Rosenhan wanted to show that doctors couldn’t distinguish the sane from the insane. In fact, he showed something equally worrying: that scientists couldn’t distinguish fact from forgery. 📧 Read StuartJRitchie's latest newsletter
The problem is – you guessed it – there are now major suspicions about the pseudopatients study – and whether the whole episode even happened in the first place. Cahalan describes becoming fascinated by the Rosenhan experiment, and attempting to track down some of the pseudopatients. But in general, she failed. Despite extensive efforts over many years, she could only work out who three of them were: Rosenhan himself, one of his students, and one other, to whom we’ll return in a moment.
Notes from Rosenhan’s own tenure as a pseudopatient don’t converge at all with the idea of “claim you heard voices, then act normally”. In fact, Rosenhan acted very dramatically while he was in the hospital – twitching, grimacing, speaking very slowly, and generally acting as if he was in extreme distress. Perhaps it was less of an indictment on the hospital that he was kept in for treatment.
Worse, there’s an early draft of the paper which did fully include that final patient, but where the numbers are identical to those in the published version from. It wouldn’t be possible for the numbers to be exactly the same with nine versus eight patients, so this is at least an error in one of the versions, and rather suspect overall. Scull concludes that the numbers were “transparently falsified”.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
One simple, 11-minute habit that could prevent one in 10 early deathsNew research by Cambridge University shows that a brisk 11-minute walk each day could prevent as many as one in 10 early deaths.
Read more »
If you're playing Flight Sim, you must read SkyfaringWhen Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was first asked to fly the mail from Alicante to Casablanca, he asked another pilo…
Read more »
Read the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry volume three in fullDownload the report which contains the findings of inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders on whether the terror attack could have been prevented by MI5 and counter-terrorism police
Read more »
Self-confessed 'total Coke addict' Rishi says he's cut down to one a weekWe've all seen the viral clip of Rishi Sunak making the bizarre admission that he's a 'coke addict' but now he's claimed he only drinks one can a week 🧐
Read more »
Maine's Ogunquit Beach Rated One of the Top 10 in AmericaDoes the snow have you dreaming of a beach vacation? Well good news – a New England location has made a list of the best beaches in the country. Ogunquit Beach in Ogunquit beach has been ranked among the top 10 beaches in the country, according to the Tripadvisor 2023 Travelers’ Choice Awards. “This beach is impeccably clean, and has…
Read more »
The 'Toast Rack' named as one of UK's ugliest buildings - but Mancs don't agreeMancunians have their say after the 'Toast Rack' is named one of the ugliest buildings in the UK
Read more »