Rosenhan experiment

The main building of St. Elizabeths Hospital (1996), located in Washington, D.C., now part of the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was one of the sites of the Rosenhan experimentThe Rosenhan experiment or Thud experiment was a disputed study regarding the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. For the experiment, participants submitted themselves for evaluation at various psychiatric institutions and feigned hallucinations in order to be accepted, but acted normally from then onward. Each was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and given antipsychotic medication. The study was arranged by psychologist David Rosenhan, a Stanford University professor, and published by the journal Science in 1973 with the title On Being Sane In Insane Places.

As a critique of psychiatric diagnosis, it broached the topic of wrongful involuntary commitment. The experiment is said to have "accelerated the movement to reform mental institutions and to deinstitutionalize as many mental patients as possible". Rosenhan claimed that he, along with eight other people (five men and three women), entered 12 hospitals in five states on both coasts of the US. Three of the participants were admitted for only a brief period of time, and in order to obtain sufficient documented experiences, they re-applied to additional institutions.