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Elon Musk has earned a reputation for his wild suggestions on social media, yet his latest call-to-action has seen the tech mogul demand the return of a worrying institution that was phased out in America over 50 years ago.
Despite technology being his forte, Elon Musk has never shied away from giving his own opinion on the topics which he believes currently ail the United States, with everything from politics to healthcare dominating his social media feeds.
He's previously called for an invasion of the United Kingdom, demanded the arrest of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, and commented on the 'health crisis' facing America, yet his most recent suggestion might just be his wildest yet.
Sharing on X, Musk has now called for the US government to bring back psychiatric hospitals – often colloquially referred to as mental asylums – with a call to 'Make Asylums Great Again'.
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He quoted a post from BRICS News announcing this new position from Musk, adding "Seriously" to the claim.
Seriously https://t.co/YTi3j7KBnw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2026
While psychiatric hospitals were never officially outlawed or made illegal in the United States, the process of deinstitutionalization across the 1950s and 1960s transitioned many of these unethical practices into community mental health services.
The process was led by legal reforms and growing public opposition to the unethical practices displayed within these institutions, and only a fraction of state-run psychiatric hospitals still exist across the nation, with the number of beds plummeting from approximately 558,000 in 1955 to just 37,679 in 2016, as per The Lemur.
Musk, however, wants these to return in full, subjecting hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of Americans suffering from mental health issues to draconian and unethical practices once again.
One user replying to Musk's post declared that they "can't understand why they were ever shutdown," but many clarified the horrifying practices in response, acting as a reminder as to why these institutions were closed and should never be reopened.
Probably because they were literally torturing the mentally disabled through shock therapy and cutting out pieces of their brains.
— Digiorno Giovanni (@Gio_Digiorno) February 18, 2026
"Maybe we tech you about this little thing called a lobotomy," argued one commenter, with another noting that it's "probably because they were literally torturing the mentally disabled through shock therapy and cutting out pieces of their brains."
Others have pointed out the immense financial strain that reopening state-run facilities would place on a government that is already in significant debt — although Musk's former position within the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) might suggest that he'd be willing this to be operated on a private level, opening the door up to further ethical issues.
