I've always loved journalist Nellie Bly, who broke down barriers for women in the field during her time at the New York World newspaper in the late 19th century. This is the account of her time in an asylum. She got herself committed in order to find out the true conditions. They were atrocious. She gives a straightforward account of her time, but reading between the lines, it's easy to see how terrifying her time in the asylum must have been.