Was Frances Raped While In The Institution ?

Most likely not. The allegation has two sources, "Shadowland," whose author admits his book was "fictionalized," and "Will There Really Be a Morning?," whose author admitted she sensationalized the institution scenes to facilitate a sale of both the book and hoped for movie rights. In her own correspondence and self-written memoirs, Frances never said anything about this.

I'd say 'no', too. The movie seemed to take a lot of liberties with Farmers' story. But it's Hollywood, and they've never much evolved past Snake Pit/Cuckoo's Nest when it comes to depicting mental institutions. So of course the doctors are all borderline OCD personalities, of course the patients are abused, of course they resort to draconian measures to keep the patients under control. Without the lobotomy and the rape this movie probably wouldn't have been made.

She said she was but apparently that's been disputed. Who knows. I'm sure Hollywood, her family, and the hospital would like everyone to believe that Frances wasn't treated as badly and that they didn't fail her. We don't want to believe that she was raped and lobotimized, but I wouldn't discount it completely.