ipl-logo

Insane Places

366 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Mental health stigma pursuasion

On Being Sane in Insane Places (Rosenhan, 1973) shows how human bias affects a psychiatric diagnosis and the stigma of mental disorders. Even though established criteria for abnormal mental states exist, the diagnosis could vary depending on the professions, and their bias is applied on the diagnosis, especially at the “insane places.” Because of the characteristic of the place, the professions had a strong bias, so the psuedopatients could not be discharged easily although they presented normality. In addition, this diagnosis can negatively influence throughout one’s life as the stigma of mental disorder.

However, I believe psychiatric diagnosis could be advantageous in some ways. A number of research has been conducted on mental disorders and established certain criteria for them. The results …show more content…

When this article published, the second edition of DSM was in use. I believe public awareness of mental disorder and its stigma have been improved, and DSM has been significantly developed to increase the validity of the criteria. Even though those are still not perfect, I thought the situation surrounding people with mental disorders might be way improved than the time. In that sense, the efforts made by mental health professions will play an important role to provide better environment for those with mental disorders. This article enlightened me the crucial role of a clinician who deals with one’s mental disorder from diagnosing to terminating treatment. The diagnosis of mental disorder is on the clinician’s discretion and it brings huge influence on one’s life. People has relied on DSM for diagnosis of mental disorders to provide treatments. Since the psychiatric diagnosis is regarded as necessary, its disadvantageous should be understood. Therefore, a clinician should be able to view clients in clinical perspective without prejudice and have an ability to catch their improvement or exaggeration in mental

Show More
Related
1087 Words | 5 Pages

A physician has an unenviable position. He is closest to man approaching a god-like stature and when that god stumbles, the consequences can be disastrous. This is even more so in the field of psychiatry where the fact that mental illness exists is not disputed, but the diagnoses and treatment is often suspect. However, despite the demise of 'doctor knows best ', we still need to trust a psychiatrist since diagnosis is based on a patient 's expressed thoughts and overt behaviours rather than solely on biological phenomena. This requires not only that the patient trust the doctor, but even before that, the doctor appreciates and understands the context of those behaviours; behaviours that are influenced by the patient 's environment.

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

”(164) Mentally illness is major in society and requires lots of care. It plays a big role in people's

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

The theme of Desirée’s Baby, by Kate Chopin, is the role of racism and gender biases during the Civil War; to be more specific, the superiority of Caucasians to African Americans, and the subordinate role of women to men. During the Civil War, women and slaves were the most oppressed beings in the world. African Americans were looked down upon and seen as a lesser human only because of the color of their skin. Likewise, women were looked down upon only because society said they were to be.

Read More
1012 Words | 5 Pages

The prejudices that the mental health professionals surrounding people with mental illness also adds to the self-stigma which, increasing the “why try” effect, may tend to lead towards a cycle of stigma and lack of effective

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

How patients with mental disabilities’ treatment has changed over the years is drastic, and deserves to be noted. In the past, the patients were treated very poorly. According the Szasz, it was once believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft, or an angry god. For example, in medieval times, odd behaviors were a sign that the person was possessed by demons. From the 1400s to the 1600s, a common belief sustained by religious organizations was that some people made pacts with the devil and committed terrible acts, such as eating babies.

Read More
1227 Words | 5 Pages

In the chapter “On Being Sane in Insane Places,” David Rosenhan decided to experiment how well psychiatrists were able to differentiate a “sane” individual versus an “insane” individual. Rosenhan recruited eight other individuals, and together the eight of them faked their way into various hospitals. Mental illness can easily be misdiagnosed or mistreated in an individual when psychiatrists do not take the time to fully identify the patients illness because, most often people who consider themselves “insane” are actually the “sane” ones, while the people who consider themselves to be “sane” are actually “insane.” In the book Opening Skinners Box, Lauren Slater writes about David Rosenhan a psychologist with a joint degree in law who decided to try something out after “He had observed how many men used mental illness as a way of avoiding the draft.”

Read More
952 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout recent years, mental illness has become a belittled and “taboo” topic in a multitude of different societies. As a result, a majority of the world’s population isn’t exactly clear as to how one should approach those suffering from mental instability. Unlike physical illness, where an entire system of doctors and hospitals and medical research developed in order to cater to those who were physically ill, mental illnesses do not get nearly as much attention. Some would argue that a physical illness proves to be significantly more detrimental to one’s day to day life. However, observation of mentally ill individuals proves that mental illness can be as equally debilitating (you probably know someone in your life who has died from the

Read More
834 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
228 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
1470 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1472 Words | 6 Pages

David Rosenhan is known for the classic, yet controversial study “On Being Sane in Insane Places” of progress within the mental health field. Rosenhan’s study (1973) of eight people with no previous history of mental illness were admitted at various mental hospitals in America and complained of individual symptoms (auditory illusions, e.g., ‘thud’). He investigated whether psychiatrists could distinguish between those genuinely mentally ill and not. Each pseudopatient behaved normally, and symptoms were not re-reported.

Read More
165 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout the previous three decades, psychologists have advocated for the right to prescribe medication to their patients. Prior to the occurrence of this debate, a psychologist was primarily concerned with the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders, in comparison to psychiatrists who were primarily concerned with the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders through a broad understanding of psychopharmacology and the body. A psychologist is only required to obtain a PhD while a psychiatrist is required to obtain a MD, which draws the fine, distinctive line between the two professions; the ability to prescribe medication to patients. The debate regarding prescription privileges has a short but

Read More
284 Words | 2 Pages

Everyone deserves to feel healthy both physically and mentally, but some feel as though the mental aspect of their health is neglected and overlooked. Apart from the fact that “approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year” (), many withstand underlying problems and do not get the help that they need in fear of being connected to a stigma or not being taken seriously. The disgrace that came along with struggling through mental illness was much more prevalent during the 18th century in the United States. This resulted in the confinement of those who were perceived as “crazy” or “dangerous” in asylums with poor care, giving patients a low quality of life. Institutionalized care acknowledged

Read More
704 Words | 3 Pages

”It is difficult to view mental illness as a disease as many of us have no knowledge about its etiology. Psychiatry, a beautiful fusion of science and art. I love medicine but I also love art, hence, making Psychiatry my field of interest. To further strengthen my knowledge and understanding of this subject , I took up the position of Research Scholar in the University of Miami and have been working on......

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

Stigmatization of mental illness existed well before psychiatry became a formal discipline, but was not formally labeled and defined as a societal problem until the publication of Goffman’s book (1963). Mental illnesses are among the most stigmatizing conditions, regardless of the specific psychiatric diagnosis. Unlike other illnesses, mental illness is still considered by some to be a sign of weakness, as well as a source of shame and disgrace. Many psychiatric patients are concerned about how people will view them if knowledge of their condition becomes public Mental health stigma can be divided into two distinct types: • social stigma is characterized by prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior directed towards individuals with mental health problems as a result of the psychiatric label they have been given and has those types stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination Stereotypes are based on knowledge available to members of a group and provide a way to categorize information about other groups in society Prejudiced persons agree with these negative stereotypes, and these attitudes lead to discrimination through negative behaviors toward mentally ill individuals those negative perceptions create fear of and social distance from mentally ill persons. • perceived stigma or

Read More

More about Insane Places

Related Topics

Open Document