Feb 27, 2025 By Brad Hundt 3 min read

In an admissions logbook for the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane compiled between 1864 and 1889, some of the activities that were believed to have sparked their patients’ breakdowns were recorded.

They included “vicious vices,” “political excitement,” “religious enthusiasm,” “hard study,” “snuff eating” and “novel reading.”

In the century-and-a-half since, we have learned much more about mental health – what it takes to become and stay mentally healthy and how mental illness develops. Though stigmas still exist, we no longer assume that mental illness results from some lack of willpower or demonic possession, and we have a greater understanding of how mental illness can be treated.

The science of mental health is explored in the exhibit “Mental Health: Mind Matters,” which opens at the Carnegie Science Center this Saturday and continues through Aug. 17. Created by the Science Museum of Minnesota and Heureka: The Finnish Science Centre in Finland, it has interactive activities, displays, and opportunities to hear firsthand descriptions of individuals dealing with mental health conditions.

The video images of people discussing the issues they are confronting “helps to create some significant empathy,” according to Jason Brown, the Carnegie Science Center’s director. “They are really important.”

“Mental Health: Mind Matters” does cover some serious ground compared to some of the other traveling exhibits that have made stops at the Science Center in recent years – “It can be pretty heavy,” Brown concedes – but he believes said it fits into the center’s mission of bringing important issues in science to the foreground.

“It falls outside what people might traditionally expect from the Science Center,” Brown explained. “We want to focus on the most relevant issues in science. And you can’t get more relevant than mental health.”

Indeed, 1 in 5 adults in the United States experiences some form of mental illness every year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In Pennsylvania, 1.8 million adults live with some type of mental health condition.

Some of the interactive activities in “Mental Health: Mind Matters” offer insight into emotional regulation, and how things like exercise and art can help. Mental health challenges can be experienced by stepping into the world of a family where depression casts a pall. A distorting mirror offers a glimpse at how someone with eating disorders views their body. Noise-distorting headphones simulate what auditory hallucinations are like, a “worry shredder” offers a symbolic way to relieve anxiety and stress, and the history of mental health is examined, and how both treatments and perceptions have evolved through time.

As Brown puts it, “Mental health is health.”

For the exhibit, the Carnegie Science Center has teamed up with many community health partners that will help visitors connect with local resources, programs and discussions. The Allegheny Health Network, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Jewish Family and Community Services are among the organizations that will be visiting the Science Center throughout the run of “Mental Health: Mind Matters.”

The exhibit does come with a content advisory, since some of its elements simulate the experiences of people with mental health conditions.

For additional information call 412-237-3400 or go online to carnegiesciencecenter.org.