
In Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House, Elizabeth Jane Cochran, under the pseudonym of Nellie Bly, wrote about the treatment of the mentally ill in insane asylums. Under the alias Nellie Brown, Cochran “feigned insanity in order to be committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum” (Bly 280). This form of journalism became known as stunt journalism in which a journalist goes undercover and gives firsthand accounts of their experience. Cochran is considered to be the pioneer of this form of journalism and her journalism helped change the way mentally ill were treated in the United States. Understanding how Cochran’s new form of investigation changed the journalism field and how effective it was in bringing about change emphasizes how important Ten Days in a Mad-House is.

Cochran focused on women’s rights and the treatment of women in all aspects of life. Her father died when she was young, and since he left no will, “her mother had no legal claim to his estate and struggled to support fifteen children” (Bly 280). As an eighteen year old, Cochran wrote a scathing “response to a sexist newspaper columnist” (Bly 280) that ended up getting her a job in journalism. As a young journalist, she focused on women’s rights in her writing. In Ten Days in a Mad-House, Cochran had herself committed in order to bring light to the treatment of women in insane asylums. She also “labored in a box factory” (Oputu) so that she could investigate the treatment of women in factories. Cochran’s early life led her to writing about women’s rights, and her interest in women’s rights is what lead to her to write her exposé on the treatment of women in insane asylums. 

Cochran and her stunt journalism brought about effective results. After Ten Days in a Mad-House was released, reaction towards the book “spurred an investigation of the institution and changed policy regarding the treatment of the mentally ill” (Bly 280). The release of this book caused “increasing funding to treat the mentally ill” (Todd 83). Other examples of stunt journalism by women brought about major change in many different areas. For example, around the same time as Cochran, another stunt reporter called the Girl Reporter was under cover as a pregnant woman trying to get an abortion. At the time, abortion was illegal, yet the Girl Reporter found plenty of doctors and midwives that would do it or who referred her to someone that would. After the exposé came out, The Times “packed its editorial page with demands that the law be enforced, abortion stamped out” (Todd 85). Cochran’s book brought about massive change not only in the treatment of the mentally ill, but also in the basis of investigative journalism, and this change in journalism allowed for changes that were much needed in other aspects of society.

The purpose of stunt journalism was to shed light on the mistreatment of certain groups of people and to enrage the audience. This made the newspaper a lot of money since everyone was reading and talking about their article, but it also helped bring change to the subject of the article. In the instance of the Girl Reporter, the story ran for weeks, and “letters to the editor poured in deep into January, bubbling with praise and outrage” (Todd 86). Cochran’s book enraged people enough to call a grand jury to launch its own investigation which ended in “the committee of appropriation provided $1,000,000 more than was ever before given, for the benefit of the insane” (Bly), and higher standards in order to be labeled as mentally ill. 

Most people during the time were not aware of the horrible conditions of insane asylums. Cochran describes in Ten Days in a Mad-House how the committed were not given proper clothing or food, were forced to sit in a room all day without talking, and were beaten and choked by the nurses. On being forced to sit in a room all day, Cochran notes, “What, excepting torture, would produce insanity quicker than this treatment?” (Bly 293). Cochran also describes how easy it is to be put into an insane asylum when she stated, “[The doctor] took no notice of my remarks, and having completed his writings, as well as his talk with the nurse for the moment, he said that would do” (Bly 284). The doctors did not pay attention to their patients and sentenced all of them as mentally ill which usually meant staying in the insane asylum for the rest of their lives. Back in the 1880s, anything could get a person committed from laziness to actual signs of mental illness, but none of the patients were receiving any form of treatment. The inmates were essentially prisoners with no rights and that are not innocent until proven guilty. Cochran talks about how she understands how a perfectly sane person could go insane under the conditions people had to face in insane asylums. Her book informed the public as to the conditions of the mentally insane and still provides generations with an account of the horrific conditions the mentally ill had to endure.

Cochran’s book gave insight into the mistreatment of the mentally ill and pioneered a new form of journalism. After researching more about Cochran, the importance of Ten Days in a Mad-House is much more clearer because Cochran was trying to bring about change to a broken and outdated system that mistreated women. Cochran kept one pseudonym which allowed her to rise to fame. Other women in the field did not feel that they were safe having only one alias, so they had many aliases and were not able to become as notable as Cochran since their stories were written under half a dozen different names. Cochran did not stop at mental illness. She also traveled the world in 72 days alone, went undercover to work in a sweatshop, and wrote about government corruption while in Mexico. The fact that her mother lost everything after her father died because he had left no will meaning her mother had no legal claim to the estate is what caused Cochran to become so interested in women’s rights. Her first job coming because of her voicing her opinion about equal rights for women showed that she had found a career in life that she was not only passionate about, but needed in. Cochran’s stunt journalism lead the way for better treatment of women and others that society did not deem equal. Her journalism not only brought about reform to what she wrote about, it also led the way for other women to start using stunt journalism to shed light on the darker parts of society. Most of the articles written using stunt journalism were on topics that the general population were unaware of. Bring these situations to light caused outrage which led to reform. Understanding how important Cochran’s form of journalism is to society helps build a greater appreciation for her book, Ten Days in a Mad-House.
