Being Smart Among The Insane

Today I will tell you about a research that has caused strange debates in the field of psychology and radically changed the studies of psychology and psychiatry.

I don't know if any of you have had a mental illness before. For example, I was diagnosed with anxiety and panic attacks once. This was put in by an emergency room doctor who was not an expert on this subject. At the time, I was wondering if it was that simple. Then this research came across and the pieces actually fell into place. It is a very common situation that psychological disorders are simplified so much, perhaps not as much as before, and that a diagnosis is made without doing the necessary research like a normal illness and that someone is mentally ill.

In 1973, a study called “Being smart among the insane” radically changed the way psychologists and psychiatrists are viewed around the world.

After this study, nothing was the same in the world of psychology and psychiatry. This study, also known as the Rosenhan experiment, was conducted by David Roesenhan and has been recorded as one of the most striking studies in history in this field. The purpose of this study is to find out whether a mental illness can be truly understood. In other words, to understand whether the right methods are applied when diagnosing mental illness. According to Rosenhan, there were serious problems in this area and he wanted to prove that the criteria used were not based on scientific facts.

Now, let's talk about how this experiment was carried out.

8 people apply to the mental hospital saying that they heard voices. There are 3 psychologists, 1 pediatrician, 1 psychiatrist, 1 painter and a housewife among these 8 people. Even Rosenhan applies as a patient. It is worth emphasizing here that none of these people actually have such a problem. So they don't hear any sound. But only at this stage, that is, at the application stage, they lie for once. Because after they are admitted to the hospital, they will continue to behave like themselves due to the method of the study.

Things get pretty ridiculous here. Eight of these patients are admitted to the hospital on the grounds that they are mentally ill. Afterwards, none of them are discharged, although they told the doctors that from the first day they no longer heard a voice, that they recovered and are well. But Rosenhan doesn't explain that it was an experiment either. He wants to see how far things will go. Eventually, each of them is discharged from the hospital. Participants in the experiment are treated in hospital for 7 days to 52 days. In fact, a subject who has no disease is treated with serious drugs and therapies for 52 days. In fact, they have to admit that they are sick in order to be discharged. But the experiment does not end here. Things get a lot weirder. All these so-called patients are given a diagnosis. It's not just anxiety, it's the diagnoses. Patients say they hear the word emptiness especially. Rosenhan specifically chooses this word. Because he thinks that this word can indicate an existential crisis in psychology. Doctors diagnose 7 out of 8 people with schizophrenia and one with manic-depressive psychosis. People who have no disease suddenly learn that they have schizophrenia. Doctors allow patients to leave the hospital after a while, but are still not convinced that they are fully recovered. Doctors claim that not all patients recover, only that their schizophrenia is in remission. Based on this, Rosenhan concludes that there is a prevailing belief that mental illnesses will not fully heal. In other words, according to this system, once you have a mental illness, it does not seem possible to get rid of it.

When this work was first published, there was a lot of confusion. There are those who say that Rosenhan is a fraud and deliberately tried to deceive the system. Not only that, many psychology and psychiatry clinics across the country are challenging Rosenhan. They claim that they will definitely understand the unreal patients, that they will never fall for this deception. A hospital even contacted Rosenhan, demanding that he send unreal patients to the hospital without prior notice. Rosenhan accepts this challenge and tells them that he will send unreal patients without notice. Then, for 3 months, the management of this hospital publicly announced that 41 of the 193 hospitalized patients were not actually sick, and they even found that 19 of them were definitely not sick. Rosenhan also makes a statement on this and says that he did not actually send any patients to them. The patients the hospital thinks are good are actually real patients. As a result of the revelation of this fact, all psychiatrists and psychologists had to surrender. Rosenhan also states that there is a system in psychiatric hospitals that cannot distinguish between those who are mentally ill and those who are not, and that this system cannot be fully trusted.

Rosenhan's first experiment with his friends had other remarkable results. What they said in the interviews with 8 people who applied to the hospital with false symptoms is very strange. During their stay in the hospital, legal and real mental patients realized that these people were not real.

35 of my 188 patients told themselves; “You are not crazy. You are a journalist or a doctor. You infiltrated us and you control us.”

In other words, while the professional hospital staff could not distinguish between the mentally ill and the mentally ill, the mentally ill easily understood this.

In short, the Rosenhan experiment left a very lasting mark on the world of psychiatry. After the study was completed and published, the American Psychiatric Association completely changed its guide to diagnosis and statistics of mental illness. In addition, a radical change was made in psychiatric hospitals. Until then it was believed that a full recovery of a patient was not possible and discharge was very difficult. But after this research, the perspective on this subject has also undergone a radical change.

The world can be a better place thanks to brave men like David Rosenhan.

What do you think, would one of us be in a mental hospital right now if it wasn't for Rosenhan?