I think the most interesting thing about the article was that some of the patients in the mental institutions could detect that the pseudo-patients were sane. It’s really astonishing how doctors who are supposed to be experts couldn’t even tell the difference between their sane and insane patients.
However, even though the pseudo-patients acted as they normally would, the staff didn’t detect their sanity. The patients were diagnosed as schizophrenic in remission instead. Doctors, psychologists, and therapist, chalked all of their pseudo-patients’ normal behaviors to some sort of mental illness. David Rosenhan talks about this when he discusses his experiment in his essay. He states, “The facts of the case were unintentionally distorted by the staff to achieve consistency with a popular theory of the dynamics of a schizophrenic reaction.” What he means is that the staff tried to make a perfectly normal behavior fit into the mold of a schizophrenic behavior just because the pseudo-patient was diagnosed as being schizophrenic.
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As it was shown in Rosenhan’s article, “On Being Sane in Insane Places”, normality that was displayed in pseudo-patients was confused with abnormality simply because they were labeled as being mentally ill. Therefore, it shows that placing labels on people can actually blind people to the truth because they believe the characteristics behind the
Has anyone else ever wondered how many sane people have been misdiagnosed or even committed to an institution unnecessarily? In chapter three; On Being Sane in Insane Places, in the novel Opening Skinners Box, Lauren Slater has written about experiments conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan in 1972 and again by herself sometime in the 2000’s.
Mental illness affects everyone, friends, family, teachers, and most of all the person with the illness. Neal Shusterman wrote this book to show the effects of mental illness on the sick and their family and friends. The first, and most obvious, reason that Shusterman wrote Challenger Deep is to share his sons experiences. In the book Shusterman “tr[ies] to capture what [the] descent was like” for his son, and show us how scarry, disorrenting, and sad Caden’s Journey was (Shusterman Author's Note); additionally, Shusterman also shows the reader Caden’s highs during his journey to remission. Neal Shusterman's own son had Schizophrenia, which put a lot of stress on him.
Famed psychologist, Sigmund Freud, is perhaps one of the most iconic and influential figures in the sphere of faulty scientific reasoning to date. Though his theories and ideas remain to be integral parts of psychological culture, a large number of them have been wildly disproven by modern scientists, who cite Freud’s misuse of evidence (more specifically, case studies) as a contributing factor to the erroneousness of his claims. Case study, Freud’s preferred method of investigation, extensively examines a single group, person, etc. As a result of this, one cannot use a case study as a dependable source of information, nor can one generalize a case study to a broader population, despite Freud’s multiple attempts to do just that, in a variety of studies dealing with mentally-ill patients. It is outdated and unreliable; a source of evidence that is of little to no scientific value, yet, one that still endures to be staple among discredited scientists and groundless researchers alike.
In the book Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, one of the biggest focal points is mental illness. Mental illness can be tough to talk about, simply because the phrase “mental illness” encompasses such a wide range of conditions and conjures up images of deranged people, but it is very important, especially in this book. There is a certain stigma that people who are put into mental hospitals because they have medical problems or are insane and a possible danger to society. While this is sometimes true, it is far more common for patients to need help for a disorder, but just don’t know where to go or what to do, and can end up putting themselves or someone else in danger.
The insane are known to have been cursed with unclean spirits ever since the beginning of America who takes its views from the Old World. It was only during the Second Great Awakening that people, Christian activists and often women, sought to reform the prisons and asylums. For Americans, asylums are now remnants of the past; the mentally ill are now bestowed the right to live normal lives and they are now even given the choice to decide if they wish to seek help and take medication. Even so, it is undeniable that people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are unwillingly trapped inside a mind often not their own. Some of them, if left alone and uncared for, face dangers in society.
L. Rosenhan discusses a series of experiments that he participated in involving psychiatric institutions and the effect of misdiagnoses of psychological disorders on the patients admitted to the hospitals. Rosenhan’s research shows us that the labels associated with mental illness (particularly schizophrenia) have a significant impact on the way patients are treated. In the experiment, Rosenhan and several other “pseudo patients” intentionally tried to get themselves admitted to mental hospitals in several states, feigning schizophrenia. They were easily admitted, and once inside they stopped exhibiting any abnormal behaviors. Rosenhan’s idea was that normality would be so distinct and easy to detect that surely the subjects would be released nearly immediately.
The 2000’s was a very intense decade, with the occurrence of 9/11 which led to the War in Iraq. A year after 2000, HBO released a documentary named “Bellevue, inside Out” by Maryann DeLeo. In this documentary, the viewer gets to take a look inside Bellevue Hospital located in New York City, which contains a psychiatric institution. The film captures about 12 months inside the psychiatric unit in this hospital. The documentary follows both the employees, such as the emergency room directors, psychiatrists, nurses, etc., as well as the patients admitted into the psychiatric emergency room.
When people hear the words, “mental illness,” they think of insane asylums and psychiatric wards, but that’s not necessarily the case. Yes, back in the 1800’s they did have asylums for people with mental disorders. But that was when doctors didn’t fully understand mental illnesses and disorders. But currently, doctors are able to comprehend illnesses and disorders.
How they are perceived, and their of lack ability to meet the expectations of society was interpreted as mental illness. Although they are all institutionalized for different reasons, the one they all have in common is society. McMurphy, for example, was admitted for being a “psychopath”, while others felt that they were not able to function and signed themselves up voluntarily. Consequently, society sets up expectations for what is viewed as normal. If these expectations are not met or if someone is different they walk the fine line of sanity vs.
This documentary will help me as a social worker in the future because it reaffirmed the importance of following the steps for psychiatric diagnosis and not merely coming to a premature diagnostic conclusion based on assessing clients’ appearances and their responses to tests, which is what occurred in this production. As mentioned in the series, How mad are you? A Search for Insanity (2008), participants may respond to tests for rational thinking differently based on a variety of factors and the results do not necessarily reveal evidence of mental disorders. I was also reminded of the importance of being a compassionate clinician who is self-aware and is cognizant of the impact verbal and non-verbal language has on clients and to operate
What exactly defines one as “insane” versus “sane”, and where is the boundary between the two? Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” explores exactly that: the short story initially seems to be a tale of a 19th century woman forced into the notorious rest cure popularized at the time by male doctors--however, as the plot progresses, it becomes a much deeper commentary not only on societal limitations imposed on women, but also on the blurred line separating sanity from insanity. Gilman explores the boundary between sanity and insanity with the usage of different literary elements; she expresses how the boundary is “paper-thin” through the usage of symbolism, shows the subtle conversion to insanity by utilizing a stream of consciousness
Robert Spitzer argues for the "validity of psychiatry, and its diagnostic practices, as sound scientific, medical procedures" (Slater 73). I disagree with him; throughout the whole chapter David Rosenhan shows how flawed these mental institutions are. He shows that it does not take much to fool these psychiatrists into thinking one is not sane. These psychiatrists were diagnosing people with schizophrenia without really running much tests on them. They need to have better diagnostic practices.
In the book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest” Ken Kesey shows that the “insanity” of the patients is really just normal insecurities and their label as insane by society is immoral. This appears in the book concerning Billy Bibbits problem with his mom, Harding's problems with his wife, and that the patients are in the ward
This then led to an actually diagnosis of a psychopath, because in their mind he had to have something. This information was compared to a previous psychopath would look like, he fitted the picture. By the verdict people already though something was wrong, and even if there wasn’t, something had to be wrong enough that he could fake it which was what anchor everyone’s beliefs that he could not be realise after wards. People made judgments quickly without having to spend a lot of time analyzing information of his
Illness in women has always been a great mystery. When illness is studied, it is studied in men. With male symptoms, male bodies, and male drugs to fix the problem. The medical field has done very little to explore the ways that various illnesses both mental and physical effect women. They often do not know how to treat these illnesses when they do show up in women.