
In the nineteenth century, mental health was not seen as much of a societal issue. People that were sent to asylums to live were simply seen as “insane,” not so much mentally ill. Not only that, but institutions holding these insane individuals were places where husbands could send their wives if they were to threaten divorce, or do anything else that the husband did not approve of or find acceptable. These institutions were more comparable to a prison than anything else. The conditions were poor, the staff were hostile, and the patients were treated as if they weren’t human beings at all. Nellie Bly, a nineteenth century reporter, faked insanity in order to get herself sent to an insane asylum. While she was there, she recorded what she saw with the other patients, as well as what she herself experienced. Her writings were then published as a book entitled “Ten Days in a Madhouse.” Her writings portrayed the true horrors of the insane asylum in which she was confined in, in terms of how the patients were treated, the attitudes of the employees, and just the poor conditions of the institution itself. Nellie Bly’s book supports the idea that these institutions were poorly established because of the previously stated fact that not much was known about mental health, nor was it much cared about.

Around the time period Bly’s book was published, the year 1887, there was a high mental health stigma in society. Doctors state that stigmas “usually arrive from lack of awareness, lack of education, lack of perception, and the nature and the complications of the mental illness” (Shrivastava). In nineteenth century culture, mental health was not much discussed or prioritized. The mental patients in the Blackwell asylum that Bly had herself confined too were not differentiated between, they were simply all described as “insane.” No one could specify what was wrong with each individual patient because no one knew. Present day, there are lists of different mental illnesses that could be applied to any given individual. But, back then, mental patients were generalized. 

The institutions that housed the mentally insane in the 1800’s were awful. Specifically, the asylum on Blackwell Island, which held the famous reporter Nellie Bly, was dirty and not well built. The patients were barely fed, and were practically confined to one room for the majority of most of their days. It has been written that “convicts from the nearby penitentiary were used as guards and attendants, so that in the words of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, the patients were “abandoned to the tender mercies of thieves and prostitutes”” (Boardman). The members of this institution were unfairly treated by these guards and attendants. Blackwell only had two wings to hold their patients in, so not only was it filthy, but it was overcrowded too. Blackwell asylum has been known to be referred to as “a human rat-trap” (Boardman). 

The inference that can be made about the correlation between the lack of knowledge of mental illnesses and the overall poor conditions of the institutions housing the mentally ill is that this lack of knowledge is what led to the poor conditions. Funding for the establishment of asylums was very poor because in society, mental health issues were not prioritized. The government would not give the financial area of building these institutions a lot of money because mental health was not talked or known about. Why spend a lot of funding on an institution holding people whose problems were not frequently discussed? And the reason behind them not being frequently discussed is that no one knew what to say. Bly’s book led to the increase of funding for the particular “lunatic” asylum on Blackwell Island, but even then it was not much improved. A source states, “In the wake of the scathing report, administrative changes followed, but the image of the asylum as a human rat trap lingered. The half-built, overcrowded, convict-supervised asylum was a symbol for the unrealized goals and the blatant failure so extensively covered in the press. The New York City Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island closed in 1894” (Boardman). 

Since the nineteenth century, the stigma of mental health has decreased, and continues to do so as more is discovered about mental illnesses. But back then, it was this high stigma and lack of knowledge that led to the establishment of poor quality institutions for the mentally ill. Nellie Bly’s book “Ten Days in a Madhouse” helped to uncover the harsh realities of these asylums, the one found on Blackwell island in particular. Because the cultural and societal knowledge of mental health has grown, the institutions that are now meant for holding those with mental illnesses have improved too. Mental health has come a long way since the 1800’s. 
