“Ten Days in a Mad-House,” is a book written in the late nineteenth by newspaper reporter Nellie Bly. Bly went undercover, in journalism known as investigative reporting, to understand whether or not claims of abuse and mistreatment in mental hospitals and asylums were true or not. She acted as if she were insane and was admitted into an all women asylum on Blackwell’s Island for ten days. In order for a reader to appreciate her book, they need to recognize the history and culture of the nineteenth century, and the context of mental hospitals and institutions in the same era. Two articles that I have found, give an understanding of this. “A Beautiful Mind,” by Tasha Stanley, is an article explaining the history of treatment, rather than the culture of the way mental patients were supposed to be “cured.” “The History of Mental Illness,” by Allison Foerschner is the opposite almost, in the way that it gives history on the culture and the era, which helps the reader put themselves in Nelly’s book and realize how the culture got to be what it was in the late nineteenth century. These two sources give the reader a background on the subject at matter, being the claims of exploitation and animal-like handling in these asylums that are supposed to support the patients, so that the reader can read “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” with a stronger understanding. 

In “A Beautiful Mind: The History of the Treatment of Mental Illness,” by Tasha Stanley, Stanley explains and gives detailed thoughts and opinions on techniques and treatments used throughout history. She states in her personal opinion that most of these treatments were “. . . making them (patients) ghosts of their previous selves” (Stanley). The article proves that along with the changes of mental illness treatment came a change of the social stigma on the illnesses. This social stigma being the thought that people with mental illness were not people who should be in society or could not be productive in civilization because of their “insanity,” and also that they should be confined to their own spaces. The article also sheds light on the past all the way back to B.C.E when psychological illness was perceived as a person being possessed by demons. In “5th and 3rd century B.C.E” (Stanley), philosophers began to note that the illnesses were triggered by natural occurrences in the body. As noted previously, patients quickly became forced into restricted spaces, separating them from the world. Many of these spaces were jails or murky rooms similar to dungeons, which can make someone even more “mental” than they were before, living in small, closed off, and dark space like these. These small spaces soon became hospitals, institutions, or asylums, where the spaces became hospital rooms where they were similar to jail cells and dungeons, and society thought that the setting would be changed but in truth it was the same. In the article it is also explained that in these asylums it became apparent that most of the treatments used were abuse, abandonment by caretakers, treatment like animals, staff were untrained, and “some were (patients) put on display” (Stanley).

In the article “The History of Mental Illness: From Skull Drills to Happy Pills,” by Allison Foerschner, she describes the history and diversity of treatments for mental illness throughout time. She provides examples and details on the different theories each era and culture had on mental illness, and the way they decided to treat it. Foerschner keeps the time periods in chronological order throughout the article so that it is not too confusing and the information can be followed fluently. She mentions different asylums that were used throughout history, describing their treatment methods, and vivid description of how awful the hospitals really were. She not only mentions hospital names, but also credible names of important doctors throughout time, listing their contributions to the way the asylums were shaped throughout the years. The article is greatly informative and in my opinion is also absolutely credible because of the references and research she uses on the topic. She briefly explains many theories and treatments that have been used that I believe link each treatment to the next. The way she organizes the information makes it seem that each theory and treatment plan come from the one previous, which happens often in science. Foerschner’s article is important to read because it can help understand the history of mental illness treatments in cultures and time periods, and how treatment has gotten where it is today.

Could you imagine you or a loved one being admitted into places like these? I know I couldn’t. It has been known that most of these women admitted were never insane. The system in which the hospitals were run is what pushed them over the edge and caused them to act out the way they did. People say that back in the same time that Nelly Bly admitted herself, husbands would declare their wives as crazy for things like talking too much, not talking enough, if she doesn’t clean and cook enough, or even if they get too “overweight” for their husbands liking. This went on for years, all the way through the sixties, and it probably still goes on today. In my view, as a woman, I am fascinated by this history because I know for a fact being the woman I am today, I would probably be put into one of these cells they liked to call havens or shelters. Many women I know would be too. Nellie Bly’s courageous move to investigate these places and then write a book about it was the best thing for women at the time. As a reader, I think people should take that into account when they read her book, and I think articles like the ones I provided are supportive enough to do so. I think in order to really recognize one’s self as a woman, women should be mindful of where they came from, and what their ancestors had to go through in order to get to where we are today. That thought goes for other things that happened though history, too. Just like what happened at the asylums, people with mental illnesses today should know what they would have had to go through in order to feel a little more of an understanding of how they also got to where they are today.

It is important when reading a book to understand the culture, history, and context of the era and the topic, in order to correctly analyze the book as a whole and what underlying tones are in it to point out and recognize. In order to do that when providing an analysis to readers is to have supportive sources that can back up what the author wrote about and what it means in regard to the setting it was written in. In my analysis I believe that I did this by using the two articles “The History of Mental Illness,” and “A Beautiful Mind.” Foerschner provides a way to bring Nelly’s book to light through providing explanation of not only the history, but the experiences that people went through, which can bring a more personal feeling for the reader and is more effective to get an argument across. “A Beautiful Mind,” does the same but in the opposite order. The article tells the reader the context and history of stigmas about mental illness to do the same thing for effect as the previous article. It’s even better than the first source because it is effective in communicating with the reader and telling them the chronological order about the stigma of mental illness. We went from theories of demons, to asylums, to medicine and therapy. Nelly Bly’s contribution is one piece of history out of many that have brought a minority of people where they are today.
