is based in the UK, and was first published in 1986. It was established by Alec Jenner, Phil Virden, Lin Bigwood, among others. It is currently published by PCCS books, and is run by an editorial collective of unpaid volunteers. The magazine contains articles, cartoons, news and comments and a creative writing section, covering controversial issues around psychiatry. Anyone can submit content to the magazine, but the Editorial Collective claims to "particuatly focus on content that would not be found in the mainstream press". The magazine was re-launched in 2010, after a short break. Inspired by the Democratic Psychiatry movement in Italy, the first issue contained a long interview with R. D. Laing. The Magazine runs conferences, public meetings and other events.