Being Sane in Insane Places
Lauren Mena
Prof. Wexler
Comp II
October 15, 2012
D.L. Rosenhan explains in his essay, ``On Being Sane in Insane Places’’ that society labels people permanently for some things that occur rarely. Rosenhan clarifies in this essay that patients who are considered ``schizophrenic,’’ and ``insane’’ aren’t truly schizophrenic or insane for the rest of their lives. There was an experiment conducted with eight sane people who explored twelve different psychiatric institutions across the United States. These eight people entered these hospitals as patients, therefore treated as patients and were only discharged by proving the authorities and staff that they were indeed sane. They had to participate in all activities, even take prescription drugs that were never swallowed. They were afraid that they would be exposed as frauds because they were always observing and note taking; however, the staff never really cared of what patients wrote in the dayroom. Once admitted, the pseudo patients wanted to be discharged almost immediately but knew that they would have to play cool and cooperate with every task asked of in order to leave. The time spent at the psychiatric institutions, the pseudo patients communicated with the real patients and realized that all insane people aren’t always insane. Just as Rosenhan points out in this particular article, ``the sane are not `sane’ all of the time. We lose our tempers `for no good reason.’’’ There are often times when people are in a depressive mood but you don’t classify the person as a depressed individual for the rest of their lives. More times than often, people cannot seem to be able to bond with others; however, they still aren’t diagnosed with any symptoms. Sane people always have a couple of moments in life that maybe are ``intense’’ but are never studied. The same perception goes for the diagnosed insane patients.
If it makes no sense to label ourselves permanently depressed on the basis of an occasional
Prof. Wexler
Comp II
October 15, 2012
D.L. Rosenhan explains in his essay, ``On Being Sane in Insane Places’’ that society labels people permanently for some things that occur rarely. Rosenhan clarifies in this essay that patients who are considered ``schizophrenic,’’ and ``insane’’ aren’t truly schizophrenic or insane for the rest of their lives. There was an experiment conducted with eight sane people who explored twelve different psychiatric institutions across the United States. These eight people entered these hospitals as patients, therefore treated as patients and were only discharged by proving the authorities and staff that they were indeed sane. They had to participate in all activities, even take prescription drugs that were never swallowed. They were afraid that they would be exposed as frauds because they were always observing and note taking; however, the staff never really cared of what patients wrote in the dayroom. Once admitted, the pseudo patients wanted to be discharged almost immediately but knew that they would have to play cool and cooperate with every task asked of in order to leave. The time spent at the psychiatric institutions, the pseudo patients communicated with the real patients and realized that all insane people aren’t always insane. Just as Rosenhan points out in this particular article, ``the sane are not `sane’ all of the time. We lose our tempers `for no good reason.’’’ There are often times when people are in a depressive mood but you don’t classify the person as a depressed individual for the rest of their lives. More times than often, people cannot seem to be able to bond with others; however, they still aren’t diagnosed with any symptoms. Sane people always have a couple of moments in life that maybe are ``intense’’ but are never studied. The same perception goes for the diagnosed insane patients.
If it makes no sense to label ourselves permanently depressed on the basis of an occasional