Willie had amnesia, that was the reason for the commitment I think.
As for mental 'hospitals', Willie was lucky. In real life, he would have experienced damage to the brain from forced anti-psychotic drugs. He would have been considered 'improved' after that, but disconnectedness and apathy from the drugs look like improvement to psychiatrists, who judge sanity by whether the subject is agitated, or instead, "manageable". In extreme cases the results can be a sort of zombification... certainly "manageable" but not beneficial.
It's a complicated subject, which is hardly ever talked about in public. Perfectly in keeping with a horror TV show, actually. It's not that psychiatry fails with all patients... it's just that the proportion of failure and damage to patients' lives is very high.
Agreed.
What I hate about this storyline is that Willie comes back as a sort of baffoon. He's lost all of his street-sense smarts and cow tows to Barnabas and Julia's demands. He is aware of right and wrong, but cannot positively connect with what he should do.
"Hey, dig up a coffin for me."
It's just like the audio dramas. I can't stand the way they portray Willie. He's an oaf and a loser. No. He is not. He's a complicated man with a bad history. So why did DC make him out to be a bafoon?
As far as Wyndecliffe is concerned, I suppose they were doing their best at the time; with what they had to work with back then.
I dunno. Somebody said earlier that Willie seemed to come out of it for the worse and I think they are right. He was not rehabilitated properly. But that's a soap for you.