|
As a psychological experiment eight normal young people
pretended to be insane in order to gain admission into mental hospitals. They
told the doctors that they could hear voices inside their heads. They
were all judged to be insane, but as soon as they were inside the hospitals they
stopped pretending to be sick. Surprisingly none of
the staff noticed that they weren't sick but many of the other patients noticed
that they weren't and accused them of being journalists or hospital inspectors. They
took notes about their experiences and the staff thought that this was just another
symptom of their sickness. What was normal behavior
outside the hospital was seen as aspects of mental illness inside the hospital. Although
most of the "frauds" were released within a few weeks, none of them
were judged to be mentally healthy, only having a temporary recovery from the
sickness. The conclusion was that, "We cannot
tell the difference between the sane and the insane in mental hospitals. Furthermore,
doctors are more likely to call a healthy person sick than call a sick person
healthy." | 
