Chapter 3: On Being Sane in Insane Places
Summary:
In the 1970s, David Rosenhan persuaded 8 other friends to act as those they were insane to get admitted into a mental hospital. Rosenhan then published his findings in Science magazine, bashing psychiatry and claiming it is not a medicine. This ticked off Robert Spitzer, a psychiatrist, who set out to debunk Rosenhan's work and claims, as well as reform how patients were diagnosed. He claimed that due to the reforms Rosenhan's experiment would not work today, so the author reperformed the experiment on her own with success.
Discussion:
These readings are by far my favorite. I have never liked psychiatry but have never totally dismissed it the way Rosenhan did. His experiment was eye opening to me, and Spitzer's statement that we have a want to diagnose and prescribe (the author's claim) hit home to me.
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