Why Sane Individuals Can Be Distinguished From Insane Individuals

In the article ‘Who’s Crazy Here, Anyway?’, Rosenhan’s reason for research was because Rosenhan doubted whether the characteristics that lead to psychological diagnoses reside in the patients themselves or in the situations and contexts in which the observers find the patients. The hypothesis generated by Rosenhan was, that the staff will recognize the sanity of the patients, question their diagnosis and follow to release them. The objective was to observe whether personal or environmental factors dictate mental health diagnosis and professional treatment. Rosenhan recruited eight subjects which consisted of three women and five men, one graduate student, three psychologists, one pediatrician, one psychiatrist, one painter, and one homemaker.

Diagnosing an individual with a mental illness balances on a fine line between giving a life-long label and misdiagnosing. Mental illness is best viewed on a continuum, allowing for a varying degree of severity. In the field, mental health professionals are faced with determining what signifies the appropriateness of diagnosing a mental illness. A professional’s judgment is impacted by their personal perceptions and observations, societies views and norms, and the patient’s history. The film, “How Mad Are You? A Search for Insanity” demonstrates the difficulties in distinguishing those who are mentally ill from those seen as healthy ( ). I will explore my reactions and thoughts regarding the participants’ experience as well as the mental

The labeling theory explains how a community or culture defines deviant behavior, and the proper diagnosis to treating the individual. This can be seen in An Cloch'an, where psychiatric problems are “rarely made by the villager himself”(Scheper-Hughes 161). Although initial hospitalization is rarely in acted by the individual, the patient eventually internalizes his behavior as deviant and will identify himself as insane once institutionalized. However, the labeling theory can only be used within the definitions of the culture, since different cultures will define abnormal behavior differently. In the context of some Non-Western cultures, symptoms of schizophrenia are praised, and those who may hear voices or hallucinate are deemed as spiritual, and given the role of prophet or shaman within the culture. Although schizophrenic symptoms are revered in some cultures, within Ireland there is not only a stigma to the patient,but to the family as well (Scheper-Hughes 283).Scheper-Hughes explains that schizophrenia is a family condition; to the extent where there is a pathology for the “schizophrenic mothers”. Defining the mothers of schizophrenic patients as obsessive, sexually and emotionally immature, repressed, guilt ridden and ignoring the needs and demands of their children (Scheper-Hughes 257). This clinical diagnoses for mothers of schizophrenics only deepens the social stigmas, and created more resentment among the family members toward the patient.

Diagnosing an individual with a mental illness balances on a fine line between giving a life-long label and misdiagnosing. Mental illness is best viewed on a continuum allowing for a varying degree of severity. In the field, mental health professionals are faced with determining what signifies the appropriateness of diagnosing a mental illness. A professional’s judgment is impacted by their personal perceptions and observations, societies views and norms, and the patient’s history. The film, “How Mad Are You? A Search for Insanity” demonstrates the difficulties in distinguishing those who are mentally ill from those seen as healthy ( ). I will explore my reactions and thoughts regarding the participants’ experience as well as the mental health professionals. Additionally, I will share how this information is applicable to my future career in the field of social work.

When people think of an “illness” they typically don’t automatically think of mental illness. They think about HIV, cancer, or even a cold or flu. However when it comes to mental illness it is a whole different idea. But is mental illness even real? Addressed in the book, The Myth of Mental Illness (1961), a psychiatrist Thomas Szasz argues that the idea of classifying psychological and emotional difficulties as “illnesses” takes away sense of control. Instead of holding people personally and morally responsible for their actions, he states, doctors attempt to “treat” the person, often with medications. Diagnosing mental illness, on the other hand, argue that mental disorders are as real as physical diseases and diagnosing them allows people

Entering the taboo world of mental illness, stigmatized as the crazy and psychotic by decades of

In 1973, psychologist David Rosenhan published “On Being Sane in Insane Places” which documents the results of studies he and his confederates conducted at 12 different psychiatric hospitals across the United States. The studies were an examination into the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis methods. Rosenhan’s research focused on testing the hypothesis of whether or not psychiatrists and medical staff can distinguish the sane from the insane and if the characteristics that lead to diagnoses relate more to the patient or to the environment and context in which they’re being assessed. (Rosenhan, 1973) The study was divided into two main parts. Participant observations and comparative information studies were noted as well as they gave valuable insight into the treatment of psychiatric patients, conditions in psychiatric hospitals, and the effect that diagnostic labels had on how patients were perceived by staff. Ultimately, the study discovered that psychiatrists could not reliably distinguish the sane from the insane and insight was gained into how diagnostic labels and environmental context play a strong role in the perception of behavior.

Holden Caulfield is an insane person in a sane world. What is insanity? Insanity is when you’re in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior or social interaction. This state is mental illness. Insanity is when you do things in deranged or outrageous ways that could frighten people, or make people feel uncomfortable when around you. It’s when you do things out of the ordinary; yet feel as if they are ordinary. Insanity could come about when you’re depressed, or after a traumatic event, and sometimes even by keeping all your feelings bottled up inside of yourself. Sane people are sensible, reliable, well-adjusted and practice sound judgment. It’s behavior that is expected in a society. By these

* The imprecision of the diagnosis of schizophrenia, for example, is illustrated by a study done by thirteen psychology researchers where they all presented themselves at the doors of various mental hospitals telling them they heard voices, with the outcome of each being discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenic on remission.

Mental disorders are not harmful, they are harmful dysfunctions” (p. 131). When a client receives a diagnosis, it does not mean that client will have that diagnosis for the rest of their life. There is a misconception that when a client is diagnosed with a mental disorder, it becomes their identity. There are sufficient treatments, whether therapeutic or medicinal, that can assist the client overcome their disorder (Nash, 22). The most important thing a client can do is to separate themselves from their diagnosis.

During their initial psychiatric assessment, they claimed to be hearing voices of the same sex as the patient which were often unclear, but which seemed to pronounce the words "empty", "hollow", "thud" and nothing else. These words were chosen as they vaguely suggest some sort of existential crisis and for the lack of any published literature referencing them as psychoticsymptoms. No other psychiatric symptoms were claimed. If admitted, the pseudopatients were instructed to "act normally", reporting that they felt fine and no longer heard voices. Hospital records obtained after the experiment indicate that all pseudopatients were characterized as friendly and cooperative by staff.

Rosehan study involved a series of experiments involving psychiatric institutions and the effects of misdiagnosed of psychological disorders on patients in hospitals. Rosenhan research associated with the mentally ill (schizophrenia) treatments and how it impacted the patients. This study included eight people of different professions, age and lifestyles. Each one of the eight people where sent to twelve different mental institutions to admitted falsely for having schizophrenia. None of the people had any mental illnesses. Once after being in the hospital the patients started to act normal again as if they didn’t have an illness. None of the staff was aware of the patient’s sanity.

Ethically there was concern, that the level of deception involved, could have caused detriment to future patients, since the embarrassment from the initial study had a direct affect on the judgements of genuine patients. The reliability of these results may be questioned, as the participant numbers were relatively small; however they were valid as the results showed a strong correlation from each of the hospitals investigated. Rosenhan’s studies have been a catalyst towards further research into schizophrenia, especially since they were ecologically valid.

Eight sane people were admitted into twelve different hospitals, where their diagnostic experiences would be part of the data of the first part of the article, while the rest will be devoted to a description of their experiences in psychiatric institutions. The patients were all very different from each other, three were women and five were men. Among them were three psychologists, one psychology graduate, a pediatrician, a housewife, a psychiatrist, and a painter. The ones that were in the mental health field were given a different occupation in order to avoid special attentions that might be given by the staff, as a matter of courtesy or caution. No one knew about the presence of the pseudopatients and the nature of the program was not known to any of the hospital staff. The settings were different as well. The hospitals were in five different states on the West and East coasts. Some were considered old and shabby and some were

Mental illness becomes a bigger issue with a long lasting cultural stereotyped due to the manner in which it has long been labelled (Miles, 1988). Although mental illness is very much connected to instabilities in one’s mental health state, as previously mentioned, a person can be mentally healthy but still suffer from a mental illness. What is understood by mental illness is that it