9. Patients Were Often Stripped and Tested for Diseases
The admission process for new asylum patients was often profoundly dehumanizing. Patients were forced to strip naked in front of staff and be subjected to a public bath. After being searched and having their possessions searched, patients would be forced to submit to a physical examination and blood testing, including a syphilis test. Patients would also be subjected to interviews and mental tests, which Nellie Bly reported included being accused of taking drugs. At her commission hearing, the doctor noted her pupils, enlarged for nearsightedness, and accused her of taking Belladonna. This was used against her for the goal of committing her.
One is genuinely thankful for our new privacy and consent protections when reading the list of what these early asylum patients went through. We are now protected from warrant-less search and seizure, blood draws and tests that we do not consent to, and many other protections that the unfortunate patients of 1900 did not have. Once again, it becomes clear how similar to criminal these patients were viewed given how similar their admission procedures were to the admissions procedures of jails and prisons. One cannot even imagine the effect that such mistreatment must have had on the truly mentally ill who were admitted.