Ten Days In A Mad-House

The Temporary Home for Women was a boarding facility where Nellie Bly began her mission to pose as a woman in need, feigning mental distress to gain access to Blackwell’s Island. This institution primarily served as a residence for working women, but its bare accommodations, cold atmosphere, and indifferent staff created an environment that Bly describes as dreary and unwelcoming. Her time at the Temporary Home set the stage for her later experiences in the asylum, revealing early instances of neglect and misunderstanding surrounding women experiencing poverty or psychological distress.

At the Temporary Home, Bly met key figures who contributed to her admission to Blackwell’s Island. Mrs. Stanard, the assistant matron, became suspicious of Bly’s anxious behavior and recommended a psychiatric evaluation, leading to Bly’s transfer to Bellevue Hospital for further assessment. Though motivated by concern, Mrs. Stanard’s actions reflect the systemic impulse to view unconventional or distressed behavior in women as evidence of mental instability.

The residents whom Bly encountered also provided her with early examples of how women were treated and judged based on societal standards of mental health and behavior. While some women were openly fearful of her seeming instability, Mrs. Caine—a rare figure of kindness—stayed by Bly’s side, providing comfort and reassurance throughout the night. This initial experience illustrated the various responses that women received in the face of perceived instability, underscoring societal attitudes toward mental health and the lack of support for vulnerable women.

The Essex Market Police Court played a crucial role in Nellie Bly’s investigation into the treatment of people with a mental illness, as it served as one of the key locations where individuals—especially women—were subjected to judgments and decisions that could lead to their involuntary commitment. In the court, Bly’s feigned mental distress was tested as she prepared for her further immersion in the world of institutionalization. This setting highlights how the legal system at the time treated individuals, particularly women, whose behaviors were considered disruptive or out of line with social expectations.

One of the significant figures whom Bly encountered in the Essex Market Police Court was Judge Duffy. Bly’s interaction with Judge Duffy exposed the troubling combination of empathy and patronization that many women faced within the legal system. Judge Duffy appeared sympathetic toward Bly’s situation, initially expressing concern about her apparent distress. However, his empathy was tainted by infantilizing language and assumptions about women’s emotions. He offered Bly a sense of reassurance but simultaneously questioned her ability to act autonomously. His attitude was reflective of the larger societal perception of women as emotionally unstable or incapable of rational decision-making, particularly when they displayed any form of vulnerability.

Judge Duffy’s treatment of Bly illustrates the way the justice system often dismissed the validity of women’s claims, particularly when those claims conflicted with gender norms. Although he recognized Bly’s distress, his responses were shaped by a deep-seated belief in the inherent instability of women, especially when faced with emotional expression. His behavior is emblematic of a broader cultural attitude that saw women’s mental health as fragile and easily compromised, thus making them susceptible to institutionalization. Bly’s experience with Judge Duffy becomes an important critique of the way legal systems of the time failed to take women’s voices seriously, with Judge Duffy reinforcing the notion that women could be judged by arbitrary standards that often led to their mistreatment.

Bellevue Hospital served as a pivotal transitional location in Nellie Bly’s journey through New York City’s mental health care system. As Bly’s first institutional stop after her staged mental health crisis in the Essex Market Police Court, Bellevue is where she began to witness the impersonal and often dismissive treatment of patients that she later chronicles in her exposé. 

Bellevue, at the time, was notorious for its overcrowded conditions and for serving as a waystation for individuals deemed mentally unfit. The hospital’s practices and atmosphere offered Bly initial glimpses of the larger systemic neglect and indifference that defined institutional care for mentally ill women in the late 19th century.

At Bellevue, Bly encountered staff whose interactions with her underscored the routine dehumanization of patients. Despite her protests of wellness, the hospital personnel quickly labeled her as “insane” without thorough investigation or rigorous medical assessment. Bly describes the physicians she met there as disengaged and unsympathetic, treating her claims of sound mental health with skepticism or outright dismissal. The brisk evaluations and cursory examinations reveal a troubling lack of interest in accurately diagnosing patients, effectively streamlining them into the system with little regard for their actual mental states. For Bly, Bellevue was where she felt her identity slipping away as she became Nellie Brown, another anonymous patient at the mercy of an indifferent system.

The experiences at Bellevue amplify Bly’s critique of the medical establishment, illustrating how quickly a person—especially a woman—could be institutionalized based on limited and superficial assessments. Bellevue thus represents a gateway to confinement and serves as an indictment of a system in which patients’ autonomy and credibility were overridden by a combination of professional complacency and societal biases. Bellevue’s role in Bly’s journey highlights the starting point of her experience with institutional neglect and mistreatment, setting the stage for the more profound horrors she would encounter at Blackwell’s Island. Through detailing her interactions at Bellevue, Bly exposes how easily the medical system could perpetuate—and even encourage—the wrongful commitment of individuals, particularly women, whose voices and experiences were routinely dismissed.