Rosenhan experiment
Experiment to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnosis / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Rosenhan experiment or Thud experiment was an experiment claimed to have been conducted to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. Participants supposedly 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 claimed to have been 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".[1][2]
It is considered[by whom?] an important and influential criticism of psychiatric diagnosis, and broached the topic of wrongful involuntary commitment.[3] The experiment is said to have "accelerated the movement to reform mental institutions and to deinstitutionalize as many mental patients as possible".[4] Rosenhan claimed that he, 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.
Respondents defended psychiatry against the experiment's conclusions, saying that as psychiatric diagnosis relies largely on the patient's report of their experiences, faking their presence no more demonstrates problems with psychiatric diagnosis than lying about other medical symptoms.[5] More recently, it has been alleged that at least part of the published results were distorted or falsified.[6]