Pseudo-patients
Not too many people are aware of the classic experiments conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan that were published in Science in 1973 under the title "On being sane in insane places."
In the first part of the study, healthy volunteers or pseudo-patients, pretended to have mild mental disturbances, such as auditory or visual hallucinations, and admitted themselves to 12 different psychiatric hospitals in the US. Of course, each one of these "patients" was examined by a pyschiatrist when admitted and was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. After a short time, the "patient" claimed to feel better and had no repetition of the symptoms, and asked to be released, but none were allowed to leave. Some were kept in the hospital for months and all were required to sign that they had a pyschiatric condition and were required to take anti-psychotic drugs, and this was a requirement for their release.
In another part of the study, staff at psychiatric hospitals were told that "normal" patients had been inflitrated into the hospital population, and they were asked to identify them. The staff identified large numbers of genuine patients with psychiatric conditions as imposters. The conclusion from these experiements was that in a psychiatric setting it is impossible to distinguish sane from insane patients!
There was of course the famous novel "One flew over the cuckoo's nest," by Ken Kesay, that illustrated this situtaion and that was made into a memorable movie starring Jack Nicholson, who brilliantly played a pseudopatient.
The problem continues to exist today, I happened to see the re-run of a BBC program of 2008 in which 10 volunteers were invited to stay for a few days at an isolated farm, five of them were normal and five had preexisting mental conditions (obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia, excessive shyness, clinical depression) and three experienced psychiatrists observed and interviewed them. After two days the experts only correctly identified two of the true patients and one possible, in other words they were ca. 50% wrong.
The moral of this story is never allow yourself to be incarcerated in a psychiatic ward, unless you are stark raving mad!
In the first part of the study, healthy volunteers or pseudo-patients, pretended to have mild mental disturbances, such as auditory or visual hallucinations, and admitted themselves to 12 different psychiatric hospitals in the US. Of course, each one of these "patients" was examined by a pyschiatrist when admitted and was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. After a short time, the "patient" claimed to feel better and had no repetition of the symptoms, and asked to be released, but none were allowed to leave. Some were kept in the hospital for months and all were required to sign that they had a pyschiatric condition and were required to take anti-psychotic drugs, and this was a requirement for their release.
In another part of the study, staff at psychiatric hospitals were told that "normal" patients had been inflitrated into the hospital population, and they were asked to identify them. The staff identified large numbers of genuine patients with psychiatric conditions as imposters. The conclusion from these experiements was that in a psychiatric setting it is impossible to distinguish sane from insane patients!
There was of course the famous novel "One flew over the cuckoo's nest," by Ken Kesay, that illustrated this situtaion and that was made into a memorable movie starring Jack Nicholson, who brilliantly played a pseudopatient.
The problem continues to exist today, I happened to see the re-run of a BBC program of 2008 in which 10 volunteers were invited to stay for a few days at an isolated farm, five of them were normal and five had preexisting mental conditions (obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia, excessive shyness, clinical depression) and three experienced psychiatrists observed and interviewed them. After two days the experts only correctly identified two of the true patients and one possible, in other words they were ca. 50% wrong.
The moral of this story is never allow yourself to be incarcerated in a psychiatic ward, unless you are stark raving mad!
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:41 PM
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