Nellie Bly risked her life when she feigned insanity and had herself committed to a New York mental institution in 1887. She was a reporter, and her purpose was to expose the true conditions, including brutality and murder, that reigned in Blackwell’s Island Asylum.
The conditions at Blackwell’s Island were much worse than even Nellie expected. She wrote of “oblivious doctors” and “coarse, massive” orderlies who “choked, beat and harassed” patients, and “expectorated tobacco juice about on the floor in a manner more skillful than charming.”
She also came across institutionalized women who spoke little or no English, and were committed simply because their English prevented them from being understood.
Ms. Bly tells how her fellow inmates were made to sit from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on straight backed benches, not allowed to talk or move for the entire time. The women were not given reading materials, nor were they told anything of the world at large.
The nurses on a whim could savagely beat any woman, even the elderly or ill. Nellie describes one patient whose hair was pulled out by the roots and internally injured by severe beatings.
Sadistic behavior on the part of the orderlies, guards and nurses was the order of the day. Women were forced to take drugs that made them dreadfully thirsty, and then refused even a drop of water to relieve their anguish.
This is how Ms. Bly described her personal experience with being manhandled into an ice cold bath, thick with the grime of the dozens of bathers preceding her.
“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.”
Nellie writes of an elderly blind woman, who was begging go home. She was lightly clothed, just like the rest of the inmates, despite the freezing temperatures in the asylum. She was brought into the sitting room and made to sit on a hard bench with the rest of the women.
The old woman cried, “Oh, what are you doing with me? I am cold, so cold. Why can’t I stay in bed or have a shawl?” When she attempted to feel her way to leave the room, the attendants forced her back to the bench, laughing at her as she attempted to leave yet again, bumping against the table and benches in her blindness.
The doctors paid little attention to their patients, and refused to listen to any who tried to plead their sanity.
At one point, Nellie said to one of the doctors, “You have no right to keep sane people here. I am sane, have always been so and I must insist on a thorough examination or be released. Several of the women here are also sane. Why can’t they be free?
“They are insane and suffering from delusions.”
Nellie was released through the actions of an attorney after 10 days, and her subsequent expose of the asylum resulted in a larger appropriation to improve the conditions of mentally ill patients in New York city. Blackwell’s Island Asylum, not surprisingly, was shut down.
Unfortunately, the closing of Blackwell’s did nothing to prevent the sadistic march of psychiatry through the following century and a quarter. Nellie Bly’s story of a Victorian madhouse was only a precursor of atrocities to come.
SOURCES:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29734/ten-days-madhouse-woman-who-got-herself-committed
Mental Institutions: Their Hellish History – Part One
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Thank you for this very revealing article. This is shocking and sickening, but not surprising, considering the evil nature and eugenicist agenda of those who run the so-called “mental health” industry. The FDA is in bed with Big Pharma & the APA (American Psychiatric Association), and they are all run by the same criminals who are working to establish their Big Brother style world government. That’s why they want everyone (except themselves) declared “mentally ill”, and why they want their drug-doling priests (doctors) of their eugenics religion to have everyone put on their psychotropic poisons, as well as subjected to mandatory vaccinations that contain all kinds of toxic substances that cause brain damage, sterility, cancer, etc.) That way, they can control the entire population so they can carry out their ultimate goal: genocide on a global scale! We’re talking at least 80% of the world’s population according to power-mad people like Bill Gates, Prince Philip, and Ted Turner. This is why the same people are pushing all of the toxic, artificial, drug-laden processed “food”, GMO’s, (Genetically Modified Organisms) & water fluoridation; as well as take away everyone’s wealth & their ability to feed, care for & defend themselves via the whole criminal “tax system” & all the criminal, unconstitutional “laws” they pass, The endgame-plan is: make & keep us all sick, broke & stupid; dumb us all down & brainwash us on a massive scale to keep us “pleasantly distracted” via the corporate controlled media, the “entertainment” industry, the schools, and fascist-style “agencies” & corporations like the CDC, the American Cancer Society, the food industry & the bio-tech-pharmaceutical monstrosity that controls so much of what goes on. Take away all of our freedoms & liberties, and totally enslave us. Basically: subject us all to disarming, drugging, death & destruction! This is exactly what God’s word (the Holy Bible, KJV) prophesied would happen: the beast kingdom of world antichrist empire! Well, God will let them get so far, giving these devil-worshiping tyrants & technocrats enough rope till they HANG themselves! Because when Jesus Christ returns to this earth to take total control, it is OVER for the beast! All of these criminal, evil fools are going to be committed to GOD”S “insane asylum” called HELL & THE LAKE OF FIRE where they will be subjected to torment & suffering far worse than anything they’ve dished out. All of the abuse, torture, and murder they re guilty of will come back down on their egotistical heads as God executes VENGEANCE on them! Believe me, God has a way of giving PAY BACK to those who seek to usurp his authority & play God just like their spiritual father the devil (Satan!) This whole system is so wicked, these people are devils, and they will not stop until the Lord Jesus Christ returns and apprehends them to destroy them for ever! Until then, I will continue to do my part in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and exposing the evil agenda of people who are criminals and must be brought to justice. I will seek to educate everyone I can about the evils & criminality of the FDA, the APA, the Pharmaceutical Industry, the AMA, Psychology & the globalist criminal cartel that secretly runs our government. That’s why I appreciate organizations like CCHR and all of the excellent, factual, powerful documentaries you’ve done! Keep up the good work! , . .
Where can I see a showing of the film or purchase a DVD so I can see it at home?
Hi David, The film is scheduled to be released in theaters in November of this year. Unfortunately I do not have any information on the plans for release to DVD.