David A. Rosenhan

David A. Rosenhan was a psychologist known for his famous 1973 study, "On Being Sane in Insane Places." In this research, he and colleagues pretended to have auditory hallucinations to gain admission to psychiatric hospitals, then behaved normally once inside. The study revealed that mental health diagnoses could be unreliable, and staff often failed to distinguish between real and fake symptoms. Rosenhan’s work highlighted issues in psychiatric diagnosis, raising concerns about the validity of mental health labels and the treatment of patients within mental health systems.