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A review by exlibrisalex
Ten Days in A Mad-House: Illustrated and Annotated: A First-Hand Account of Life At Bellevue Hospital on Blackwell's Island in 1887 by Nellie Bly
4.0
A Victorian exposé by a female journalist (surely an oddity for the time period) on the daily happenings inside Bellevue hospital, specifically the Woman's Lunatic Asylum. Nellie Bly (real name Elizabeth Cochran Seaman) was given the assignment of posing as an insane person by the famous Joseph Pulitzer himself with the express purpose of being admitted to the institution. At the time little was known of the treatment of insane persons within such an institute, nor the manner or method of "curing" or easing mental diseases. What took place in a lunatic ward was sure to pique the interest of readers at a time when there was little-to-no transparency on how such a place was run, or on the assumedly bizarre and grotesque behaviors of their residents. The only other glimpse into such an environment was published by Charles Dickens several decades prior and it painted a hellish caricature of patients that whetted the interest of readers on the topic.
While I had a fair understanding that is was not uncommon for sane women to be committed to such institutions (usually by husbands, fathers-in-law, nephews, etc in order to extricate themselves from the burden of supporting said women, or due to pure displeasure of their company - Dickens himself purportedly tried such a trick with his wife Catherine) I was astonished at how little it took for Nellie to be committed. Little both in time and in effort. To be a woman in those days who caused the slightest bit of annoyance or deviation from societal norms and to the mad house you would be sent!
As can be expected, the male doctors were incompetent, uninterested in their patients, and none too concerned in mistakenly classifying a sane person as insane. The nurses was sadistic and cruel. The food spoiled and rotten. Beatings frequent. And no inspiriting or engaging activities were to be had that might nourish the mind of the patients or happily distract them from the reality that they were sentenced for life in an insane asylum. The day was spent sitting on uncomfortable benches, while books, talking, needlework, etc were prohibited. On other days they were instructed to do hard, unpaid labor.
At the end of ten days stay, Pulitzer ensured Nellie's release and upon publication of the article and some investigation, $1 million per annum additional was funded to the Hospital in order to alleviate some of the hardships the patients experienced (poor food, not enough soap, too little clothing, etc). Nellie Bly, along with Mary Jane Ward (author of The Snake Pit), were central to the implementation of better reforms in public institutions housing and caring for "insane" persons.
While I had a fair understanding that is was not uncommon for sane women to be committed to such institutions (usually by husbands, fathers-in-law, nephews, etc in order to extricate themselves from the burden of supporting said women, or due to pure displeasure of their company - Dickens himself purportedly tried such a trick with his wife Catherine) I was astonished at how little it took for Nellie to be committed. Little both in time and in effort. To be a woman in those days who caused the slightest bit of annoyance or deviation from societal norms and to the mad house you would be sent!
As can be expected, the male doctors were incompetent, uninterested in their patients, and none too concerned in mistakenly classifying a sane person as insane. The nurses was sadistic and cruel. The food spoiled and rotten. Beatings frequent. And no inspiriting or engaging activities were to be had that might nourish the mind of the patients or happily distract them from the reality that they were sentenced for life in an insane asylum. The day was spent sitting on uncomfortable benches, while books, talking, needlework, etc were prohibited. On other days they were instructed to do hard, unpaid labor.
At the end of ten days stay, Pulitzer ensured Nellie's release and upon publication of the article and some investigation, $1 million per annum additional was funded to the Hospital in order to alleviate some of the hardships the patients experienced (poor food, not enough soap, too little clothing, etc). Nellie Bly, along with Mary Jane Ward (author of The Snake Pit), were central to the implementation of better reforms in public institutions housing and caring for "insane" persons.