Faking mental disturbance to test the system

“In 1972, David Rosenhan, a newly minted psychologist with a joint degree in law, called eight friends and said something like, “Are you busy next month? Would you have time to fake your way into a mental hospital and see what happens?”

When David Rosenhan first presented to the psychiatrist he complained of a voice in his head that simply said ‘thud’. After some simple test he was admitted and kept in the institution for weeks, despite immediately telling his doctor that the voice had now disappeared. How could it be so simple to fool a professional? Back in 1972 Rosenhan’s report of his experiences scandalised the psychiatric profession.

Inspired by Rosenhan, psychologist Lauren Slater repeated the experiment recently and her conclusions were only marginally less disturbing.

A summary of Rosenhan’s research. Rosenhan’s original article in full. Review of Lauren Slater’s book.


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Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.