Asymptomatic Analysis

Lauren Slater’s, On Being Sane in Insane Places, takes the reader on a journey showing how psychiatry has changed since the 1970’s. David Rosenhan’s experiment of whether psychiatrists could accurately diagnose mental stability was the catalyst for her own experiment. Her quest to see if Rosenhan’s experiment can be duplicated, clearly shows her mental stability is questionable. I believe the psychiatrists in her experiment may have accurately diagnosed her.

Lauren Slater wrote in chapter three about David Rosenhan , studied on putting sane people into mental hospitals by faking their insanity. In the 1970’s, Rosenhan decided to study how the psychiatrist differentiates the “sane” from the “insane”. To begin his experiment, he asked eight others to join this experiment to answer his question due between the “sane” and “insane”. The participants were inculcated to say that they kept hearing a voice saying "thud". The interval of days that they approximately stayed, at minimum, in the hospitals, was nineteen days and the determined stay was fifty-two days. The experiment showed that the patients in the facility saw that the “insane” patient was sane as the psychiatrists think otherwise. The

What constitutes normal and abnormal is not universally agreed upon, but there are certain criteria to consider when evaluating abnormalities, which was pointed out in Rosenhan (1973). However, he questions the standards of sanity in society and the system that diagnoses the abnormal. One of the primary research questions looks at if a psychiatric diagnosis is reflective of the person or the environment. To attempt to answer this, 8 people (pseudopatients) with no history of mental issues checked themselves into a psychiatric hospital under the pretense that they were hearing voices. After they were admitted, they

When a person's thinking, feeling, and behaving are so far from normal so as to interfere with his or her ability to function in everyday life, and delusions,

To start, Lauren Slater presents her findings in researching Rosenhan’s experiments and conducting one of her own that was very similar to Rosenhans. One of the first things Slater points out is that Rosenhans experiments are “flawed” (137). Unfortunately, she doesn’t go into extreme detail about what she believes to be those flaws. I personally think that one of the biggest flaws in Rosenhan’s experiments is that all of his subjects claimed the same issues. I think that to have done a full experiment, Rosenhan and his “confederates” should have tried different symptoms. For example, after being let out of whatever facility they were in, they should switch

This disorder has different symptoms such as delusions which is the most common one.Delusions are false beliefs or ideas that someone or something is spying on that patient. Another symptom is Hallucination which are the feeling , hearing , seeing , or smelling something that is not there or that exists.This disorder makes people sense the hearing of imaginary voices that give out directions or commands for person to do.Also, this disorder makes individuals to make up words or sounds that are not relevant. They repeat words and ideas several times, this symptom is the disorganization of thinking and speech.Another symptom is the disorganization of behavior, this symptom can vary from having different problems with the everyday routine such as hygiene and choosing appropriate clothing to outburst of impulsive actions. This individual can have situations of being anxious, tense, or very

Rosenhan's main point was to test whether their skills were up to date with what control they had. Rosenhan was critical with the amount of control that psychiatrists had. So his experiment came to mind. He and his friends planned to test them to see if they knew that they were sane by saying they heard a voice saying "thud," than when/if they were admitted they would tell them they were all better. At the end of the experiment they found that once you were admitted, you were in a different world and no longer seen as a human being. They would change uniforms in front of them and not expect any kind of reaction, also they were beat the patients as if they didn't feel

Although Resenhand believes many patients aren 't being diagnosed correctly he chose to prove to everyone that many people are incorrectly diagnosed, they are considered insane even though they really are sane. He began his experiment by recruiting eight people other than himself, they began by faking their way into several different mental hospitals. Their main goal was to determine if they were properly diagnosed or if they were simply called crazy because they were there for evaluation. Considering Rosenhand and his fellow experimenter 's they were all considered to be insane and were accepted to the mental hospitals, while situated there they began to realize many things were wrong. They began to realize how many patients get mistreated and make them feel unworthy of account or feel invisible. An event that occurred during there stay was a patient simply told the nurse "I like you", he was severely punished for the comment he made. Many of us don’t believe things like this happen, but in

In the book Opening Skinner’s Box, the author, Lauren Slater narrates a famous experiment conducted by David Rosenhan, an American psychologist. This experiment was conducted to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnoses. Moreover, this experiment is considered highly influential and criticized by many psychiatrists because Rosenhan wanted to prove if sanity was able to be distinguished from insanity at mental hospitals. Rosenhan also wanted to prove the reliability in doctor’s diagnoses as well as adequate treatments to provide to mental ill patients. In the experiment pseudpatients were admitted into the hospital because they briefly explained to be suffering from auditory hallucinations. It is important to point out that all the patients were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder even after they informed the staff to no longer be having auditory hallucinations. It is extremely important to have an accurate mental diagnose in order for patients to find their full potential in life, work productively and make good contribution to their families, and society. In the quest for the well state of sanity, Rosenhan made a big contribution to future generation of psychiatrics and mental ill patients for this reason is important to fully understand the meaning of sanity in a mental hospital.

Rosehan’s study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of psychiatric diagnosis and pseudopatients. He was interested in seeing if the psychiatric diagnoses appointed to a patient, could be tested experimentally. He then set up an experimental study using researchers as the “fake patients.”

In the time past, it was generally thought that only someone who was “crazy” or one who had a “nervous breakdown”, had a reason to see a psychologist.

Its interesting to read what sort of testing is done before someone can truly claim they are insane. I have always wondered how they truly know if someone is really insane or if they just claim that to try and get a lesser sentence. I feel like I have heard more people do it than just 1 percent. It wouldn’t be as obvious if they had been diagnosed with the illness previous to the crime other than after the crime has already been committed.

In other words one may question whether the behaviour of the individual is abnormal enough to be located outside the realm of normal human

For many years, various forms of madness have been noted in every culture. Multitudes of theories, as well as some myths, have been developed to explain such conditions. Society’s opinion on what was considered abnormal was based on such phenomenon as paranormal forces, the anger of the gods, the influence of the moon, unstable personality, hereditary factors, and debauchery (Frude, 1998). History shows that theorists continue to develop a variety of theories to explain psychological disorders. These theories usually fall in one of three basic categories: mystical/supernatural (possession of

Past affirming the side effects and distorting name, livelihood, and occupation, no further changes of individual, history, or conditions were made. The noteworthy occasions of the pseudopatient's life cycle were exhibited as they had happened. Associations with guardians and kin, with life partner and youngsters, with individuals at work and in school, reliable with the previously mentioned exemptions, were portrayed as they were or had been. Disappointments and bombshells were portrayed alongside delights and fulfillments. These actualities are critical to recollect. On the other hand that anything, they emphatically one-sided the ensuing results for identifying madness, since none of their histories or current practices were actually obsessive in any capacity.