Rosenhan Experiment
In a 1973 paper "On Being Sane in Insane Places", psychologist David Rosenhan strongly criticised psychiatric hospitals and the treatment patients received in them. But most of all, he criticised the quality of the psychiatric diagnosis. Rosenhan's stance was based on research the he and 7 other
investigators undertook acting as pseudo-patients in different hospitals around the United States.
All were diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. To be admitted into the hospitals, the pseudo-patients complained about auditory hallucinations. After admission, however, they behaved perfectly normal, telling medical staff in the hospitals that their hallucinations had disappeared.
But the medical staff still regarded the pseudo-patients as mentally ill and fed them antipsychotic medication. The pseudo-patients would flush the medications down the toilet, and continue acting in a calm, rational fashion, writing down their observations of the staff and the other patients. However, they were still treated as having mental problems. Instead of investigating the issue, nobody regarded their behaviour as normal, because apparently inside the walls of a psychiatric hospital, the only sane ones are the employees.
A roll in the hay
