read an interesting little article in fortean times science section yesterday about an informal experiment undetaken in 1972. a psychologist named david rosenhan wanted to test if trained mental health professionals could really diagnose mental illness. he sent eight sane volunteers into psychiatric hospitals across america. they each reported the same symptom, hearing an indistinct voice in their head, but otherwise offered completely accurate details of themselves and their pathology free life stories. each and every one was admitted into a the mental hospital. once inside they stopped claiming to hear voices and acted completely normally. everything they did however seemed to reinforce the doctors opinion that they were schizophrenics, and they were dosed accordingly. interestingly a full third of the other patients noticed the impostors straight away. the full text of the report published in 1973 titled on being sane in insane places is pretty interesting. also 30 years later a woman named lauren slater replicated resenhan’s experiment the results of which you can read here. aslo interesting.