In “Ten Days in a Mad House”, Nellie Bly wrote, “The insane asylum on Blackwell Island is a human rat-trap. It’s easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.” In the late 1800’s, with knowledge of the potential outcomes, Nellie Bly faked her insanity in order to acquire important research regarding the treatment and conditions of American insane asylums. Bly experienced harsh and unbelievable conditions for the sake of saving the women affected by the asylum.  Throughout the excerpt from the full writing, Bly writes about the reasons why certain women were committed, as well as the incredible abuse some of the patients received. Bly was not the only one writing about what was happening at these American asylums. In the late 1880’s, New York daily papers were full of chilling stories about brutality and patient mishandle at the city's different mental institutions, written by many different journalists (DeMain 1). While there was a great deal of new information circulating the United States regarding the treatment of the mentally ill, it was also occurring in other places around the world, especially Europe, which can assist in verifying the accounts Bly experienced.  In “Ten Days in a Mad House”, Nellie Bly proves the negative and unfortunate treatment of patients in American asylums. 

In “Ten Days in a Mad House”, author Nellie Bly proves herself insane in order to gain research in regards to the conditions in American insane asylums. One issue she found while studying the inmates was the reasoning behind their commitment. Blackwell Island was specifically a “Women’s Lunatic Asylum” (Carolina Reader 280). She wrote about how there were foreign women, completely sane, who were committed simply because they couldn’t make themselves understood (DeMain 1). Many women seeked the help of mental illness facilities in order to escape their families or lives. Some were forced to be committed by their husbands due to how they acted in their homes, such as not being “domestic” enough. Bly noticed completely innocent foreigners being committed simply because they did not have the knowledge of the native language, and were not understood and noted “mentally insane”. Another major problem Bly experienced during her time at Blackwell Island was the harsh treatment the patients endured. For example, the choking and beating of the patients. If the women were not acting even the least bit properly, they were offered bitter punishment. For example, later in the excerpt, Bly experiences a bath and writes, “My teeth chattered and my limbs were goose-fleshed and blue with cold. Suddenly I got, one after the other, three buckets of water over my head – ice-cold water, too – into my eyes, my ears, my nose and my mouth. I think I experienced the sensation of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering and quaking, from the tub. For once I did look insane” (Bly 287). This is just one example of the intense punishment and treatment of the patients, so intense that she writes that it made her feel insane. Another example being when they “choked and beat” the young woman. Bly described it as “slapped her face”, “knocked her head”, and “this made the poor creature cry the more, and so they choked her” (Bly 297). Lastly, one of the worst punishments was the exclusion. Patients were often forced to sit alone in an enclosed space from 6 a.m. to 8p.m. These examples of treatment would never be acceptable in present day mental hospitals, nor would the conditions that are described. 

While there was a great deal of new information circulating the United States regarding the treatment of the mentally ill, it was also occurring in other places around the world, especially Europe. While researching the treatments found in mental illness facilities I found that they are quite similar to the ones found in America, but there are also some differences. In the article, “Assessment and treatment of asylum seekers after a suicide attempt: a comparative study of people registered at mental health services in a Swedish location”, Maria Sundvall writes about the self-destructive conduct often found in European insane asylums (Sundvall 1). Author, Nellie Bly, never really wrote about suicide in American asylums, but it appears to be a big issue in Europe. In her article, Sundvall states that in Europe “females received more intense and prolonged in-patient treatment” (2). There were also interesting and odd treatments found in mental institutions in Europe. Aleksandar Dimitrijevic states in “Being Mad in Early Modern England” that the patients were often forced to shave their heads and allow them to be washed, accept herbal treatments for their deemed insanity, vomit in order to possibly rid themselves of their illness, and even eat roasted mice (6). Both American and European asylums dealt with the mentally ill similarly, some more in a physically abusing way, but both very poorly. One extreme difference between the two would be that Europeans began treatment with exorcism. Dimitrijevic states that “In practically all the earliest documents that have been preserved, mental disorders are described as possession” (1). Comparing that to the Americans shows that even innocent, mentally sane people can be accused of being “possessed”. While mental institutions are not commonly found in the United States in this time and century, asylums are still used in England and much of Europe, but are commonly associated with discrimination, loss of human rights, torture, and corruption (Dimitrijevic 6). 

After reading the excerpt from “Ten Days in a Mad House” by Nellie Bly, I noticed the commitment that Bly underwent to prove the terrible treatment of patients in American insane asylums, as well as the conditions they sought through. With the knowledge of this, it drew me to research the treatments found in other places across the world, specifically Europe. But after analyzing the treatment of inmates in other countries, I found that the issues regarding harsh treatment is not just a problem in the United States, but a problem surrounding the world. After committing herself to an institution for the mentally insane, Bly found sufficient information regarding the conditions of American asylums, including the reasoning for commitment, and brutal treatment of inmates. In “Ten Days in a Mad House”, Bly demonstrates the negative and deplorable treatment of patients in American refuges. Prior to reading Bly’s work, I was not fully aware of the controversies surrounding insane asylums throughout the world, but now that I have fully researched it, I can better understand the problems that needed to be resolved. 
