David Rosenhan

David Rosenhan was a psychologist best known for a study in the 1970s where he and colleagues simulated mental illness to see how hospitals would respond. They sent healthy people to mental hospitals, claiming they heard voices, but afterward, the hospitals diagnosed them with schizophrenia. Once admitted, the fake patients behaved normally but were often not recognized as sane. This study revealed flaws in psychiatric diagnosis and raised questions about the treatment and perception of mental illness, highlighting how labels can unfairly influence how people are treated within mental health systems.