Mental illness has always been a prevalent and controversial topic in the world; some people believe that mental patients deserve to get proper help and be treated like a normal human, while others see them as a threat to society and should be avoided and locked away. The diseases are not treated as taboo, but rather can been given a false representation by the media which then plays a key role in how the patients are viewed and treated by society. In Otto F. Wahl’s, “Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness”, the author expresses the problems associated with the stigma surrounding mental diseases, and how these preconceived notions have been perpetuated by the media’s portrayal of the psychiatric patients, as well as how it has allowed for their continuous mistreatment in society and in institutions. Likewise, Nellie Bly, the author of Ten Days in a Mad House, shares Wahl’s viewpoint and works to end the stereotypes by revealing first hand the treatment that she, along with many other people, experienced as patients in a mental hospital. Due to the fact that the way people view and react to mental illness is greatly influenced by the way it is presented through media, the depiction of these diseases in a more positive and less scary way could allow for better treatment and more effective therapy for the patients. 

The basis for Wahls novel, “Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness” is his belief that when the images of mental patients are “unfavorable and inaccurate, as they often are, they contribute to the stigma and discrimination that represent formidable barriers to treatment and recovery” (Wahl ix). He conducted surveys as a way to figure out how people thought mental illness was depicted and the role that it played in how they viewed patients. He stated that “seventy- seven percent of over 1,300 consumers who responded to that survey said that they had sometimes, often, or very often seen hurtful or offensive media depictions of mental image”, and of that seventy- seven percent, “43 percent indicated that this had occurred often or very often” (Wahl ix). This survey shows the power that the media possesses by their ability to reach such a vast audience. He also conducted other studies, such as showing two groups of people two different films; one involving murder by a mental patient, and one about a murder but no mention of any illness. He then had both groups fill out a questionnaire involving mental health and its treatment. He was not shocked to find that “participants who saw the film depiction of a violent mentally ill person were more likely to express concerns about the potential dangerousness of people with mental illnesses and less likely to find community care for such people acceptable than were those who saw the other film” (Wahl 93). This study reinforces the power that the media has by showing how much it can influence the way in which its viewers think. Also, in many cases, the only knowledge people have about mental illness comes from these sources, so it is the only information they know. Wahl recalled people taking the survey who knew more about mental illness being upset by these portrayals because they are not showing anything positive, so people do not get the chance to form accurate opinions about the matter because they are only hearing biased information. Through his work Wahl found many other researchers that agreed with his theory and believed that this idea should be talked about more. They too produced results through their surveys and experiments that support the claim. Mentally ill people are not blind to the way that people see them. There is much “embarrassment, shame, and discouragement experienced by psychiatric patients in reaction to the real and perceived negative attitudes of the public towards them” (Wahl xiv).  These feelings that they possess cause an even bigger problem because it makes it harder to disclose to people that they have been getting psychiatric treatment, or even tell someone that they need it at all. It can render people from getting the help they need and create more pain inside of them. It was also made difficult for ill people to allow others to know what is going on because people “often responded to those with mental illness solely on the basis of their psychiatric labels, regardless of the specific symptoms or behaviors observed” (Wahl xiii- xiv). People did not care to hear what was wrong; all people suffering from any mental disease were seen as just as insane as the next, and thus, they were to be avoided. 

Due to this negative exposure mentioned by Wahl, Nellie Bly took it upon herself to expose to the world the truth behind mental illness and the way in which the public health institutions were run. After infiltrating the Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum, Bly reveals the unjust treatment, harsh conditions, and verbal and physical violence she witnessed there. She states that it is so corrupt that if a completely healthy person were to be admitted, being there for “two months would make her a mental and physical wreck” (Bly 293). Sadly, she mentions that this is in fact the case sometimes. The doctors and nurses at the asylum treated the patients as if they do not possess basic human rights, and so they do not give fair trial for people being admitted. One patient “begged that they try all their tests for insanity” because she was not crazy, but the nurses left her “without one word of sympathy or encouragement” (Bly 282). While another, was “consigned to the asylum without a chance of making herself understood”, all because the nurse and doctor present did not speak her language (Bly 282). No one there cared what any patient had to say; any person deemed insane, accurate or not, was treated in the same, cruel manner. The nurses would strip the patients down for a freezing cold bath that was so dreadful it was like they experienced “some of the sensations of a drowning person as they dragged [them], gasping, shivering, and quaking from the tub” (Bly 287). They were then put to bed “blue with cold”, giving them only a sheet and blanket that were too small to cover their whole body. (Bly 285) These nurses would even assault them both verbally and physically. “When the patients complained of the food they were told to shut up” and “that it was too good for charity patients” (Bly 293). They also would call them names and taunt them until they cried.  Then, when yelling at them was not enough, they got physically violent.  Bly recalled two separate instances where the nurses “dragged [a patient] out to the closet” where her “terrified cries hushed into smothered ones”, and later she “plainly saw the marks of their fingers on her throat for the entire day (Bly 297).  Bly was a patient in the institution for just a short ten days and saw all of these horrible and inhumane ways the women were treated. They were beaten, belittled, and tortured, but the media never showed this side of the story to anyone, giving an unfair advantage to the negative portrayal of them over the view that they deserve pity and help. The people that were aware of this treatment thought that the patients deserved it so much that they would keep quiet about the institutions so that no one would find out and they could continue acting this way. Bly’s report finally got some justice for these women by showing the world that they are humans too and deserve to be treated as such. 

This topic is still a controversial one, but there has been and continues to be much progress on the journey to end the stigma surrounding mental illness. Researches, such as Otto Wahl, have been working to express the need to shed light on the positive things surrounding mental illness and stop giving off the false depiction of those who suffer from it. Similarly, Bly took Wahl’s research into action and attempted to show to the world that these people are not the monsters they are made out to be and they do not deserve the inhumane treatment they have been receiving that no one knows about. The one sided exposure to the diseases do not give patients the fair advantage to let the world who they really are, but instead keeps them locked up like animals. 