KillerMuffin
Seraphically Disinclined
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2000
- Posts
- 25,603
"A generation ago, psychiatrist D.L. Rosenhan fueld the debate on defining mental illnes when he published the results of an experiment in which he fooled twelve mental hospicals in five states on the West and East Coasts (including some of the most prestigious) into admitting people who had no history of mental illness. In the admissions interview, his volunteers pretended to have heard a voice say a word such as "thud," "hollow," or "empty." Otherwise, they gave correct life histories except for their names and occupations. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, each volunteer was admitted.
"Thereafter, the pseudo-patients acted nromally, no longer claiming to hear voices. All the staff, however, reacted to them on the basis of the prior diagnosis, no their current behavior. One humorous example occurred when one of the staff witnessed a pseudo-patient taking notes of what was happening, viewed this as a pathological symptom, and wrote down that the 'patient engages in note-taking behavior,' which apparently was fine for the staff member to do, but not the patient.
"Interestingly, the real mental patients almost immediately detected the normality of the pseudo-patients, and insisted they were either academics or journalists who were 'checking up on the place.' No one on the staff ever found out, thought. The pseudo-patients remained hospitalized anywhere from seven to fifty-two days, averaging nineteen days each. Even then, they were released because their schizophrenia was 'in remission.'
"After publication of this study, officials at another mental hospital scoffed at the findings and said that they could always detect a phony patient. Rosenhan accepted the challenge and said he would send them phony patients. The hospital, its staff alerted, identified forty-one imposters sent by Rosenhan over the next three months. Actually, he had sent no one, and all forty-one cases had been genuine. Once again, he demonstrated the subjective nature and difficulty in diagnosing mental disorders. In the intervening years since this study, the difficulty of recognizing mental disorders--whether by other family members or by professionals--remains."
Do you think we over-diagnose mentally illness?
"According to psychatrist Thomas Szasz, mental disorders are not illnesses but an unconscious excuse to avoid an unpleasant reality. Some social factor--an unbearable personal and emotional situation, say, or an unresolved problem in living--causes the person unable to deal with the problem to adopt a defensive strategy to escape one role and assume another. Since the psychiatrist makes a value judgement based on his or her behavioral norms, identified mental illness is often a 'myth' that penalizes people with involuntary treatement, thereby depriving them of their freedom and the opportunity to face responsibility."
An interesting statistic:
"An inverse correlation exists between social class and mental disorders. Members of the lower classes have higher rates of mental disorder and people of higher socioeconomic status have lower rates.
"Lower-class people are less likely to recieve treattment; but their rate of hospitalization is much higher, and their stay in those mental hospitals is much longer. Middle and upper class Americans are more likely to use outpatient or expensive private facilities; and if institutionalized, they tend to remain in the facility for a relatively brief period. Psychotherapy is the most common treatment for the more affluent, whereas drug treatment or electroshock therapy are more common treatments for lower-class patients."
Thoughts?
"Thereafter, the pseudo-patients acted nromally, no longer claiming to hear voices. All the staff, however, reacted to them on the basis of the prior diagnosis, no their current behavior. One humorous example occurred when one of the staff witnessed a pseudo-patient taking notes of what was happening, viewed this as a pathological symptom, and wrote down that the 'patient engages in note-taking behavior,' which apparently was fine for the staff member to do, but not the patient.
"Interestingly, the real mental patients almost immediately detected the normality of the pseudo-patients, and insisted they were either academics or journalists who were 'checking up on the place.' No one on the staff ever found out, thought. The pseudo-patients remained hospitalized anywhere from seven to fifty-two days, averaging nineteen days each. Even then, they were released because their schizophrenia was 'in remission.'
"After publication of this study, officials at another mental hospital scoffed at the findings and said that they could always detect a phony patient. Rosenhan accepted the challenge and said he would send them phony patients. The hospital, its staff alerted, identified forty-one imposters sent by Rosenhan over the next three months. Actually, he had sent no one, and all forty-one cases had been genuine. Once again, he demonstrated the subjective nature and difficulty in diagnosing mental disorders. In the intervening years since this study, the difficulty of recognizing mental disorders--whether by other family members or by professionals--remains."
Do you think we over-diagnose mentally illness?
"According to psychatrist Thomas Szasz, mental disorders are not illnesses but an unconscious excuse to avoid an unpleasant reality. Some social factor--an unbearable personal and emotional situation, say, or an unresolved problem in living--causes the person unable to deal with the problem to adopt a defensive strategy to escape one role and assume another. Since the psychiatrist makes a value judgement based on his or her behavioral norms, identified mental illness is often a 'myth' that penalizes people with involuntary treatement, thereby depriving them of their freedom and the opportunity to face responsibility."
An interesting statistic:
"An inverse correlation exists between social class and mental disorders. Members of the lower classes have higher rates of mental disorder and people of higher socioeconomic status have lower rates.
"Lower-class people are less likely to recieve treattment; but their rate of hospitalization is much higher, and their stay in those mental hospitals is much longer. Middle and upper class Americans are more likely to use outpatient or expensive private facilities; and if institutionalized, they tend to remain in the facility for a relatively brief period. Psychotherapy is the most common treatment for the more affluent, whereas drug treatment or electroshock therapy are more common treatments for lower-class patients."
Thoughts?
