...“On being sane in insane places” In discussions of Rosenhan, one controversial issue has been his take on psychiatrists and psychiatric diagnoses. On the one hand Rosenhan argues that psychiatry is not scientific. On the other hand, Spitzer contends Rosenhan is wrong. My own view is that there seems to be some truth to both sides. Sending “sane” people into facilities to see if with just one simple symptom they can be committed, it seems to be insane and yet according to his study it worked. These eight individuals gave the same symptom, hearing a voice that said “thud”, all diagnosed as schizophrenics except one. Strange isn’t it? It’s stated in the chapter that Rosenhan was approached by one of the other patients while in the treatment facility who knew he wasn’t a legitimate psychiatric patient. He noted the inhumane treatment some of the patients received and the medications that were handed out like candy. He also stated there was a lack of seeing a patient as an individual. I begin to wonder and contemplate....
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...Introduction In this assignment I will answer the Two questions given in class by the lecturer which are: • What is Sociological Imagination? and • What do we mean, when we say no one understands insanity? I will use help from online sources and material given in class (slide about D.L. Rosenhan, 1973, on being sane in insane places.) given by the lecturer to help me develop ideas and reach a good conclusion and understanding of the questions above. I will also analyse Sociological Imagination based on C. Wright Mills ideas, I will develop my own ideas on sociological imagination and also have a critical analysis on insanity and sanity, explaining why is difficult or almost impossible to differentiate the sane from the insane. I will also relate inanity to Sociological imagination. This assignment contains references and aconclusion. Question 1) What is Sociological Imagination? Sociological imagination, is a neologism of sociology, analysed by the American social scientist C. Wright Mills in 1959, that seeks to describe the connection process between the person's individual experience with social institutions under which they live, and their own place in the history of mankind. It is the ability to develop sociologists to analyze the connection of the everyday life of individuals with their social problems. It is an unusual kind of thought that establishes connections between broader individual...
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...Summary on "On Being Sane in Insane Places" by D. L. Rosenhan D.L. Rosenhan was an American psuchologist, he was best known for the rosenhan experiment and study of challenging the validity of psychology diagnosis. He was a leading expert on psychology and law. In 1973 he published "On being sane in insane places," one of the most vividly read articles in the field of psychology. The article details the Rosenhan experiment. "On being Sane in insane places" was an experiment done to test the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. It tested a variety of people. It used (3 women, and 5 males a psychology graduate student in his 20s, three psychologists, a paediatrician, a psychiatrist, a painterm and a housewife) "pseudopatients" who faked hallusinations to attempt to get into 12 different psyc hospital in 5 different states across the U.S. They scheduled appointment and showed up complaining of hearing voices. They stated they didn't know the voice but it was the same sex as them. They also said that the voice was saying "empty", "hollow", and "thud". The pseudo patients gave fake names and job information to protect their true identites, but all other information was true. Such as life expirences, relationships, and so forth. They were all admitted and diagnosed with schizaphrenia except for one. After admission they told staff they were fine and were still forced to take antipsychotic drugs. They discharged from each hospital after 7-52 days,but only after accepting their diagnosis...
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...On Being Sane in Insane Places Zehra Morgan 21737604 February 17, 2016 Introduction to Sociology 125 1. Immediately after admission, the pseudo patients acted normally (asymptomatic) while discreetly taking notes for the experiment. The pseudo patients acted normally and told staff that they felt fine and had no longer experienced any additional hallucinations. All were forced to admit to having a mental illness and agree to take antipsychotic drugs as a condition of their release. The average time that the patients spent in the hospital was 19 days. All but one was diagnosed with schizophrenia "in remission" before their release. The second part of his study involved an offended hospital administration challenging Rosenhan to send pseudo patients to its facility, which its staff would then detect. Rosenhan agreed and in the following weeks out of 193 new patients the staff identified 41 as potential pseudo patients, with 19 of these receiving suspicions from at least one psychiatrist and one other staff member. 2. In 1973, psychiatrists were embarrassingly bad at distinguishing the mentally ill from the normal. Today, psychopathology is still very subjective and arguably as much of an art as it is a science, with questionable criteria as to what is considered a mental "illness" or not. Despite constantly and openly taking extensive notes on the behavior of the staff and other patients, none of the pseudo patients were identified as impostors by the hospital staff...
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...Many people may ask themselves “Are we insane living in a sane world, or are we sane living in an insane world?”. The following works of literature can be used to help find the answer for life experiences. The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee depicts the story of two men Peter and Jerry who meet at Central Park. Other stories such as Hills Like White Elephants, The Old Man at the Bridge, and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, by Ernest Hemingway, each reflect a tale of human conditions experienced by many. Human condition can be defined as the positive and negative aspects of existence as a human being. Events that go coincide with human condition would be birth, love, and even death. The condition of human beings is something that has caused people to...
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...classifying abnormal behavior. Psychiatrists need medical training in order to diagnose and treat mental disorders following the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, for more than two centuries, there has been an anti-psychiatry movement that questions the reliability and helpfulness of psychiatric treatments. Many psychiatrists such as Maurice Temerlin(1968) and David Rosenhan(1973) supported some of the objections and criticisms of the anti-psychiatry movement. Rosenhan questioned the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses and accused diagnostic labels of impairing medical judgement. David Rosenhan carried out the study “On Being Sane In Insane Places” through which he wanted to prove that psychiatric diagnoses are not reliable (Rosenhan, 1973). For the first part of the study, eight sane participants (pseudo-patients) pretended to have auditory hallucinations in order to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals in different states across the United States. Participants for the experiment included three psychologists, one psychiatrist, a graduate student, a housewife, a pediatrician, and a painter. The only false information given for admission was their name, job, and the claim of recent auditory hallucinations. All other details regarding their relationships, life experiences, daily routines, and events of life were authentic. All of the patients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals and diagnosed as mentally disabled. After admission,...
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...Name Subject Professor Date Hamlet’s Insanity In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the theme of insanity is portrayed through Hamlet. Hamlet’s mental state mirrors the play’s ambiguity. Hamlet’s character elicits different hypotheses that include the following: First, Hamlet is sane throughout the play but opts to feign insanity. Secondly, Hamlet’s insanity was latent but fully developed after the play produced by the hero. Hamlet claims he will take on an “antic disposition” ( Bloom, 45). The first thing that indicates his insanity is his madness. His madness can be hypothesised as an indication of this disposition. His madness is further shown when it is stated that he was only mad after an interview with a ghost. This interview with a ghost is by all reasons, an indication of madness. Therefore, Hamlet is insane and its insinuation in the play is not a ploy. Secondly, the suicidal tendencies of Hamlet justify his insanity. When the play opens, Hamlet wishes that his, “flesh” would melt and, “dissolve” (Thiher, 39). Hamlet’s need for self-slaughter is brought out and portrayed throughout the play. Besides, the murder of his father and the betrayal of his mother make him be of the belief that the world is a very corrupt place: Of, that this too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. (Shakespeare, 1.2.6-11) One of the factors that impair Hamlet’s sanity...
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...who we define as a deviant restrict such behaviors. To manage deviance institutions use restraints, medicalizations, rules, pass them along, punishment, ignore them, hide them, fix them, isolate them, sort them, and challenge/undermined them. Medical institutions for the mentally ill can use any and all of the above techniques to manage deviant behaviors. Legal institutions like police stations, jails, prisons, and courts use the techniques that deal less with medicalizing deviants; the techniques generally include: rules, isolation, sorting, punishment, and challenging the deviants. Such examples are covered in the readings and movie for this unit: Case Routinization in Police Work (Waegel 1981), Normal Crimes (Sudnow 1965), On Being Sane in Insane Places (Rosenhan), and The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In Case Routinization in Police Work and Normal Crimes, the main objective of the two journals was to show case the different ways in which the legal system handles deviance. For Case Routinization in Police Work it explained that the differences in bonds and sentencing is based on the crime itself and how the assailant committed the crime, if it was performed in a routine or non-routine way. A great example that comes from recent media coverage would be “the attack of the Miami zombie/ cannibal”, it was rather non-routine in the sense that it is not normal to find two men naked under an overpass where on is eating the other’s face. In reaction, the police that made it...
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...It is hard to remain sane when one is stranded on an island, has little food, and no chance of survival. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys struggle to tackle the feeling of savagery. Set on a deserted island, young men such as Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon are stranded with no adults. The boys vote Ralph, the main protagonist, as the leader and attempt to create an organized society. However, Jack, the main antagonist, strives to be in charge. Eventually, Jack becomes the ruler of his own tribe. All the boys fear the “beast” which is the evil within them rather than the creature they imagine. The boys slowly start turning savage and end up killing two boys, Simon and Piggy. In the end, they do get rescued; however,...
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...film are represented by Francis, whose own sanity is shown to be questionable towards the end. This essay will conduct a visual analysis of The Cabinet of Caligri and focus on the characters Cesare, Doctor Caligri and Francis to establish how they represent different parts of society. The story takes place with Francis telling an older man about how his life was altered. He explains that he lived in Holstenwall, and everything begins to go shadowy. Francis tells the story about a string of murders that happen when a local fair comes to town and Doctor Caligri obtains...
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...author Polly Clark. The story gently touches the area of which you go from sane to insane. After reading the story you could ask yourself; what is sanity? And where do we draw the line from a person being sane, to a person being insane? The question about sanity is a valid subject to discuss after reading “Reconciliation”, because the main character and narrator Laura seems to be quite strange and she doesn’t seem to know how to interact with other people. These things are shown very early on – as well as the first small signs of her being on the edge of sanity. At first she forgets to bring proper footwear on the first day at her new job. That combined with her not washing her hair properly, but instead doing a rather unsuccessful (her own words) “dry wash”, could be blamed on her just being a rather untidy person. The first real sign of her being on the edge of sanity is when she explains why she is walking around the office bare footed. She blames it on mountaineering which – let’s face it – is the worst excuse possible. Other signs that show that her mind is rather dysfunctional are the narrator’s use of imagery in her head. She compares her husband – Vernon – with a rhinoceros and a turtle and she describes his shoulders as being like branches in a gale. All of this could be her way of making him lesser human and therefore making herself seem more normal. She even refers to her lacking the skills of being normal when she says: “I hope he realises how much planning, thought, how...
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...characters. Nothing happens in the story without the opinion of either character. While the grandmother is older and has a lot to learn the misfit is younger and has a lot to teach. The misfit with his violent killing is an unlikely source to look to for moral guidance but he shows more depth and understanding of the world than the grandmother. For instance the grandmother says “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it”(367) when she doesn’t even know the man she is speaking of. Her first initial reaction to the misfit is disgust and pity she looks down upon him because she believes she is morally better than he is. She has never once looked into herself and her own decisions to see if she is being morally correct. She condemns all of humanity “People are certainly not nice like they used to be “(370) she says to strangers. She constantly is criticizing everyone else about how they are unjust and wrong with their actions; but she never looks at herself to see her own hypocrisy and dishonesty. Like when she sneaks the cat into the car without permission and lies to the children about a secret panel in the house so she can have her way and go see the house she once made fond memories in. The misfit is a man of many colors and experiences he says “I was a gospel singer for a while; Been in the arm service, both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twict married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads,...
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...For him to do that is incredibly disrespectful to her family. He didn't jump in because he was so sad over her death and didn't want her to leave him. He jumped in because he wanted to make it known that he loved her more than her brother which is impossible especially that Laertes had just lost his father and would do anything to keep his sister safe. Instead of showing people that he loved Ophelia he just showed them that he is a little insane. But with these things in mind I still don't think that he is insane because the facts of him being sane out way the couple of little insane things that he did. When he jumped into Ophelia’s grave I think that he did it out of emotion. He was just overwhelmed by her death even though he had been mean to her and he still had feelings for her. I think he just felt bad that she died when they were on a bad page and he never got to say he was sorry and get things back to normal between them and it just got to be to much and he had an emotional break...
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...teenagers of the Labor Youth Party camp. At the end of this event, Breivik had killed 77 people and injured many more. What attracted the most attention of the news was not the event, but the trial. In the trial, the media was pouring with eye-catching headlines that described Breivik as a privileged criminal who was truly insane. The different views of the media will be discussed in more detail in the Media Reporting Section of this paper. In Norway, their criminal justice system is focused around rehabilitation; getting the accused individual to function back in society. In Breivik’s trial, the main debate was if he was insane or not because each would have drastic consequences for Breivik and the community. If he was declared insane, as much as society saw him, then Breivik would be committed to compulsory psychiatric care, and the community would write the attack as the work as a madman. If he was declared sane, which he was, then he would serve Norway’s maximum sentence of 21 years (and longer if deemed dangerous to society), and society would be left with the question “Why?”. The different options also would have a major impact on Breivik; if he was declared insane, then he would go to a private institution (which was built just for him) and would not have as many privileges as he would in a normal prison. Psychiatrists who looked at Breivik had mixed reports; one declared him psychotic at the time of the attack, and the other said that he was not psychotic, but that he suffers...
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...Often throughout the novel, he asks very strange and disturbing questions. By the end, Darl could be declared insane as he talks to himself on the train and that would be the end of the discussion. But is Darl really mentally insane? Or is there a deeper reason to his actions and words that led to the ultimatum of his departure on the train to Jackson? Darl shows signs of psychological disorders which at that time was a strange and unspoken concept with little access to help....
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