1 / 8

Who’s Crazy Here, Anyway?

Who’s Crazy Here, Anyway?. Julia Tomasson. Background. David L. Rosenhan (1973) “Being sane in insane places” Can we really distinguish between healthy and abnormal? What are the consequences of the mistakes? Is it the patients or the situations they are found in?

lita
Download Presentation

Who’s Crazy Here, Anyway?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Who’s Crazy Here, Anyway? Julia Tomasson

  2. Background • David L. Rosenhan (1973) • “Being sane in insane places” • Can we really distinguish between healthy and abnormal? • What are the consequences of the mistakes? • Is it the patients or the situations they are found in? • Professionals should be able to determine with criteria • ‘Pseudopatients’ should be found healthy

  3. Methods • 8 subjects (including Rosenhan, 3 women, 5 men, 12 psychological hospitals, 5 states on east and west coasts) • Each made an appointment and complained of hearing voices • “empty,” “hollow,” “thud” • Otherwise completely healthy • All but one were diagnosed and admitted with schizophrenia • In the hospital • No symptoms, behaved normally

  4. Results • 7 - 52 days, average of 19 days before released • None suspected • All released as “schizophrenia in remission” • 35/118 real patients voiced suspicions • Contact between patients and staff was minimal and bizarre • Severe depersonalization, but no lack of medicine • Never really communicated effectively • Not considered real people!

  5. Conclusion • In the hospital setting healthy subjects cannot be distinguished from mentally ill people. • “If they are here, they must be crazy!” • Diagnostic labels become persona • Tend to add psychological implications to normal things • Doctor interpretations of past depend on diagnosis

  6. Significance • Hospital environments, counter - therapeutic? • Danger in diagnostic labels • Self- concerning • With new antipsychotic medicines, less people are being confined to mental hospitals • Use labels carefully and with respect to power demands

  7. Criticism • Criticism • Who would lie to get into a mental institute? • Questioned if mistakes like these could happen in THEIR hospital • During the next 3 months one or more pseudo patients would be sent • Rate each submission on a 10 point scale of likeliness to be a pseudo patient • 193 admissions: 41 considered with high confidence to be the pseudo patient, 23 suspected, 19 identified • …No pseudo patients actually sent

  8. Recent Applications • Szasz (1993) • mental illness cannot be diagnosed simply if one person (health professional) does not understand the other (patient) • Brighton and Chesterman (2001) • Faking of a mental illness can be a “get out of jail free card” for criminals • Wahl (1999) • Stigma against psychological disorders in our society • Boisvert and Faust (1999) • Scenarios of an employee who behaves violently toward their boss • If the employee was pre-diagnosed as schizophrenic, subjects were more likely to blame the employee • With no evidence of mental illness, subjects most often blamed environmental stress

More Related