        The history involving the treatment of mental illness in the United States is one of controversy and turbulence. Attitudes towards mental illness in the current century have changed drastically since the initial attempts to treat and care for people suffering from mental disease.  The investigative journalism of Nellie Bly into an all woman’s lunatic asylum shed light on the shortcomings of mental health treatment in the 1880’s. The result was the realization that the environment in which the patients were being treated in, stripped them of their individuality. The treatment of the women in the asylum mirrored their treatment outside, they were subjected to the same removal of identity by the asylum as they were by their husbands. 

        The first historical accounts of the “treatment” of the mentally ill were during the witchcraft era in Salem and elsewhere (Duke 678). Looking back, it is assumed that the witches were most likely mentally ill. Nothing was known about mental illness at the time so they were treated as if they were witches. The improper treatment and negative stigma attached to mental illness originated from this point. These witches were: 

hanged, imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise persecuted as agents of Satan. Regarded as sub-human beings, they were chained in specially devised kennels and wild beasts, and thrown into prisons, bridewells and jails like criminals. They were incarcerated in workhouse dungeons, or made to slave as able-bodied paupers, unclassified from the rest. They were left to wander about stark naked, driven from place to mad dogs, subjected to whippings as vagrants and rogues. Even the well-to-do spared confinement in strong rooms and cellar dungeons (Duke 678). 

The poor treatment of the people they assumed to be possessed by Satan shows the lack of knowledge on mental illness people of the time period had. 

We fast forward to the 19th century and we see that knowledge on mental illness has grown. It was during this time that people came to the realization that mentally ill persons were, “sick rather than cursed” and “institutions for the insane” were created (Duke 678).  Besides the establishment of institutions, the treatment of the person had made no major strides: “A poor institution for the insane, it was believed, was better than none. Consequently, hell-holes and ‘Bedlams’ were tolerated as providing at least a modicum care for the mentally ill, while serving to protect society” (Duke 678). Besides the facilities being poor, the most serious issue involved the informal commitment procedure and the problems that arose from it (Duke 679). This problem led to many cases of people being wrongfully committed. We see this in Nellie Bly’s stay at Blackwell Island. Women had no ability to fight their commitment. The 1851 commitment statute stated that, "married women and infants who, in the judgment of the medical superintendents . . . may be entered or detained at the request of the husband or the guardian of the infant, without the evidence required in other cases” (Duke 679).  Bly’s writing highlighted this injustice as well as the ones that occurred once they were confined to the walls of the asylum.

After being committed to the asylum through the compulsory process, the patients’ experience only worsened. Once the patients were forced through the doors they were stripped of their individuality and became a number among a sea of others in the overcrowded asylum. At one point Bly said: 

. . . take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from 6:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane. Two months would make her a mental and physical wreck (293). 

This is the kind of treatment these women experienced while imprisoned in the asylums. Studies “attest to the continuance of the stripping of the patient, loss of their individuality, and dignity, depersonalization, and demoralization” (Duke 681). We see the loss of all of these in Bly’s first-hand account. 

The statements made by Lindsay in “The Ethical Value of Individuality”, pertaining individuality and personality are confirmed by the actions, or lack thereof, of the asylum’s patients. Within the asylum, every aspect of life was structured and identical. The nurses instructed the patients and they were forced to do as they were told. If the instructions weren’t followed punishments were enforced. Bly’s experience as well as others, “demonstrates that too often public and legislative concern for the rights of the mentally ill has ceased at the asylum door . . . those who enter the hospital are subsequently deprived of even nominal rights and liberties” (Duke 698). The women are stripped for their showers, bathed in ice cold water and their hair is torn through with brushes. If they complain their treatment only worsens. Their individuality declines further after they are clothed in identical garments that allow for no distinction between patients. In the asylum there is no opportunity to express oneself, therefore there is no chance for anyone to show individuality. Women’s treatment in the walls of the asylum was comparable to their treatment outside. In the 1800’s women were the property of their husbands. Men wanted their wives to be homemakers. Women had to obey what their husbands commanded, just as they had to obey what the nurses commanded. If they did not follow what their husbands instructed they lived in fear of being committed to the asylums. Women were under rule of their husbands and could be committed under the 1851 commitment statute stated that, "married women and infants who, in the judgment of the medical superintendents . . . may be entered or detained at the request of the husband or the guardian of the infant, without the evidence required in other cases” (Duke 679).  The formation of individuality comes when a “soul which feels and loves” merges with a, “mind which thinks and comprehends”. The combination of a soul and mind creates an individual being, because no two souls and minds can think the exact same way the two together form “an indivisible unity” (Lindsay 423), but in the asylum the use of your individual soul and mind was not allowed. Even in your home the use of your individual soul and mind was not allowed because your husband thought for you.  The patients, who might as well have been called prisoners, were not allowed to make any of their own decisions. Due to the fact that there was no liberty or freedom in the asylum and the home, Lindsay would say that there is no way of expressing individuality. Play of individuality is, “necessary, for, if each individual were like every other, the community of individuals would cease to have any interest or respect for each other (Lindsay 442). We see this in the way the staff of the asylum treats the patients because, “commitment entails the restriction or loss of basic civil liberties and subjection to the regimens of custodial control” (Duke 683). The combination of the loss of civil liberties upon entrance to the asylum, and the lack of respect makes the patients different in the eyes of the staff. The result is the inhumane treatment because of the lack of respect and as a consequence the patients have no individuality. 

Bly’s experience within the walls of the asylum allowed for massive strides to be made in the lives of committed patients across the country. Her writings brought attention to the poor environment in which they were being treated in. People across the country realized mental patients had no rights in the current system and changes needed to be made. Today people suffering from mental illness receive the same respect that all other members of society get and they are allowed to be the individual that they are.
