he made the wards circular… Humphry Osmond, “Function as the Basis of Psychiatric Ward Design,” Mental Hospitals, April 1957, https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ps.8.4.23.
“enter the illness and see”… Humphry Osmond, “On Being Mad,” Saskatchewan Psychiatric Services Journal 1, no. 1 (1952), http://www.psychedelic-library.org/ON%20BEING%20MAD.pdf.
“It would be heartless to house”… Osmond, “Function as the Basis of Psychiatric Ward Design.”
The patterned tiles… P. G. Stafford and B. H. Golightly, LSD: The Problem-Solving Psychedelic (New York: Award Books, 1967), https://www.scribd.com/doc/12692270/LSD-The-Problem-Solving-Psychedelic.
“illusion-producing machines”… Stafford and Golightly, LSD, 208.
double-Y-shaped structure… Zal, Dancing with Medusa, 29.
“used here but not loved”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 3.
“Not a picture nor an object”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 3.
Case Number: #5213… Haverford State Hospital medical records.
What if I had really been a patient?… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 3.
9: COMMITTED
This chapter was compiled with the help of David Rosenhan’s Haverford State Hospital medical records, his unpublished book, and interviews with Dr. Bartlett’s daughter Mary (January 30, 2017) and former assistant Carole Adrienne Murphy (March 13, 2017).
hardly ever without a cigarette… Mary Bartlett, phone interview, January 30, 2017.
“I’ve been hearing voices”… David Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 4–11.
“He has tended to get lost”… F. Lewis Bartlett, Haverford State Hospital medical records.
“This man who is unusually intelligent”… F. Lewis Bartlett, Haverford State Hospital medical records.
Impression… Excerpt from Haverford State Hospital medical records.
Should they call Jack Kremens?… adapted from Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3.
“You both are crazy”… David Rosenhan, “Odyssey into Lunacy—notes on nether people,” handwritten and undated, private files.
“really for the patient’s own good”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 13.
“Like hell it didn’t matter!”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 13.
“we do not administer any type”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 13.
10: NINE DAYS INSIDE A MADHOUSE
I re-created David’s nine-day hospitalization by pulling from his unpublished book Odyssey into Lunacy, his diary entries written at the time of his hospitalization, medical records, and various notes and records taken at the time. For context and description, I also added details from Dancing with Medusa by H. Michael Zal. All direct quotes are pulled from David’s writing.
All nurses’ notes are from Haverford State Hospital medical records.
because it was “illegal”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 14.
“Opening the locked door”… Zal, Dancing with Medusa, 44.
“Son of a bitch!”… handwritten diary notes, undated page, Rosenhan private files.
“What the hell have I gotten myself into?”… Zal, Dancing with Medusa, 45.
Where to wash up or to shower?… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 3.
A blaring fire alarm… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 6.
“C’MON, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS, LET’S GO”… Rosenhan, handwritten diary entry, February 8, 1969, private files.
sniffing glue… Rosenhan, handwritten diary entry, February 7, 1969.
“He knew I had been watching”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 7.
“I looked in the mirror”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 9.
“Hey, one butter only”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 9, 10.
“Tom Szasz is wrong”… Rosenhan, diary entries, February 1969.
“Not everyone reads them”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 9, 1969.
“so drugged was I from heat”… Rosenhan, diary entry, “Keeping their distance,” undated.
“The walls here are plaster”… Rosenhan, diary entry, “Keeping their distance,” undated.
They discussed Rosenhan’s financial difficulties… Robert Browning, Haverford State Hospital medical records.
In 1946, Polish psychologist Solomon Asch studied… Solomon Asch, “Forming Impressions of Personality,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 41, no. 3 (1946): 258–90.
two psychologists played a recorded conversation… E. J. Langer and R. P. Abelson, “A Patient by Another Name: Clinical Group Difference in Labeling Bias,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42 (1974): 4–9.
typical outcome of “the medical gaze”… Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (New York: Pantheon, 1973).
“residual type,” defined as a person who has exhibited signs… American Psychiatric Association, “Glossary of Terms,” in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1968), 34–35.
“Have my clothes come up yet?”… Rosenhan, diary entries, “4pm,” February 7, 1969.
“whiling it away”… Rosenhan, diary entries, undated.
“almost as if the disorder”… Rosenhan, “On Being Sane in Insane Places,” 254.
“No, she was not being seductive”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 3.
He flipped through articles… New York Times, January 31, 1969, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/31/issue.html.
“Would I have to be secretive?”… Rosenhan, diary entries, February 7, 1969.
“I’m Bob Harris”… The Bob Harris interaction came from Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 12–16.
“Even Harris’ differentiated friendliness”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 8, 1969.
wintry Sunday… weather found thanks to https://www.wunderground.com/history/weekly/KPHL/date/1969-2-9?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=.
“The pacing, the sitting”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 9, 1969.
“pink gloppy”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 27.
“The accounting department has obviously”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
“nameless terror”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
“Distance permits us to control the terror”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
“You got to talk to the doc”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
“Drs. Exist to be conned”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
“I might want to kill myself”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 9, 1969.
“You’ve got to cooperate”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 9, 1969.
“Have you got a moment, Mr. Harris?”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 17.
“in doing so behaved like a patient”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 18.
“I then had the fantasy of kicking the door”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 9, 1969.
“The blood rises”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 10, 1969.
“There is none”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 10, 1969.
“What are you writing?”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 10, 1969.
“I like you Mr. Harrison”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
He began to break the walls… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 3–4.
In a case conference in 1967, a patient admitted… Zal, Dancing with Medusa, 50.
(“in record time!”)… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 12, 1969.
“couldn’t tell many of the patients”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 12, 1969.
“Nerves?”… Rosenhan, diary entry, undated.
“Look, this may be cold”… Rosenhan, diary entry, February 11, 1969.
“Feel like I’m leavin
g friends”… Rosenhan diary entry, February 14, 1969.
Myron Kaplan’s note came from David Lurie’s Haverford State Hospital medical records.
Stigma—in ancient Greece… Wulf Rossler, “The Stigma of Mental Disorders,” EMBO Reports 17, no. 9 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5007563.
“A psychiatric label has a life”… Rosenhan, “On Being Sane in Insane Places,” 253.
Tom Eagleton, a US senator… Ken Rudin, “The Eagleton Fiasco of 1972,” NPR, March 7, 2007, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7755888.
“quite shook”… Bea Patterson, phone interview, February 3, 2016.
PART THREE
People ask, How did you get in there?… Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 5.
11: GETTING IN
I pulled together pseudopatients’ stories with help from David’s unpublished book, Odyssey into Lunacy, scrap notes from his private files, and a spreadsheet titled “pseudopatients,” also from his private files.
Excerpt… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 15.
on March 29, 1969, at Rosenhan’s lecture on altruism… The date and subject of his lecture at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) were not explicitly stated in David’s unpublished book. I was able to track them down thanks to help from Anne Purdue, director of operations at the SRCD, who found a copy of the 1969 event program.
“It was his thoughtfulness”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 15.
“I should have been delighted”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 16.
“John was particularly struck”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 16.
“The procedure was simple”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 17.
John called Rosenhan with news… The Beasleys’ and Martha Coates’s hospitalizations are discussed in various versions of chapters 3, 5, and 7 of Odyssey into Lunacy. Details about length of stay and hospital description are also found in David Rosenhan’s unnamed pseudopatient list and a document titled “Hospital Descriptions” found in his private files.
“Bearded and burly”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 31.
“I don’t know what’s troubling me”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 41.
“I feel much better now”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 43.
“evaluate their distress”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 22.
“some wonderment about what”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 20.
Laura Martin, the fifth pseudopatient… The Martins’ hospitalizations are discussed in various versions of chapters 3, 5, 6, and 7 of Odyssey into Lunacy. Details about length of stay and hospital description are also found in David Rosenhan’s unnamed pseudopatient list and a document titled “Hospital Descriptions” found in his private files.
“the top five [hospitals] in the country”… Rosenhan, “Hospital Descriptions,” private files.
studies show that people with higher… Laeticia Eid, Katrina Heim, Sarah Doucette, Shannon McCloskey, Anne Duffy, and Paul Grof, “Bipolar Disorder and Socioeconomic Status: What Is the Nature of This Relationship?” International Journal of Bipolar Disorder 1, no. 9 (2013): 9, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230315/.
“The hamburger was so coated”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 37.
“We ourselves were seriously concerned”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 39.
“With all due apologies for immodesty”… David Rosenhan, letter to Lorne M. Kendell, November 5, 1970, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 2, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“There was further agreement”… George W. Goethals, letter to David Rosenhan, June 2, 1971, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 2, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“The country is a hell of a lot more beautiful”… David Rosenhan, letter to Shel Feldman, July 28, 1970, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 2, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“lucky we were to be here”… David Rosenhan, letter to Susan SantaMaria, July 30, 1970, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 2, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
misattributed to Mark Twain… David Mikkelson, “Mark Twain on Coldest Winter,” Snopes.com, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/and-never-the-twain-shall-tweet.
“It was probably one”… Daryl Bem, phone interview, April 13, 2016.
“one of the main motivations”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 36.
“The ease with which we were able to gain admission”… David Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 24.
how Rosenhan recruited Carl Wendt… Carl Wendt’s hospitalization (in some places he is referred to as “Carl Wald,” “Paul,” and “Mark Schulz”) is discussed in various versions of chapters 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of Odyssey into Lunacy. Details about length of stay and hospital description are also found in David Rosenhan’s unnamed pseudopatient list and a document titled “Hospital Descriptions” found in his private files.
“Much as it is common practice”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 29–30.
“What did you eat for breakfast?”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 5, 8.
“I must be awfully tired”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 7, 47.
“Bizarre as it may seem”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 32.
Excerpt of questionnaire from David Rosenhan private files.
Of 193 new patients… David Rosenhan, “On Being Sane in Insane Places,” 386.
“Were the patients sane or not?”… Sandra Blakeslee, “8 Feign Insanity in Test and Are Termed Insane,” New York Times, January 21, 1973, http://nyti.ms/1XVaRs9.
12:… AND ONLY THE INSANE KNEW WHO WAS SANE
Rosenhan then submitted his paper… David Rosenhan, letter to Phil Abelson, August 14, 1972, private files. For more on Phil Abelson’s contribution to science (and Science), see Jeremy Pearce, “Phil Abelson, Chronicler of Scientific Advances, 91,” New York Times, August 8, 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/us/philip-abelson-chronicler-of-scientific-advances-91.html.
“I read your article”… Letter to David Rosenhan, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 8, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“My name is Carl L. Harp”… Carl L. Harp, letter to David Rosenhan, October 16, 1973, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 8, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“Dear Dr. David Rosenhan”… Letter to David Rosenhan, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 3, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“I couldn’t help but wonder”… David Rosenhan, letter, Correspondences Prior to 1974, Box 3, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
“I hope you forgive me”… David Rosenhan, letter to Pauline Lord, December 21, 1973, David L. Rosenhan Papers.
Los Angeles Times, ran it straight… George Alexander, “Eight Feign Insanity, Report on 12 Hospitals,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1973: 1.
like the Independent Record in Helena… Sandra Vkajeskee, “Can Doctors Distinguish the Sane from the Insane?” Independent Record, January 28, 1973, 30.
The Burlington Free Press headlined its piece… Lee Hickling, “‘Mania,’ ‘Schizo’ Labels Cause Wrangle,” Burlington Free Press, November 7, 1975, 11.
The Palm Beach Post used… Sandra Blakeslee, “… And Only the Insane Knew Who Was Sane,” Palm Beach Post, February 1, 1973, 17.
forced to sue him… Doubleday & Company, Inc. v. David L. Rosenhan, 5048/80, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, March 12, 1980.
“should not be permitted to testify”… Bruce J. Ennis and Thomas R. Litwick, “Psychiatry and the Presumption of Expertise: Flipping Coins in the Courtroom,” California Law Review 62, no. 3 (1974).
judges increasingly overruled expert testimony… Paul S. Appelbaum, Almost a Revolution: Mental Health Law and the Limits of Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
“When the Rosenhan study was initiated”… Jeffrey Lieberma
n, phone interview, February 25, 2016.
“Rosenhan’s study was akin to proving”… Robert Whitaker, Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill (New York: Basic Books, 2002), 170.
“It was a landmark study”… Allen Frances, phone interview, January 4, 2016.
“The most celebrated psychological experiment”… Michael E. Staub, Madness Is Civilization: When the Diagnosis Was Social, 1948–1980 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 178.
Being gay then was considered a mental illness… Jack Drescher, “Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality,” Behavioral Science 5 (2015): 565–75.
there was a joke going around… Daryl Bem, phone interview, April 13, 2016.
sodomy between consenting adults, for example… Bingham, Witness to the Revolution, 180.
“Homosexuals are essentially disagreeable people”… Edmund Bergler, Homosexuality: Disease or Way of Life? (New York: Hill & Wang, 1956), 28–29.
“We can debate what is an illness”… Before Stonewall (documentary), directed by Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg, First Run Features, 1985.
“Homosexuality is in fact a mental illness”… “The Times They Are A-Changing,” The Sixties, CNN.
Robert Galbraith Heath… For more on Robert Galbraith Heath, see Lone Frank, The Pleasure Shock: The Rise of Deep Brain Stimulation and Its Forgotten Inventor (New York: Dutton, 2018).
“continuous growing interest in women”… Cathy Gere, Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good: From the Panopticon to the Skinner’s Box and Beyond (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 193.
When news of the story… Gere, Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good, 196–97.
“shrinked the headshrinkers”… Stuart Auerbach, “Gays and Dolls Battle the Shrinkers,” Washington Post, May 15, 1970: 1.
“This lack of discipline is disgusting”… Ira Glass, “Episode 204: 81 Words,” This American Life, National Public Radio, January 18, 2002, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/204/81-words.
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