Mental health has been an ambiguous idea in our society since its discovery in 5000 B.C., when doctors first attempted to treat the illness. However, there has never been one answer or one treatment (Porter 10). The idea of mental health was similar to the definition of insanity towards the beginning of its discovery, but it drastically evolved into a much larger issue and complex thought than merely deeming someone a “crazy person.” During the initial treatment of mental illness doctors had very little certification, if any at all. They believed the disease was developed from a supernatural phenomenon such as a spiritual or demonic possession (Foerschner). Some of the treatments that doctors performed required serious training, but since most doctors back then had little or no qualification, many injuries or deaths occurred. Treatment for mental illness remained inadequate for a while, although people were beginning to gain more knowledge about disease and treatment. This can be seen in Nellie Bly’s work “Ten Days in a Mad-House” where Bly, in 1887, feigned insanity to be committed to Women’s Lunatic Asylum in order to gain perspective on treatment of patients within the mental health system. Bly was committed as a patient for 10 days where she endured severe treatments, punishments, and isolation. In turn, Bly developed reasonable conclusions and spurred the investigations of the asylum which changed the policies regarding the treatment of mentally ill women. During Nellie Bly’s sojourn at the institution she endured horrifying conditions of the asylum and due to her exposure to these conditions, Bly developed imposter syndrome, where she believed she was mentally impaired. 

Ten Days in a Mad-House is a book that contains a compilation of articles written by Nellie Bly in 1887. Bly was a journalist who wrote about factory conditions before moving to New York City. When moving to New York City, Bly feigned insanity to enter the Women’s Lunatic Asylum in order to gain knowledge of how the patients were treated, which lead to Bly to state that “the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.”(522).These words detailed by Bly are demonstrated from her experience in the asylum. In order to gain admittance into the insane asylum, she practiced lunatic faces in front of the mirror, stopped brushing her teeth, and started dressing in second hand clothes. She then roamed around until she was deemed unfit for the safety of society. Bly was entered in the asylum posing as a Cuban immigrant, Nellie Moreno.  As soon as Bly arrived at the asylum, she dropped her act of being insane, but she was still diagnosed as “insane”. Here, Bly writes about how the lack of experience in the doctors made it impossible for her to be recognized as a sane person, “Strange to say, the more sanely I talked and acted, the crazier I was thought to be” (Bly).  As her experience continued in the asylum, things continued to get worse. She was there to investigate the reports of neglect on the patients in the asylum; however, she did not know that she was going to experience brutal neglect first hand. After her 10-day experience in the mad house, the editor of The Worlds Newspaper sent an attorney to arrange for Nelli Moreno’s (Bly) release. Once released she began to edit her articles, which would soon take the form of a book. Two days later, the paper ran the first instalment of Bly’s story titled “Behind Asylum Bar’s.” Once the story broke news, Bly became a star journalist for her courageous effort to change the conditions of the mental health system, but for Bly it was not about the fame. She did this for the women in the asylum she attended and for patients in asylums all around the world. A month after her book was released, major changes had been made to the conditions of the asylum and the qualifications needed to become a doctor at one. Bly’s world-famous investigation report helped bring reform to asylums all around the world. 

During Nellie Bly’s stay in Women’s Lunatic Asylum she encountered the most treacherous conditions of her life, she wrote about “oblivious doctors, and coarse, massive orderlies who chocked and beat and harassed patients, and expectorated tobacco juice about on the floor in a manner more skillful than charming.” Those conditions are not acceptable for any human being to live in. The article “History of Mental Health” explains the history of mental health from the early 1800’s to the 2000’s. It discusses how mental illness is treated in modern times, and how it was handled in the past. The article touches on how society approaches and handles mental illness, which is what Bly wanted to change. She wanted to make the point that the way society handles mental illness needs to vary from one human to another, and that the tests deem whether someone is mentally ill need to be different and be more in depth. When Bly was younger her father died, and her mother had no claim to anything that he owned, which cemented her views about women’s rights. The article then elaborated how in the past, women would be treated differently for their “mental illnesses” than men. She went in fighting for all patients, but then she came to the realization that the treatment of women was much worse than the treatment of men. When she was released after the ten days, she fought for better conditions for women in asylums. She endured harsh treatment first hand including solitary confinement, hair pulling, and much more. She stated “… I could not sleep, so I lay in bed picturing to myself the horrors in case a fire should break out in the asylum…In the one building alone there are, I think Dr. Ingram told me, some three hundred women. They are locked, one to ten in a room. It is impossible to get out unless these doors are unlocked” (Bly). Until Nellie entered the asylum to fix the conditions, no steps were going to be made to fix the horrible system.  The way former doctors and nurses handled women in mental asylums was not humane; they were spoken to like animals, as if they couldn’t understand what was being asked of them. The diagnosis of having a mental condition was also not diagnosed in the proper way either, if you didn’t speak English you were found insane because you didn’t understand anything. Doretha Dix’s conducted a study in Boston where she researched mental health and the facilities and how they were handled. During her study, it was said that she might have had a mental illness, but she still conducted interviews with numerous people. As the years went on, the asylum conditions worsened instead of getting better. They compared insane asylums to jails. While conditions got worse, more and more people entered the asylum instead of being left on the street, soon there were no mentally ill people roaming on the street. Nellie Bly sacrificed her life to fix these conditions because she didn’t want the treatment of women in the asylums to stay like this; they were being treated like animals in cages and Bly wanted to put a stop to it. 

While Nellie Bly entered the insane asylum doing her journalistic investigation to improve the conditions of the “Mad-House,” she made everyone believe she was mentally ill, she fooled the doctors into believing she was something she was not. Bly completely took the role of insane to a whole new level. Due to her act of being a mentally insane patient to gain evidence of the poor conditions and wrongful treatment to the women, she eventually began to develop “imposter syndrome.” It is a mental effect on the brain, not classified as a disease but more of a personality trait or disposition, in which people experience intense feelings of fraudulence and desperation for attention (Porter). Toward the beginning, Bly was completely sane, but as the chapters go on she devolved from a normal human and began to feel sick and insane. Although Bly picks up this personality trait and acts as a human she is not, it gives her a firsthand look at what these women are experiencing in the insane asylum. “Imposter syndrome” allows Bly to think, act, and be treated as one of them with no outside influence over her real thoughts and actions. Bly’s experience of feeling like an insane patient allows her to find incredible evidence to change the way patients were treated and the environment in the insane asylum. Knowing the historical background of the “imposter syndrome” allows us to better understand and realize what made her change and the advantages she got out of thinking like a mentally insane human. It gave insight to the actual ideology of imposters and what Bly was feeling in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum.

The book Ten Days in a Mad-House is “no mere armchair observation, because Bly got herself committed to Blackwell’s and wrote such a shocking expose, the series of articles became a world-famous investigative report which helped bring reform to the asylum” (Foerschner). Foerschner elaborates on how Bly discovered and reported such an important topic. If Bly did not risk her life by entering the asylum, the conditions of today’s mental health institutions might have stayed the same. Today’s generation might not understand how horrifying the quality of mental institutions actually was if it weren’t for Bly’s work. The history of mental asylums was completely revolutionized because of Bly’s exposé. Bly changed the qualifications it took to become a doctor or nurse to work with mentally ill patients; before she entered the asylum one only needed minimal experience, but thanks to Bly, the treatment of the women was drastically changed for the better along with doctor’s qualifications. In today’s world if one had minimum experience with medicine they would not be able to get close to a hospital. Not only did she change the criteria of the staff but she changed the conditions, the food, and the cleanliness of asylums. Without Bly’s investigative report, insane asylums wouldn’t be the way they are today. If Bly did not endure imposter syndrome we would not completely understand what it was like to be sane in a mental institution. Many people in institutions were sane back in 1887, but there were language barriers and other disorders that people did not understand like nervous breakdowns, anxiety, or depression. With the help of Bly, the diagnosis of someone being deemed mentally insane changed and because of that we started to look deeper into disorders that weren’t “crazy”. Bly helped us understand these disorders and treatments because these types of disorders were curable. Without Bly’s sacrifice and her book Ten Days in a Mad-House, we would miss all the amazing discoveries and advancements of mental illnesses and mental asylums. 

During Nellie Bly’s investigations at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum she endured the horrifying conditions of the asylum and because of the exposure, Bly developed imposter syndrome, where she believed she was an actual mental patient. It is important that we learn about how mental illnesses were treated in the past to see how far we have come along in society, but we also need to continue to make improvements. Bly was a pioneer in journalism who revealed the inadequacies of mental institutions across America. Due to her work, many variations were made in insane asylums. Without Bly’s work, we would not be where we are today with mental health, as she helped draw the line between having a mental illness and being insane. In a time when depression and suicide rates are at an all-time high it is extremely important that we are aware of mental illnesses so that we can help those around us in order to make society better overall.
