Nellie Bly, Ten days in a Madhouse

I’ve recently read an article about sanity and insanity. The entry point for this has actually been the Rosenhan experiment s. In those experiments the psychologist David Rosenhan tried 1973 to verify the psychiatric diagnosis created by other doctors. For this test(s) about 12 completely healthy “patients” tried to gain access to psychiatric hospitals by simulating insane behaviour.

After getting access and being treated they were supposed to act “normal” in order to figure out how long it takes to until you become released (if so) and what the experiences are. Well it seemed that the only way out was to confirm the diagnose of the doctors that you’re sick but you’re proceeding to become better at the same time. This puts actually all doctors in a kind of superior position with no higher authority to verify their diagnoses. Not likely the best position for a patient, I think.

In the second part of the test (after publishing the results of the first one) he reverted the test conditions and asked one hospital which claimed this could have never happened to them to find the impostors that have been placed as patients within though there were none.

I’m not gonna tell you the results of the experiments - Wikipedia can do this in much more detail and far better - but I recommend you to read the mentioned book Ten Days in a Madhouse (1887) by Nellie Bly. The book is free therefore I can link you the PDF (55pages) for download as well.

“[..]Soon after my advent a girl called Urena Little-Page was brought in. She was, as she had been born, silly, and her tender spot was, as with many sensible women, her age. She claimed eighteen, and would grow very angry if told to the contrary. The nurses were not long in finding this out, and then they teased her.

“Urena,” said Miss Grady, “the doctors say that you are thirty-three instead of eighteen,” and the other nurses laughed. They kept up this until the simple creature began to yell and cry, saying she wanted to go home and that everybody treated her badly. After they had gotten all the amusement out of her they wanted and she was crying, they began to scold and tell her to keep quiet. She grew more hysterical every moment until they pounced upon her and slapped her face and knocked her head in a lively fashion. This made the poor creature cry the more, and so they choked her. Yes, actually choked her. Then they dragged her out to the closet, and I heard her terrified cries hush into smothered ones. After several hours’ absence she returned to the sitting-room, and I plainly saw the marks of their fingers on her throat for the entire day.[…]”

—(Chapter 12, Side 35)

The whole story isn’t very pleasant to read. And though you should always keep in mind that this happened in 1887 and after publishing things have changed, I cannot but wonder how you will prove sanity. If you’re one of the “unlucky” or “lucky” ones - depending on how and from which perspective you see at it - who get stucked in that system as a patient, you’re in a committed position.

I also wonder how has changed since 1887 inside those hospitals, but I don’t know. But I think I want to see One flew over the cuckoo’s nest again.