“The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.”
The treatment of patients with mental illnesses in asylums was far from proper handling and care in the late 19th century. Bly takes a chance by securing involuntary admission into the Women's Lunatic Asylum to report on the deplorable conditions. The lack of information about the state of the institutions to the public is due to the low chance of patients being released. Nonetheless, even if the patient manages to be released their words lack any credibility due to their mental status. To secure firsthand information as a credible source, Bly has to work with her employer New York World who will ensure her release.
“I felt sure now that no doctor could tell whether people were insane or not, so long as the case was not violent.”
The lack of expertise on mental health in the medical field during this period led to poor treatment. Bly proves the uninformed diagnoses that doctors relied on to forcibly admit patients with any symptoms. She is a mentally stable woman yet the doctors could not figure out the ruse that she was putting on. Violent patients are the only cases that would justify admission into the asylum even though their basis was unfounded. Therefore the medical approach in the insane asylums was ethically wrong because their effectiveness was questionable.
“But here was a woman taken without her own consent from the free world to an asylum and there given no chance to prove her sanity. Confined most probably for life behind asylum bars, without even being told in her language the why and wherefore. Compare this with a criminal, who is given every chance to prove his innocence. Who would not rather be a murderer and take the chance for life than be declared insane, without hope of escape?”
In the asylum, Bly encounters patients with different cases and situations that make their stay even worse. Apart from being denied the chance to prove their sanity or leave the facility some cannot communicate. In this case, Mrs. Louise Schanz barely understands the English language and can only communicate in German. Bly attempts to help her speak through another patient who understands German to hear her story. In the quote, she emphasizes the lack of freedom the patients have that they cannot prove their state of mind. Even a criminal is given the opportunity to prove their innocence and has more freedom than the patients.
