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Concept
Rosenhan experiment
Summary
The Rosenhan experiment or Thud experiment was an experiment conducted to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. Participants submitted themselves for evaluation at various psychiatric institutions and feigned hallucinations in order to be accepted, but acted normally from then onward. Each was diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and were given antipsychotic medication. The study was conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan, a Stanford University professor, and published by the journal Science in 1973 under the title "On Being Sane in Insane Places".
It is considered an important and influential criticism of psychiatric diagnosis, and broached the topic of wrongful involuntary commitment. Rosenhan along with eight other people (five men and three women) entered 12 hospitals across five states along the west coast of the US. Three of the participants were admitted for only a short period of time, and in order to obtain sufficient documented experiences, they re-applied to additional institutions. In 2019, however, author Susannah Cahalan published a book accusing the entire experiment of being a hoax.
Rosenhan described his study as having two parts. The first part involved the use of healthy associates or "pseudopatients" (three women and six men, including Rosenhan himself) who briefly feigned auditory hallucinations in an attempt to gain admission to 12 psychiatric hospitals in five states in the United States. All were admitted and diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. After admission, the pseudopatients acted normally and told staff that they no longer experienced any additional hallucinations. As a condition of their release, all the patients were forced to admit to having a mental illness and had to agree to take antipsychotic medication. The average time that the patients spent in the hospital was 19 days. All but one were diagnosed with schizophrenia "in remission" before their release.
The second part of his study involved a hospital administration challenging Rosenhan to send pseudopatients to its facility, whose staff asserted that they would be able to detect the pseudopatients.
Official source
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