This paper draws on a collaborative research project examining Rome’s Museum of Psychiatry (the Museo Laboratorio Della Mente). This museum, a former asylum, attempts to force an emotional engagement between visitors and (representations of) past and present sufferers of mental illness in order to further destigmatise such conditions. It employs a variety of sophisticated audio and video-based exhibits, as well as novel spatial and architectural forms. Our paper will explore the micropolitics of the attempt to elicit particular emotions in and through this space, drawing on current debates on the extent to which, or in what ways, affect can be modulated, directed or amplified.