Ten Days in a Madhouse

On September 22,1887, Elizabeth Cochrane Seamen was asked by the New York World if she would be willing to go undercover inside the New York Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in order to write an expose on the treatment of patients in the asylum. The only instructions she was given were to “Write up things as you find them, good or bad, give praise or blame as you think best, and truth all the time.” Cochrane, who wrote under the sobriquet “Nellie Bly”, optimistically accepted the assignment.

Bly’s biggest hardship would be to first be declared insane and be admitted to the institution. She also worried about being discovered before her assignment was complete. The newspaper wanted her to go incognito so that she could observe exactly how patients were treated as there were rumors that patients were being abused and that conditions in the asylum were deplorable. If her identity was discovered, conditions in the asylum might be altered so as to conceal the real treatment of patients. The final hurdle for the undercover reporter would be getting out once having been declared insane.

Advertisement

New York City Lunatic Asylum

New York City Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island

There isn’t a lot that remains of the old New York City Lunatic Asylum on Roosevelt Island– just the administrative building called “The Octagon”, which has since been remodeled. The refurbished portion of the Kirkbride pays homage to the woebegone times of big asylums and high aspirations for treating the mentally ill. It also stands as a sentinel to mark the historic past of the building that once stood in place of the new development.

Ghost Towns: Beelitz-Helstatten Sanitorium

Walking through the winding structures and empty streets of the Beelitz-Helstatten Sanitorium within the Potsdam-Mittelmark district of Brandenburg Germany, one can barely imagine  life existing at all here.  With the exception of a neurological centre and as well as a section devoted to research and care of patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, a majority of the 60 building complex has been abandoned completely since 2000.  Construction of the building began in 1898, and at one time its halls and rooms were filled with patients, doctors, nurses, orderlies, as well as a host of other professions designed to treat and cure consumptive illnesses, particularly tuberculosis.  It did not remain exclusive to this type of treatment for long.