On pseudoscience in science, logic in remission, and psychiatric diagnosis: A critique of Rosenhan's "On being sane in insane places".

Abstract

Rosenhan's On Being Sane in Insane Places is pseudoscience presented as science. Just as his pseudopatients were diagnosed at discharge as schizophrenia in remission, so a careful examination of this study's methods, results, and conclusion leads to a diagnosis of logic in remission. Rosenhan's study proves that pseudopatients are not detected by psychiatrists as having simulated signs of mental illness. This rather unremarkable finding is not relevant to the real problems of the reliability and validity of psychiatric diagnosis and only serves to obscure them. A correct interpretation of these data contradicts the conclusions that were drawn. In the setting of a psychiatric hospital, psychiatrists seem remarkably able to distinguish the sane from the insane.

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