Behind the walls of a mental hospital

By Thom Patterson, CNN

Updated 0005 GMT (0805 HKT) August 19, 2015

A patient plays with a soap bubble inside a mental hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Photographer Aun Raza documented the lives of patients there from 2011 to 2014.
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A patient plays with a soap bubble inside a mental hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Photographer Aun Raza documented the lives of patients there from 2011 to 2014.
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Men sit in a dining area at the hospital. After about 70 visits, Raza said he found something surprising: Some patients, he thought, were saner than many people he encountered in his daily life outside the hospital.
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Men sit in a dining area at the hospital. After about 70 visits, Raza said he found something surprising: Some patients, he thought, were saner than many people he encountered in his daily life outside the hospital.
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"There is a desire in them to be seen, to be given attention -- and above all -- to be loved," said Raza, who is from Lahore.
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"There is a desire in them to be seen, to be given attention -- and above all -- to be loved," said Raza, who is from Lahore.
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Many patients end up spending most of their lives shut away from society, Raza said: "A few of them die natural deaths there. Some of them at times commit suicide."