Rosenhan (1973) | ‘On Being Sane In Insane Places’

Video: On Being Sane in Insane Places - David Rosenhan
A short video outlining David Rosenhan's 'On Being Sane in Insane Places' study.

A decade after the publication of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (by Ken Kesey), Stanford Psychologist David Rosenhan tested the limitations of psychiatry by submitting 8 perfectly healthy participants to psychiatric hospitals.

The pseudo-patients claimed to hear voices, which said words including Hollow, Empty and Thud. Once admitted to the psychiatric ward, the pseudo-patients ‘stopped’ hearing voices and had to convince staff of their sanity to be released.

Despite none of the participants actually having a mental illness, they were kept in the hospital for an average of 19 days, and all but one of the participants left with a medical diagnosis of Schizophrenia in Remission.

Rosenhan’s results challenged the efficacy of psychiatry in diagnosing and treating mental disorders. Developing from this (and other) studies, Thomas Szasz forwarded the notion that ‘mental illness’ is a label, which doesn’t help the recipient of the label, but instead acts as a form of social control.

Read Rosenhan’sĀ full, original paper

http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2384&context=lawreview

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About Daniel Edward 65 Articles
Daniel set up Psychology Unlocked in 2016 to support Psychology students in higher and further education. Daniel has a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Psychology, Politics and Sociology from the University of Cambridge.